Legend of the North is a role-playing game out of Russia. The game focuses on the Scandinavian landscape and mostly real enemies (although larger than normal). The game includes a night/day cycle that includes twilight as well. You have the option to have that cycle, or remain in day only if you get tired of not being able to see much at night.
The game’s plot is based on three heroes trying to combine an amulet to save the world. However, these heroes are not necessarily friendly to one another. The heroes are the following races: Slavic, Byzantine and Viking. When you start the game, you choose which hero you want to play and some attributes for that hero. Your choice of hero has many effects in the game. For instance, you look different in the game and start in different locations. Also, the local residents will react differently toward you depending who you are.
In order to win the game, your best path lies in conquering most of the towns by peaceful or military means. To conquer the town peacefully, you must complete a quest for that town. If you choose to attack the town instead, you better have many followers in your group and some oil for your arrows so that you can set the town on fire. After the town is yours, you can collect money from the town once in awhile and also get free healing and free repairs for your items rather than paying. You can also have the town build things such as a blacksmith, bridges, wells, etc. However, you will have to get a trained person to work in anything you build. For instance, just building a marketplace won’t let you buy items. You will also have to bring a trained merchant to live in the town.
The game allows you to get up to 9 other characters in your party as you gain charisma. However, you will have to pay people to join you. These other characters can be human or even some creatures. They will have different skills and may be best suited to bows or swords rather than both. Each character in your party can equip 3 weapons at once - a bladed weapon (swords, daggers, etc.) in slot 1, a blunt weapon (clubs, maces, etc.) in slot 2 and a bow in slot 3. You can then easily change your weapon using the number keys and can change the weapons for each character in your party. There are 3 kinds of arrows in the game that do different amounts of damage. The game also includes an alchemy skill which allows you to mix items to create potions. For instance, if you mix a White Root and an empty bottle, you get a healing potion.
Legend of the North includes both single player and multiplayer modes of play. The multiplayer mode allows for up to 16 people to play at once using a LAN. No Internet play is available, however.
