Frozen Synapse - a simple, genius turn-based combat strategy

[Diligence109]

I included a tl;dr at the bottom for you lazy people :P



So I was plugging around on the intertubes for a multiplayer game to play and just as I thought I'd seen them all I stumbled upon this:

looks kinda spiffy, eh?

Frozen Synapse is a game developed by Mode7 - a company comprised of three dedicated souls. The game itself is a simple turn based combat strategy where each turn has basically two phases:




...A planning stage where you carefully and meticulously plot out the movements you want your squad to make and where you want them to aim, and...

...a combat stage where the players' selected commands play out and the troops kill the **** outta each other!

Those screenshots are of the current alpha build they have of the game - graphics, animations, music, etc are all still under development so don't turn your nose up at the current state of those visuals. The game mechanic is fully developed and functioning, however, and the zealous team of devs are offering pre-orders of the game with a $25 price tag that promises not one, but TWO beta keys so that you and a friend can start playing the beta version of the game instantly and both receive a full version, free of additional charge, as soon as it's completed and released (which is expected to be early 2011, at least at this juncture.)

they even have a cute little company logo! adorable, aint it?

The game is a real hidden gem/unnoticed masterpiece - it brings strategy gaming right back to it's core concept. There is no confusing interface, no steep learning curve as you familiarize yourself with long lists of weapon lists/troop types and the ways they interact, no wild abilities or skills that turn the game upside down out of the clear blue sky and nuke your opponent without warning...

Rather, the game's challenge becomes reading and predicting your opponent's moves and tactically playing against them. This is a beautiful, simple game that truly embodies the tried and true pneumonic for a successful game: "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master."


I spoke with one of the developers in their IRC channel about his game a little bit - he's a delightful bloke from England who aside from giving the impression of being a sincere person who's passionate about his game and was delighted to give me a moment of his time to chat, shared that the game has a limited following that is lively enough to provide easy find for online matches at least during peak hours. If I were to get the game I'd be gearing to play mostly with you guys on this forum and other IRLers anyway... but I'd be delighted to meet anyone else through the game, of course!

The game's site has everything you'd want to know about the game and then some; including but not limited to the game's incredible amount of press coverage, more videos than you want to take the time to watch, and a pre-order page who's large, friendly, and dummy-proof "buy me" buttons beg for your cursor's attention.


Anyone think they'd be interested in playing this? Looks like a pretty sweet find to me. I already did tons of research on the game so if you have any questions I can probably answer them without you having to trouble searching around yourself...





tl;dr - Frozen Synapse is a turn based combat strategy game with a very shallow learning curve made by an indie 3 person company, Mode7. The beta is available now for $25 and a single purchase gets you two beta keys - so two copies of the game, one for you and one for a friend! The full version is expected in early 2011. I'm seriously considering getting this game and playing it, especially if others are interested!

[Jaykub]

Thats looks like a pretty nice game there.. I'll read into it a little more, also for the review.

[Dess]

I'm game...

[Muffincat]

So we played it together just now....

and I really, really don't like it.

Just...ugh. Not my thing, at all. I dunno. So many things. Erghhhh.

[Diligence109]

This just in - buying strategy games for your girlfriend is not flattering or romantic.

You've gotta have a logically organized/oriented mind for this game - you systematically "program" your squad at the start of a round and they execute your pre-meditated actions with dumbfounding literal interpretation... for better or worse.

The activity of instructing your dudes what to do can be a bit time consuming and daunting a task when you're still unfamiliar with the interface... but it only took me one round to start getting my ideas to flow onto the screen a little more and I didn't feel like the game's interface was slowing me down from being able to tell troops what to do.


If you want to hear me gab on about the game a little bit with random disjunct ideas:

 

This is the sort of game where playing against a pro would really show - you wouldn't touch them and they'd guess your movements before you'd planned them. Still, though, I don't even mind playing the matches that I lose cause it's interesting to learn by playing... the challenge to master the game is ripe with this game.

If that's the sort of thing you look for in a game - a deeper game to discover, manipulate, and master - then this is a gold mine. Also, the slower paced gameplay allows for the game to lend itself to become much more of a social experience as it leaves the players plenty of time to communicate (even by IM!)

Easy game to play at a relaxed pace here and there to kill some time... you can even put matches on hold between turns and get back to them later. If you're playing over extended periods of time like this with someone, you can get email notifications about when your opponents take their turn...

If anyone wants to play with me, I have it already and I'm game!

[Subb]

i think i will pass, doesnt look good nor is it my type of game. That being said time for some gears of war

[Muffincat]

This just in - buying strategy games for your girlfriend is not flattering or romantic.

Awwwww, it's actually both <3 :P (except for the fact that we were going halfsies on this, so technically you didn't buy it for me :P)

It's not your fault the game isn't that good

Anyway, I will maybe play it occasionally... I just really hate games where you program everything at the beginning, I dunno. It was just irksome to me. Perhaps it will get better in time. (thoughIkindadoubtit)