Spirit of the North 2
Infuse Studio · Puzzle, Indie, Action
Overview
Unveil the mysteries of a beautiful ancient world in this breathtaking 3rd-Person Adventure, a sequel to the acclaimed ‘Spirit of the North.’ Take on the role of an isolated fox with a raven companion on a quest to restore the lost guardians and return home. In an ancient world left in ruin, embark on the journey of an isolated fox far from home. With the help of a wise Raven companion, seek out the lost legendary guardians and release them from the grasp of the dark shaman Grimnir.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT650 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Spirit of the North 2 turns the first game's short, linear fox journey into a large open world with lore scrolls, runes, a skill tree, fox customization, a raven companion and guardian boss encounters. Most reviewers recommend it. They praise the beauty of the Nordic-inspired world, the soundtrack, the slow pace of exploring as a fox, and a story told almost entirely through ruins, murals and scrolls. Returning fans who compare the two mostly call it a big step up from the first game, and a few say it's what they play to unwind after a long day.
Technical problems come up in 46% of longer reviews. On PC the game is heavy to run for how it looks, and crashes, freezes, clipping through the world, softlocks and the occasional corrupted save interrupt the quiet. Many players found long stretches of the big map empty and the travel slow, and the game gives little direction. Opinion on the boss fights is divided: some find them a fun change of pace, others find them stressful, clumsy to control and out of place in a relaxing game with no difficulty settings. Several reviews, positive ones included, tell readers to check their PC specs before buying.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
A beautiful, atmospheric worldHigh
41% of longer reviews call the world beautiful, stunning or gorgeous, or praise its scenery and landscapes, and "beautiful" is the word they reach for most. Players single out the weather, the sunsets, the way regions blend into each other, and the distinct look of each tribe's ruins. One player wrote: "Sometimes I'll just stand on a rock by the seaside and watch the sun set." The looks depend on hardware, though: the game is at its best on high settings, and some players say it can look worse than the first game on low ones.
Calm, rewarding explorationHigh
Exploration comes up in 37% of longer reviews, and relaxing, cozy or peaceful play in 24%. Fans describe roaming at their own pace, finding chests, furs, skill points and hidden caves, and returning to old areas with new abilities. "It's a happy safe place for me," one player wrote. A few played it together with a daughter. Several players kept roaming after finishing the story, and some come back for the Light Weaver hunts.
A wordless story and deep loreHigh
40% of longer reviews talk about the story or ending, and a quarter mention the lore, scrolls or environmental storytelling. Players like how much the game explains without dialogue: "It's amazing how much this game's storytelling says without any dialogue." The lore scrolls fill in what the first game left vague. Several reviewers say the game made them cry, most often at the ending. A minority found the plot thin or predictable, and one called the villain's arc "a joke."
Music and fox soundsHigh
About a quarter of longer reviews praise the soundtrack, and for one player it beats everything else: "I find my favourite part in all this is the soundtrack." Players also like the new fox vocals, which reviewers say were recorded from real foxes at the Save A Fox rescue: "I really liked how the fox sounds more like a fox and not a dog." A few reviews mention barking at the raven and hearing it call back. Not everyone likes the music: two players found some tracks shrill, including the main menu theme, and one called it forgettable.
Fox customization and small detailsMedium
A fifth of longer reviews praise customization: furs, eye colours, rune markings, body sliders and the dens you can claim. "There's so many awesome customization options. TAIL FLUFFINESS SLIDER." Players also enjoy the raccoon merchants, the red panda banker and the fox animations. The complaints here are small. Unlocks are tied to one save file, and a few reviewers miss the first game's tail wag and fur shake.
A bigger, fuller sequelMedium
More than half of longer reviews compare the game with the first Spirit of the North, and reviews that call it better than the original far outnumber those that prefer the original. Returning fans point to smoother movement, more content, more lore and a world they can actually roam: "It takes everything from the first one and makes it BIGGER". A few add that newcomers can start here without playing the first game.
