Frozenheim, a Viking-inspired city builder’s review

In these “early years” of video game history, we’ve seen a lot of management systems and city builders: every possible setting has been tweaked, tested, exploited, and dried up. As a result, it is not easy for newcomers to find a place in the market to justify their presence. Many have failed, but some have risen to the top; to try, this time, the small team’s first job, Frozenheim. Paranoid Interactive Seeking a middle ground between myth and reality, trying to give a new shine to repetitive (especially in recent years) Scandinavian culture.

Let’s see if they reach the gates of Valhalla this time or will they be escorted to the gates of Hel? Frozenheim review.

War and prosperity

The game in question is a city ​​builder this equalizes management elements and combat in real time. The goal is to develop your settlement in a territory also occupied by other clans. The game modes are varied and varied, but often the ultimate goal is to destroy every available collection of enemies. To do this, you can go the “old way” by building a strong army to attack enemy walls directly, or by asking the gods for help (thus starting Ragnarök, an event that will destroy all enemy settlements). before gaining favors by checking out every single runestone on the map. But the player should remember that this is still a management system with a strong focus on resources. Welfare your city centre.

It is as important to prepare for war as it is to take care of your colonists, otherwise they may rise up and harm us from within through desertion, theft or abandonment; High morale is the key to keeping these freaking shards away for as long as possible. Thus, balance (as with many titles of this genre) proves once again the constant to follow, but it is certainly not the only one.

However, the game allows you to approach the game the way you prefer, by following the strategy that seems most appropriate at the moment and taking into account the territory surrounding your initial small farm. This is at least during private or online games. On the other hand, if you choose to follow countryside Presented by the developers, you will find yourself facing the sagas of legendary Scandinavian warriors.

A lot short storiesIt will relax you with the dynamics of the game and the four classes that develop in it, each of which is divided into four sections. In fact, it is possible to choose which path to take during your games (by constructing a certain building, building the elder’s room): Clan of the Crow, of the Bear, of the Deer or Wolf.

Each class is a unique skill tree, biased towards a certain approach to the game (Wolf is more aggressive, Bear is completely devoted to defense, Deer is devoted to improving, Raven is to exploration). In short, every game has the potential to be completely different from the previous one.

Vikings, once again

If Vikings, Norse gods, runes and axes are now tearing your soul apart, Frozenheim has come to your rescue to deliver the blow with his own hands. On the other hand, those who are not yet “full” of such experiences will find a very special game world, even if it is strongly connected with the contemporary iconography that has developed around this cultural subset.

besides the usual divinity (Odin, Loki, Bragi, among others, “appear” only as consecration-related names that can be invoked in temples), we find runic stones, wooden structures with a Scandinavian flavor, drakkar (or better, dreki). break the seas, angry madmen. In short, everything that conquers common thought about this special period in the history of Northern Europe.

While not exactly sparse in content and objects, it certainly can’t be said that the developers have rolled out so many items to provide a constant surprise to every game. By winning just one of these, it’s hard to miss any element of the game that is not strictly related to clan selection. This is not to say that the game itself is repetitive (we were just saying that the variety of approaches allows you to take different paths), but that the game is a content depth Given the fierce market he wanted to position himself in, this would definitely benefit him. A handful of buildings, half a dozen units, and a few blessings are barely enough to arouse interest in a gamer today, especially if he’s sailed.

Betting on everything in the graphics industry

What was lacking in the diversity of the game, the developers tried to make up for it. high end graphics industry. Given the independent nature of the project, it’s interesting to see how this aspect has become privileged with a very enjoyable meeting between the art direction and the technical team. The game is extremely thought-provoking, especially in the transition from one season to the next; Meanwhile, we are witnessing, quite literally, a radical change of scenery (after all, consequential effects in the game, including difficulty moving through deep snow or lightning storms in the fall). seen under the new one light. The latter adds to the main overview and constantly changes the exploration of the game map (for example, when you enter a dense forest with your units, the area becomes dark, torn only by a few flashes of sunlight that create a gap between the branches of the trees).

But while the game shields itself very well from the competition on a graphical level, it gives its best on a musical level. There movie soundtrack Accompanying our Scandinavian raids is the most immediate and appropriate imaginable, with a good dose of epic and seriousness. Too bad these qualities were undermined by the developers themselves, wanting to add cutscenes with abnormal rhythms and machine movements, unprocessed and horribly mixed at all costs, by any known evil force. Not to mention the not-so-clear cleaning that often causes it. seemingly unmotivated frame drops or errors that are certainly annoying if not overly involved, and above all, that could have been avoided with a little more care. All elements that irreparably spoil the overall image created around the game.