Frost

The frost approaches. The visuals and sounds put you back in the ice age. You'll be reaching for your pelt for warmth just playing this.

I don't like strategy/survival games generally because I find them tedious and frustratingly complex. This game is different. While it is quite simple in concept, it kept me engaged over many play throughs balancing challenge, atmosphere, and length quite well. It's the perfect kind of casual but engaging game, and I'm excited to keep playing and unlock more and more. Though I do recommend playing the demo first since it's available and a great test to see if you'll like this game. Pros: - The bits of story attached to the cards and intro I really enjoyed. - The art/atmospheric design: it is simple, but really well done in it's simplicity. It feels harsh and threatening and gets more so as the Frost gets closer. - The harshness extends beyond the art/atmosphere into both the brutal randomness of the cards/deck and the lack of direction on how to unlock things further. - Easy is still very much easy, but in a way that feels very rewarding when you've at some point had at least one very harsh round and got past it. Also if you get stuck it's easy to restart from the menu pulled up by escape, or just let yourself die and start over from the main menu. - Custom mode lets you choose the difficulty by changing various options. Cons: - There's no guidance on how to unlock cards or scenarios, but I do think it's designed to be that way, as it adds to the eerie harsh environment of the game. - It fits the environment and theme but the brutal randomness might not be for you. - While most of the icon/cards are pretty straight forward to figure out they would benefit from a description. For example, there's a speech bubble icon that I'm not entirely sure how to get or what it represents. - It can be confusing how the number of your resources change and how to figure out if you change them to get what you need. The game could benefited from more guidance on how the game plays out and how various cards work/work together. Though, it feels like it might intentional to add to the mystery, difficulty, and harshness. - Due to the above-mentioned cons, there's a good argument for the game feeling like and early access or rushed/unfinished version. It doesn't bother me as it adds to the atmospheric harshness and the games not super expensive, but it's worth noting.