Where players are split
Guardian boss fightsHigh
A third of longer reviews mention the bosses, and they divide opinion sharply. One fan called them "Very simple, yet cool and unique boss fights." Another wrote "The boss fights are lovely and doable," and supporters enjoy finding the right runes for each one. Critics say they don't belong in a calm game: "It wants to be an exploration game but bosses are lengthy, souls like battles with no checkpoints." Another wrote: "I love everything outside of the boss battles." The stag, ram and wolf fights are the ones players name as walls that stopped them. Players cite fiddly controls during fights, ragdolling, no healing, glitches mid-fight and the lack of an easier mode: "The only downside is the lack of difficulty settings, which makes some bosses far too hard." Another group finds them too easy once you have the right runes, and a few say the same of the final boss. At launch the boss cutscenes couldn't be skipped, which made retries worse: "I watched the same minute long cutscene at least a dozen times." Another launch-month reviewer noted that the team had announced a fix.
The shift away from the first game's designMedium
Some fans of the first game feel the sequel lost what they loved. They object to the open world, health and fall damage, dropping your crystals when you die, and the boss fights. One wrote that "the first game was a more pleasant, cosy and unique experience." Another put the death penalty bluntly: "Why punish players for dying like that?" One negative review says the frequent fox deaths make it unsuitable for children and sensitive players.
Wisps, runes and the RPG systemsMedium
The skill tree and runes delight some players and annoy others. Supporters like building loadouts for exploration and bosses. Critics describe the friction: wisps you can carry only a few of, so puzzle rewards go uncollected ("you solved a puzzle, here's a reward, but we won't let you pick it up!"), and wisps that must be hunted down before you can open story doors. They also mention crystal grinding to buy runes, constant trips into the menu to swap runes, and no way to respec skill points. One player reached the final boss without enough spirit energy and had to go back for skill points, and another ran out of spirit energy at the wolf fight.
Price and valueLow
Players who fell for it call it worth every penny for the hours it offers. Critics say the performance and design flaws aren't worth full price and suggest waiting for a sale: "Is it worth the full price? ....It's going to depend on what you're playing it for."
Gerald the sea monsterLow
The mosasaur that eats you if you swim too far out gets affectionate shout-outs in several reviews ("10/10 would get eaten by Gerald again"). A few players find it out of place in a relaxing game: "I have a love-hate relationship with Gerald the mosasaur."
What frustrates players
Bugs, crashes, softlocks and lost savesHigh
32% of longer reviews mention bugs, crashes, freezes or lost progress. The common reports are getting stuck on stairs and rocks, clipping through the ground or out of the map, and the camera clipping into walls. Players also describe "Fatal Error" crashes, freezes of several seconds and broken boss scripts. "You get stuck on absolutely nothing and sometimes halfway into the ground." The most serious cases are softlocks and corrupted saves, made worse by a single autosave slot: "And because there's only one autosave, you now have two options." Another wrote: "When I restarted, however, my save file was corrupted and I was taken back to the beginning of the game". Reviews written more than a year after launch still report clipping and crash bugs. A few players point out that you can teleport back to your last den when stuck, and one only worked that out along the way.
Heavy PC performanceHigh
27% of longer reviews raise performance or optimization, and it comes up in 38% of all negative reviews. Players with high-end graphics cards describe sub-60 frame rates and say upscaling is mandatory. Lowering settings barely helps and makes the game look worse. They also mention long shader preparation on every launch ("every time you start it up, it takes a full minute to two minutes just to prepare shaders") and stutters in forests and near bosses. Some later reviews say patches made the game playable for them: "they've fixed the performance, for the most part!!" One player came back once a "Very Low" lighting setting was added. Others, writing well into 2026, still describe frame drops and freezes.
