“Life is a maze. There are many paths to take, but only one leads to your destination.”

OK, so many for the purposes of a video game about mazes, there will only be one path at the end of the day. Video games are no strangers to incorporating labyrinths to their worlds. The Lost Woods in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Or the Tomb of the Unknown King from Final Fantasy VIII. Better yet – the Lair of the Lost Lord from Ni No Kuni 2. But what if there was a modern video game where the sole purpose was navigating a maze? The matter looks to be tackled by Go North.

Go North is a maze-based exploration game brought to us by gazuntype, a Nigerian-based game developer. Currently, there is a demo version of the game available on Steam. And while there may be no definitive release date at this time, Gamer Social Club was provided with an early access look at this cute little demo.

Let's make our way into it!

The World and Story

In Go North, the world contains many mazes. Solve them all and it's rumored that the Maze God will grant you a wish. The Maze God, it is said, lives in the most northern part of the world. Many adventurers have sought to reach them by way of the world's mazes. One such adventurer, Dara, is who will be following.

And that's about all the story we have thus far! I have to imagine that we'll get more as Dara's journey progresses, but we'll have to wait for a future launch of the game to find out.

The Gameplay

The Levels

Go North, as I noted earlier, focuses on navigating through mazes to reach the exit. In the demo of the game, we were treated to two "levels" as it were. The first, a calm and serene meadow, which is inhabited by the Meadow Maker.

The Meadow Maker's realm brings a calming walk through some hedge mazes, filled with its own secrets, as well as unique environmental facets. Look at the butterflies, ride a big bubble to gain a vantage point of the exit, and be sure to pet some sheep along.

The second region is a dark, mushroom-filled forest ruled over by the Forest Maker. This second region provides some more unique puzzles and challenges, in terms of your navigation through the maze.

The process of moving from maze to maze is unique as well, much like the overworld maps from the older NES Mario games.

The Tools and Accessories

Each of the mazes provide their own unique tools that can be utilized, along with tools that span regions. In the Meadow Maze, we are granted the use of a pickaxe to mine Gems (we'll get to those), as well as a part of binoculars.

There are also items that can be "purchased" from vendors within the maze that will help with your journey. One of the key items that Dara can purchase is the Mazecresta. This little bird puppet can be launched within the maze and set a waypoint to show where the exit of the maze is. It's not a guarantee of a path, but it's at least a beacon you can aim for.

There's accessories, too! Do they help in any way? No. Are they cute? Of course! I kitted Dara out with a black kasa for her adventures through the twisting pathways.

The Good

So, the demo is brief, but I did enjoy what I played! The environs that Dara treads through are gorgeous and feel very vibrant. I definitely just...took my time navigating the mazes to take in the views.

I also enjoyed the little "side quests" that were present in the two mazes. They didn't feel too strenuous and gave some "life" to the world, which could have been left empty at the end of the day.

So far, with these two levels, I didn't feel like there were any components that repeated, if that makes sense. They truly felt unique from one another and didn't borrow heavily from one another. My sincere hope is that this trend continues as the game progresses in its development.

The Bad

I think the only weakness that I identified thus far in Go North was related to the actual engine in which the game was created. The Unity Engine, while very present in many video games today, tends to look very similar to me after a while. That being said, this is more of a me issue than anything else.

Beyond that, there is really nothing else that I could find that I didn't enjoy with Go North.

The Overall

Go North definitely provides a cute niche between walking simulators and puzzle games. I honestly just enjoyed the relaxing vibes of walking through quiet scenery and making some odd friends here and there in my progress.

As the Go North demo has now dropped into Steam, I hope that you take a chance with this little labyrinthine game. Fingers crossed that we'll see this game come to full development in the future and see Dara make her way...north!

Gamer Social Club was provided early access to the demo of this game for the purpose of this preview.