Nordhold Review: A Tower Defense Revival with Strategic Depth

As someone who lost many, many hours to Warcraft 3 tower defence maps way back when, it always sparks joy to see a modern offering for a genre seemingly lost to time. 

The humble TD was never flashy, never took itself too seriously, nor demanded too much from the player. It was all about experimenting. Trying to push things a little further each time. 

Nordhold scratches that itch, and does what any good TD should do. It provides options, powerful combos - and the urge to keep coming back again and again to attempt new strategies. 

The titular town of Nordhold is yours to protect. From it, a branching network of paths will expand each round; and you must stop the ever-growing horde of enemies. From humble archer towers, to long-distance killer lasers, you’ve got options.

A game split in three 

It’s a tower defence first and foremost, but it introduces a few other threads into the mix. It’s also a roguelite. This in itself feels like a perfect match. The best TDs always had the means to let you go a bit wild with your strategies; and mounting bonuses (banners as they’re called in the game) turn your towers from humble constructs, to WMDs. 

And then there’s the other side to it; a genre you don’t see all too often. A worker placement game. Managing your economy is crucial, and bouncing workers between different buildings, upgrading workplaces and growing your income is the key to success.

A Tower Defence 

I’ll start with the Tower Defence side of things. There are 8 towers to choose from, and each has a very distinct use. Arrow towers hit enemies in their immediate area, Mortar towers are slower, but have a large AOE. Arc towers ripple chain lightning effect across foes - and so on. 

While some towers might have more immediate impact over others - usually reflected by their cost - it doesn’t feel like any step on each other's toes. Using one doesn’t invalidate another; and in many cases, they’ll synergise together. 

I mean that figuratively, and literally. Focusing your efforts on a few towers unlocks fusions. Special effects that play to their strengths. In one run, I had my mortar towers igniting the ground, causing a burn DOT. As I was also focusing on arrow towers, I was offered the unique banner that granted said towers the ability to also burn. 

Each tower has 6 possible fusion paths, and while there’s a bit of overlap here and there - it still accounts for a ton of ways to specialise towers and twist your gameplan.

A Roguelite 

But that’s just one of many ways the game lets you hone up your approach. Most of your power will come through banners - and these will dictate your approach. 

These are offered every few rounds, and turn your little turrets into veritable tools of destruction. Each tower has 5 different banners to choose from, and each comes in one of three rarities. 

This brings in an interesting paradigm; do you spread yourself thin, mix together lots of different towers and hope to answer any threat- or, double down on one in particular, hoping that brute force power will be enough to answer any tricky enemy types? (For the record, I found option 2 worked a lot better).

On top of that, there are items to collect which will boost your power across the board, or target specific niche damage types. Or, simply provide a leg up to your economy - which is another important cornerstone for the game. 

A Worker Placement Game

This is a part of Nordhold that really excited me. Yes, I know it’s not flashy or exciting - but I do love a good worker placement game. 

While your towers are out there holding the line, you’re developing your town. Constructing new buildings, upgrading workplaces, hiring workers and assigning them to different jobs. There’s a constant balance to maintain between upgrading your infrastructure, and getting more towers set up to safeguard your whole operation. 

As you progress, the options to build up your economy increase, and there’s a web of options to tailor your choices around. Wheat is used to hire new workers, but you can also brew beer with it. This gives a constant boost to worker productivity - and if you really want to spoil the townsfolk you can host a festival. 

Wood can be used for towers, or to upgrade or more buildings, or to build ships to give you a trickle of gold. Said gold is used to upgrade towers, unlock passive bonuses on workplaces, or traded for other resources at the market. 

There’s a lot to think about, and a real satisfaction in devising your ideal strategy. And with each round, you’re unlocking new options. More tools to carve out your ideal gameplan. 

What it does well 

That’s one thing the game has in spades. There is so much to unlock. After every run, you’re getting new buildings or upgrades drip fed to you. It starts out gradual, making little gains each time until you have enough on your side to make a big push. 

Once things fit into place, you have a handle on your economy and a strategy in mind for your towers - the game will go from an impossible task, to surprisingly comfortable. 

I’ll admit, I found myself struggling to beat down the first boss run after run; until everything fit together, and I was skipping past him with ease. My first win came with a bevy of new unlocks, and every subsequent run I was more able and confident - and experimenting with greater success.

It’s satisfying; the pace of the game is fast, with ample time to think about decisions on the larger scale. You have some control with casting spells but mostly you’re making choices - and seeing if they were the correct ones. 

It’s a unique genre of game that blends the simple joy of seeing hordes of enemies mowed down with the more tactical gratification of having a long term economic plan pan out. Once the game reaches that spot, going into each run is exciting - however, that takes some time.

Shortcomings 

One of the biggest pitfalls I found with the game is the fine line of progression. So much of your ability to outlast the oncoming horde comes through the game’s meta progression. Initially, your economy just can’t keep up with the mounting attacks. 

No matter what approach I took, the outcome was the same - until it just stopped being a problem, because I’d unlocked enough extra gubbins to get a reliable start. This does pad out the progression curve, but I’d have preferred to feel like I had an honest shot from the get go, rather than grinding out a few hopeless runs until I felt like I’d get a fighting chance. 

I thought the range of options given to the player is great, and my imagination ran wild with all the different combos I could wrangle to defend my town - however, I had the most success with ignoring all of that and just building one tower over and over.

And it seems I’m not the only one to come to that same conclusion. After finishing a run, the game places you on a leaderboard (great touch, by the way) - and lo and behold the top performers for page after page after page were nearly identical. Arc towers. Arc towers everywhere. 

This could follow the old debate of players optimising the fun out of the game, but it’s worth touching on, because dozens of these best performing runs all follow that same mentality. And that mentality crept into my way of thinking as I played. Do I experiment to have fun, or do the same cookie cutter build that I know will reliably work? 

As a tower defence, I don’t see this as a problem. But as a roguelite, it goes against the point of the genre. These sorts of games are at their best when you’re thinking reactively, making mad builds based on what the game throws at you, but this doesn’t hit that mark for me.