Nordhold: Origins

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Nordhold: Origins is a single player strategy game. It was developed by StunForge and was released on August 30, 2024. It received very positive reviews from players.

Nordhold: Origins is a tower defense game designed for strategy enthusiasts seeking high replayability with endless combinations. Immerse yourself in managing a medieval Nordic village while enjoying deep tactical gameplay that's accessible yet challenging. 20 Waves of ChallengesExperience a unique version of Nordhold with 20 waves of relentless enemies. Build, strategize, and defend Nordhold thr…

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Single-Player

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94%

Audience ScoreBased on 386 reviews

gameplay16 positive mentions

optimization3 negative mentions

Nordhold: Origins offers a unique blend of tower defense, resource management, and roguelite elements, making it highly engaging and addictive.
The game features a variety of towers and upgrades, allowing for diverse strategies and replayability, with a well-balanced economic system that enhances gameplay.
The demo provides a substantial amount of content for free, showcasing polished mechanics and a satisfying progression system that keeps players coming back for more.

The game can feel grindy, requiring multiple attempts to progress, which may frustrate players who prefer a more strategic approach rather than relying on repeated failures to improve.
Some players have reported performance issues, including lag and crashes, especially when the game is pushed to higher levels of complexity.
The limited variety in enemy types and tower options can lead to repetitive gameplay, making it feel less dynamic over extended play sessions.

gameplay
41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
39%
54%
7%
The gameplay is highly praised for its addictive nature, blending base building and tower defense mechanics that encourage strategic thinking and multiple playthroughs. While the demo offers a solid foundation with unique mechanics and a compelling gameplay loop, some players suggest improvements to reduce grind and enhance strategic depth. Overall, the game shows great potential, with many looking forward to future updates and additional content.
- “Easily hundreds of hours of addictive gameplay await.”
- “The mechanics are simple to get straight into, but deep enough to require multiple playthroughs to optimize your resources to handle the bigger waves.”
- “The unusual way that Nordhold combines tower defense and rogue-like gameplay has immediately won me over.”
- “They'll have to switch it up for the full release and make the core gameplay more strategic, because there are hundreds of better tower defense games out there that don't need so much grind to be fun and tough.”
- “But the info on the game is lacking and the gameplay in this demo is a bit too monotonous for me to give a better rating.”
- “This game has great potential, but suffers from the same bad game mechanic that is ruining many games: it is not about skill or strategy but how long you play.”
replayability
19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
63%
26%
11%
Overall, the game boasts high replayability due to its rich gameplay, deep customization options, and procedural map generation, which keeps each run fresh and engaging. Players appreciate the randomness and variety in tower combinations and progression, contributing to an addictive experience. However, some reviewers note that certain aspects, like map design, can lead to repetitive runs, suggesting that while the foundation for replayability is strong, there is room for improvement in the full version.
- “Game play is pretty rich, customization and randomness of maps seems deep enough to be very replayable.”
- “An excellent tower defense game with a lot of replay value, and some cool ideas behind the progression.”
- “Fun and cozy roguelite tower defense with cool tower combinations, great meta progression, high replayability and has quite some depth.”
- “Now consider this is just the replayability of the demo, which lacks a lot of towers, banners, relics, heroes, etc., and meta progression that the full game will have.”
- “I look forward to seeing what you plan for the late game since replayability is the main issue at the moment, in my humble opinion.”
graphics
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
40%
20%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some praising the beautiful art style and stable performance, while others criticize the low-poly aesthetic and lack of optimization, leading to issues like lag even on low settings. Overall, many players appreciate the clean visuals and user-friendly interface, but there is a consensus that improvements could be made to enhance the graphical experience further.
- “Some of the best graphics in a tower defense game I've played.”
- “The graphics are pretty and the game runs stable.”
- “Clean graphics with smooth running and replayability.”
- “I had to run it on low graphics so that my mouse would not lag. Come on...”
- “Can't even run at a steady framerate on the lowest graphics settings.”
- “For a game with a low-poly art style, in my opinion, this is unacceptable.”
optimization
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
The game currently suffers from significant optimization issues, including memory leaks that can lead to crashes after extended play. Despite its unoptimized state, players find the resource management and economy-building aspects engaging, sparking a desire to create optimized strategies and build orders. Overall, while the graphics are not demanding, there is considerable potential for improvement in performance.
- “Balancing your resources while building up your economy and your defenses is such a cool challenge that allows for a lot of optimization and tinkering with build orders.”
- “I actually feel like I want to open a Word document and plan out an optimized economy build order for each of my favorite towers. Color me hooked!”
- “Sadly, the game is extremely unoptimized.”
- “Given that the graphics aren’t very demanding, it seems like there’s still significant room for optimization.”
- “It does suffer some problems with optimization at the moment, mainly memory leaks (got up to about 4k usage after 6 hours after which it crashed).”
grinding
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be a mixed experience; while it offers motivation to return and unlock bonuses, it can become tedious and overly repetitive, particularly with the navigation mechanics. Some enjoy the meta-progression, but many feel it leans more towards tedium than challenge.
- “Some meta-progression is always fun, but this is too much and it's just tedious rather than challenging.”
- “If I had to say something bad: the back and forth with the mouse to your TD area and the 'homebase' is a bit tedious after a while.”
- “Whether you're chasing that perfect high-roll or grinding your way through tougher waves, there's always a reason to dive back in.”
music
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The music in the game is noted for being both unnerving and unsettling, enhancing the atmosphere during gameplay. Additionally, players appreciate the meaningful integration of music with run-changing upgrades, making it a standout feature in the tower defense genre. Overall, the music has received positive feedback for its impact on the gaming experience.
- “Music, and meaningful run-changing upgrades make Nordhold a tower defense game to watch for.”
- “I really like the music!”
- “The music and sound effects during waves are very unnerving and unsettling.”

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11h Median play time

10h Average play time

6-13h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 3 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

Nordhold: Origins is a strategy game.

Nordhold: Origins is available on PC, Mac OS, Windows and Linux.

On average players spend around 10 hours playing Nordhold: Origins.

Nordhold: Origins was released on August 30, 2024.

Nordhold: Origins was developed by StunForge.

Nordhold: Origins has received very positive reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its gameplay but disliked it for its optimization.

Nordhold: Origins is a single player game.

Similar games include Nordhold, The King is Watching, Super Fantasy Kingdom, The Last Spell, Emberward and others.

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