A huge, empty map and slow travelMedium
At least 15% of longer reviews say the map is too big, too empty or too slow to cross, and many more mention the amount of running in passing. "The map is 4x larger than it had to be." Players want obelisks to work as fast travel points, more portals in the base game, and some wildlife after leaving Fox Island: "Why not have some hare running around or maybe just an owl in the trees". Reviewers say the extra fast travel points come with the paid Turtle Island Home DLC, which some resent ("one of the most helpful ones being locked behind DLC, which isn't great"). A minority defends the emptiness as part of the mood: "but personally I think it works for the tone of the game".
Little guidanceMedium
16% of longer reviews talk about getting lost or the lack of guidance, most of them as a complaint, and several players turned to online maps and walkthroughs. "Possible my biggest frustration is that there is practically zero in game guidance on where to go, what to do, and what is important." They ask for hints, map completion counts, more than one custom map marker and a raven that actually guides. The red ribbons in the sky get mixed reports. One player wrote, "The red streaks in the sky are very clear and easy to follow." Others say they only point to the next story spot, not how to reach it. Some players like being left alone: "I specially love that the game doesn't hold your hand and lets the players figure out what to do next, at their own pace."
Jumping, camera and controlsMedium
Several returning players find movement smoother than in the first game, and the aimed jump helps those who kept falling off ledges: "Now I can plan before I jump". Fiddly controls still come up often. The jump arrow won't appear or locks onto the wrong spot, the raven lift sometimes fails during fights, and the fox ragdolls or slides. In one player's words, "the character constantly slides around, gets stuck even on small steps, and the target jump mechanic works poorly". The camera often dives into the fox or a wall on uneven ground ("Fox frequently becomes invisible or screen goes inside a wall making any moves a guess."), and a few players report motion sickness.
Small missing touchesLow
A few recurring requests: more than one map marker, a minimap, rune hotkeys, customization that carries over to new saves, the tail wag from the first game, and a raven with more of a role ("Also, the raven is useless story-wise.").
3. The player conversation
The tone is warm and personal. Many reviewers are fox lovers and fans of the first game, and short "fox :3" style reviews make up a noticeable share. Players who write at length tend to love the world and still list technical problems; plenty of positive reviews carry a "but" about performance or bugs. Negative reviews split into two groups. Players who quit early mostly couldn't get the game to run well: low frame rates, crashes on launch, missing textures, a Steam Deck that wouldn't load it. A smaller set of early quitters found the open world empty and directionless. Players who stopped deeper in hit boss walls, softlocks, corrupted saves, or simply tired of running across an empty map.
Launch week was strongly positive (91% of 97 reviews), with a couple of self-described playtesters among the early reviewers. The second week dropped to 71% as more players hit performance problems and bugs. After that, weekly reviews were small in number and mostly positive, with a burst of short positive reviews in late November 2025 (95% of 59). Later reviews credit patches for better performance, toggle sprint and new seasonal content. Reviews written in 2026 still report the same kinds of bugs and freezes.
4. What the developers could do
- Keep pushing PC optimization, especially frame rates on mid-range cards, shader preparation time and particle-heavy areas, because performance comes up in 38% of negative reviews and was the reason most often given by players who quit early.
- Make saves safer, with several rotating autosaves or manual save slots, because corrupted saves and single-autosave softlocks sent players back to the start of the game.
- Fix collision and stuck spots on stairs, rocks and map edges, and point new players to the teleport-home key, since players kept reporting getting stuck on stairs and rocks or falling through the world.
- Add boss accessibility options, such as an easier mode, healing, or checkpoints between phases, because the stag, ram and wolf fights stopped players who came for a relaxing game.
- Speed up travel by letting obelisks act as fast travel points or adding portals to the base game, since complaints about long runs across empty ground recur throughout the reviews.
- Offer optional guidance, such as hints, per-region completion counts, multiple map markers and a raven that can lead the way, for players who got lost and turned to walkthroughs.
- Cut menu friction in the RPG systems with rune hotkeys or built-in core abilities, a bigger wisp allowance and a skill respec, since rune swapping and wisp limits came up as constant small irritations.
- Tighten the aimed jump and camera, because the jump arrow failing and the camera diving into walls make platforming and boss fights harder than intended.
