Aperçu de Frozenheim – Vikings and Chill

Ah! Being a Viking! The sound of the oars, the flow of hydromel in your cup, the house long full of stories of conquest and looting. Sometimes it feels like the Vikings have become the new zombies, still present, especially in video games (note to developers, when you take out your viking zombies game, I want a cup). In a busy holiday comes from Frozenheim, a tray combining the construction of the city, the real-time strategy and some role play elements as well.

Always in anticipated access, Frozenheim begins as an RTS, with a small group of warriors leaving the camp and heading towards their main colony. The first mission is an extended tutorial, where the player discovers the basics of movement, exploration, combat and construction. Early enough, the gameplay is divided between strengthening your colony from most of the usual ways we have seen in building games and quests at various locations on the map. Despite the focus on a relaxed pace, the raids on your colony are common. In the second mission, you build a small naval force and go looking for a magic rune, while eliminating an enemy swarm that hinder your progress. Since country builders and RTS games have been existing for a long time, what is Frozenheim hopes - or already - bring in particular to the genre?

Finally, there will be a large countryside, solo skirmishes and multiplayer matches and what has been published so far gives us a pretty good idea of ​​what Frozenheim is. At the heart of the experience is the construction of his city, which aims to be a moment of relaxation and relaxation while you create the ultimate Viking Village of happy citizens and strong warriors. The secondary goal of Frozenheim is its strategy elements in real time and its fight.

The construction part of the city of Frozenheim will be familiar to veterans of this kind. You collect resources, assign workers to various construction and preparation tasks and go into the technological tree, which is quite vast and deep and can certainly be the cold experience for which developers were aimed at. Although Frozenheim certainly borrows generously at previous games of the genre, there is still a lot to find and allocate workers to tasks, because the population of the IA prefers to remain inactive than taking the initiative (I can understand). At least at this early stage, the mission and construction goals are clear but not always the way to get there, and the game construction of the game needs a few more tutorials or contextual info-bubbles, although Most of the information you need is there so dig a little.

The fight side of Frozenheim includes both terrestrial and naval fights, although it still suffers from some bugs and graphic problems. Warships and different units can be improved as buildings that house them become more elaborate, and units also have special capabilities. There are three skirmish cards and they highlight the potential of the Frozenheim strategy game. For the moment, the fight seems a little rudimentary and unsatisfactory compared to the parts of the game on the construction of the city.

Frozenheim looks refined, with a sumptuous amount of audio details and environmental graphics that really capture the North Viking feel. There is even a photo mode that allows all kinds of precise controls on the capture of images. However, some things about these lush environments are frustrating. It is very difficult to see the units and control them when they disappear in the foliage (despite the outline of the unit), and the warfish of the game obscures everything but a claustrophobic zone during exploration, making the path search outside its scope more difficult than necessary. . Ironically, Frozenheim environments often have too many small details without enough contrast, and it can be visually tired of browsing the landscape for information. Musically, the partition of Frozenheim of Tom Acrofear knows a brilliant start, with orchestral pieces of bad mood that capture the old melancholy of the world. At this point, however, there is simply not enough, so the slopes can become repetitive. I can not wait to hear the original full band.

It is difficult not to anticipate with joy a city builder who leads us to a different way from the other of the genre, and the combination of the Viking frame and RTS elements gives Frozenheim a little more complexity and value. At this early stage, it looks great and many elements are solid and already fully realized. Added content and technical polishing will soften what is already a game that is worth playing.