Mr Viral
Frosthaven Preview
Sometimes games come to Early Access more like appetizers than satisfying meals. Sure, it’s to be expected that the game isn’t complete, that’s the whole point. Frosthaven has just dropped onto our plates, and even though it only includes the first two chapters of the campaign, there’s already a lot for hungry strategy gamers to tuck into. There are hours and hours of highly-replayable game and much more to come. I will now abandon the tortured food metaphor.
Gloomhaven’s Chilly Brethren
Boardgamers will be very familiar with Gloomhaven and Frosthaven, two incredibly popular tabletop RPGs. Gloomhaven made a successful leap into digital form back in 2021. Frosthaven appeared as a board game in 2022 and uses generally the same basic mechanics as the older title. In reductionist terms, it’s a combination of a turn-based RPG and a card battle game, with a rather significant base building aspect. I had the chance to sample Frosthaven back in March. I was already impressed. The Early Access launch version of the game has a substantial amount of content, including six character classes, a couple of different tutorials, and the first two chapters of the campaign.
Fans of either Haven — Gloom or Frost — know the ropes. For each turn and character the player picks two cards from the deck. Each card has a top set of actions — usually attacks, heals, buffs, and debuffs — and a lower section with movement points. Each turn will use the top of one card and the bottom of the other. When a character is injured, players can either accept the injury or “burn” (discard) a card from the deck to heal the injury. This is a little like saying a Formula-1 car is four wheels and an engine.
Just in terms of character classes and card mechanics, there’s nuance, complexity, and depth that require strategic planning, risks, and rewards, and demand hours of practice. Each of the game’s starting classes — Banner Spear, Boneshaper, Drifter, Deathwalker, Blinkblade, and Geminate — have rich backstories. Each one plays very differently from the others. At launch, the game includes these six, plus two additional classes that unlock during the campaign. The developer hints at many more to come. I found trying to keep track of a full, four-member squad pretty overwhelming alone. A quartet is definitely more the purview of multiplayer, or maybe a far more experienced solo player.
Campaign for More
At launch the Early Access version of Frosthaven includes a very competent — and probably mandatory — tutorial/refresher. Even with the tutorial, Frosthaven’s mechanics are extremely dense and the pace of each mission and even each turn is deliberate. It’s very easy to fall into choice paralysis and the fear of making a bad decision. There are six different levels of difficulty, from Story mode to absurdly hard. Even in the easiest mode, the game will be plenty challenging for newcomers. Despite the developer’s attention to onboarding the unfamiliar, there’s no getting around Frosthaven’s considerable learning curve. Players used to fast-paced card battle games or CRPGs will need to slow way down.
While each character has a specialty and range of cards, knowing how to pick the best cards for each turn takes a lot of practice, trial and error, and failure. It’s easy to get stuck with bad cards, resulting in a nearly worthless turn. Sometimes playing Frosthaven feels like there’s a layer of abstraction between the player and the action, but that’s also the game’s specific strength. Often a game’s seeming complexity hides poorly designed mechanics, but Frosthaven earns its depth.
What makes the steeply ascending mastery slope tolerable is that the game looks great, far more detailed than Gloomhaven, and more like a proper RPG. Character animations and combat effects are especially well done. Each battle plays out on a fairly compact stage, and now and then it’s a little hard to visually parse everything on screen. A DM-like voiceover sets up the narrative beats but the game’s audio and music are understated.
Clear Your Calendar
Frosthaven’s Early Access debut includes over 40 quests/scenarios from the board game, with 130 or more eventually planned. We haven’t even talked about the game’s important base-building mechanics, which often generate scenarios to gain unlocks for new buildings and NPCs. All this content comes directly from the board game, which should be great news for its considerable number of fans.
I haven’t even come close to finishing what Frosthaven’s Early Access content includes, let alone trying it with a full group or at a higher difficulty. However, I can attest that Frosthaven is a thoroughly polished, extremely faithful and exceptionally engaging RPG. I’m in it for the long haul and I’m excited to both keep learning the game and being surprised by new content along the way.
***PC code provided by the publisher***
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings