Spirit of the North: Enhanced Edition Review (PS5)

A year has passed since Spirit of the North It first took us on an adventure on PlayStation 4, but with the recent release of PlayStation 5, Infuse Studio brought it back for a second round. In Iceland we find ourselves playing a common fox, guided by the keeper of the Northern Lights after the earth and sky turn red with corruption. Drawing heavily on Nordic folklore, it gives us an artistic experience that offers complete visual enhancement, but still held back by bulky controls.

From snow-capped tundras to vegetation on mountain slopes, Spirit of the North immerses you in this intriguing story through ambient tales, with no narrator or dialogue included. It’s a great world to explore, full of murals depicting past events, and there’s no mini-map to guide you. All we receive are occasional location clues from our Guardian friend, who guides us on this journey as we battle the mysterious plague. We say fight, but there is no fight here; This experience is completed by solving environmental puzzles. Some are easily covered, like the symbol correspondence between a set of statues, but it gets more complicated as you go.

Beginning with a basic set of movements of running, jumping, and picking up items, the Zorro gradually unlocks new spiritual powers, requiring spiritual energy to activate. This is obtained from the blue flowers and can transfer this energy to ignite the stone fixings. When energized, the fox can unleash energy blasts to destroy any ingrained corruption, channel its spirit body to another location for a short period of time, and run spiritually to pull off those extra long jumps. There are also sticks, as well as the skeletal remains of some long-deceased shaman spirits. Meeting them with staff opens up new avenues to begin with, although this becomes optional later.

The story is divided into chapters but it only takes an afternoon to complete it, taking several hours without getting lost. For the most part, Spirit of the North pairs well, presenting us with a fine art experience that will get you hooked, effectively using ambient storytelling to draw you into this world. The game can be slow at times, which will certainly be off-putting for some, and there are times when you don’t know what it takes to move forward, but the game rewards those who have patience. All of this is backed up by a fully orchestrated soundtrack that really brings this world to life, although the song changes aren’t particularly subtle.

That said, it does have several flaws that are hard to ignore and a lot of that relates to the controls. That’s okay with basic crawling, allowing you to sprint through large open fields, but it can feel a bit steep when it comes to jumping. Since some rig segments require higher precision, mistakes are easy to make and can take time. Unfortunately, this was also an issue in the PS4 edition, so it’s a shame that Infuse Studios didn’t spend more time fixing this issue.

That said, where Spirit of the North really benefits from the Enhanced Edition’s next-gen update is in the visuals, with remastered textures / elements and improved lighting for already stunning gameplay. By increasing the resolution to 4K, it really brings out the finer details in those Icelandic landscapes, running smoothly at 60 frames per second. Best of all, it also includes a photo mode to get the most out of it and there are also unlockable fox skins to swap out, including two new ones for this remaster.

conclusion

Infuse Studio did a fantastic job remastering the visuals for Spirit of the North for PS5, but while it looks good, this edition overlooks the elements that most needed an update. While the controls remain rigid and your goals are not always clear, anyone willing to look beyond will find a wonderful experience at the center. If you are looking for a new adventure game, Spirit of the North is short but sweet, and despite these flaws, it comes highly recommended.