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These bunnies are going to kill me!

Winter is an old game made in IKA, an engine I've never heard and for this reason I was really curious to try it!

For what I understand Winter was supposed to be a Christmas game and turned out to be just a game set in winter. The story is simple: an old man is telling a tale to some children, about a nameless man who is walking on the mountains (mount Durinar is the only name we hear during the story), escaping from someone (we know that some hunters are on his tracks) and something (his past? Well we will never know!). Our blonde has to traverse a snowy area armed just with his sword, fighting the dangerous fauna and unlocking an escape route from the wilderness.


All these killer bunnies... killing them is always a pleasure!

Winter plays like a sort of Zelda clone: combat is in real time and the protagonist levels up killing enemies, becoming stronger and stronger, but to progress he has to find some spells that will let him break frozen walls, destroy boulder, traverse crevasses and so on. This unlocks routes that were insccessible previously, so expect doing some backtracking.
But these spells are also useful in combat: the first is a healing spell that also creates some icy paths on rivers and lakes, and the second is a fire attack that also destroys ice. The problem is that the Mana pool of our lone hero is pretty small, but each kill awards some mana.

Kill. Yeah, in this game you will kill a lot of creatures, unfortunately there is not much variety: there are the killer bunnies, whose main weapons are the skreech of death (that is just annoying but hey...) and their big number, even if there are some color swaps versions (blue, red) that are stronger than the normal kind. Then there are some sort of evil goats (bigger, faster, deadlier than the rabbits, but luckily no skreech of death included!) and the big yetis that act as mini-bosses and, if you are smart, can be trapped exploiting some narrow passages to kill them without being hit by their powerful fists.
How? Well note that our hero can make a combo of attacks that ends with a lounge attack that often knocks out the opponent.


Ok, we reached the middle point of the review, time to save our progress at the tent!

The game looks very pretty, I like the style and enviroment, even if some maps are a bit confused. Another problem is the lack of variety since there aren't many different opponents, locations and you also can save only at save and healing points represented by tents that are often placed in a dead end area. Luckily here the character is also fully healed, but then you have to find your way and here's here the problem start.
As I said before you need to collect items to unlock new routes but nothing indicates which is the next step: you have to memorize the various obstacles because I often has to try each path until I was able to find the needed item to progess, like the dynamite that removes boulders (other paths had crevasses or boulders so I has to turn and go back to a previous zone).

Another problem is that the instructions of the games are a bit abscure, but you can easily read everything you need to know from this page, and since it is not a complex game at all (you attack with spacebar and the spells hotkeys are indicated in a well done interface).

What else? Graphically the game is very good, and sounds are quite good and atmospheric, the problem is that the bunnies are really annoying! I am sure that many players would mute the game after a while!


I like big fat men like you. When they fall, they make more noise...

Verdict
This is an interesting simple game with a charming aestethic and a good, even if repetitive gameplay. There are really few dialogues (no typos!), no real puzzles and everything goes smoothly (even if the spacebar as attack button is a bit weird, but I can live with that!). This game plays like and old arcade style game, and it's rather simple (there is no defensive or parry ability at all) but very well made, and in my opinion also old styled. This is not a game you will play for the story but just to wander the snowy wilderness killing those bunnies just to make them shut up (and being killed by those brawny yetis)!

Final rating is 4/5. Simple, mindless fun wandering the snowy lands exterminating the local fauna!

Posts

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Thank you for the well written and thoughtful review! Your timing on this is impeccable - I am actually working on an updated version of Winter which should address at least some of your issues. In particular I just added an automap! Hopefully in the next month or two it should be done. :)

For context the game was made in about 3 weeks for a gamejam, and so some things were a little rushed, especially the enemy variety. But I'm glad you enjoyed the game for what it is! :)
author=Hatch
Thank you for the well written and thoughtful review! Your timing on this is impeccable - I am actually working on an updated version of Winter which should address at least some of your issues. In particular I just added an automap! Hopefully in the next month or two it should be done. :)

For context the game was made in about 3 weeks for a gamejam, and so some things were a little rushed, especially the enemy variety. But I'm glad you enjoyed the game for what it is! :)


Oh yeah happy to hear this! I noticed the comment made on the other review too!
I noticed Winter in 2018/2019 but then I lost it and I was able to find it again only recently. At the time the graphics really attacted me, and these are clearly a strong point but I had fun with the gameplay too!
Ok, so it took a bit longer than I expected.. but the updated version of Winter is out if you wanted to give it a go! There is some new content, a new final skill and the last boss was updated, among other scenario changes to make a new playthrough a bit different. :)
Cool! I am curious, I will try it as soon as I have a moment, nice improvements from what I see!
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