City builders are an interesting niche of strategy gaming. Some people dive into the in-depth managing of their perfect city and create these absolutely wild metropolises with maxed-out stats. Others just like watching their new city grow, no matter how small or un-optimized it may be.
Enter Frozenheim, the Viking-city-builder from Paranoid Interactive and Hyperstrange. Where typically city-builders give you an almost overwhelming amount of systems and tools to craft the perfect city, Frozenheim feels a little more slapdash. It feels unrefined, dirty, and probably pretty hairy, and that’s the perfect feeling for a game about Vikings.
Story
The story isn’t the reason you play the campaign in Frozenheim. Each of the 4 “sagas” follows different stories and groups, and is primarily to teach the player how to utilize the mechanics in the game. While some of the stories are interesting, most of what is seen in the campaign are merely sufficient fluff to push the player to the conclusion. Nothing groundbreaking, but also nothing that’s bad. For a series of tales about Vikings, there are some fun twists, plenty of supernatural pontificating, and loads of combat to keep this exciting.
However, this somewhat “bleh” story is just a vehicle for the gameplay. Just like toppings on nachos, the chip is merely a vessel to carry it to your mouth. In this case, the campaign is the chip. Regardless of how bland it is, you’ll still taste the flavors of the rest. This brings us to the most important part of any meal, er, game.
Gameplay
As mentioned above, there are 2 types of city-builder players. Those who dive deep into optimized cities, and those who like watching them grow. As more of a laidback player, I enjoy seeing things go from a single building to a large thriving village.
For players like myself, Frozenheim is fantastic! Typically starting with a few units and a Jarls Homestead, expanding the settlement while defending from external threats has a natural feeling and can very quickly spiral out of hand if played poorly. Seasonal changes will affect your population and your production, which can lead to unexpected resource shortages in winter or when storms are present.
As you expand your village, prioritizing where to spend your population is an ever-present concern, but isn’t the annoying micromanagement you might expect. Most buildings can only have up to 8 pops working there with many only having 2-4, and adding more workers is as simple as pushing a + button until full. Even if you don’t pay too much attention to where you are assigning people, you probably won’t lose everything based on work staffing.
There is a bit more of a combat focus in Frozenheim, and the village is important in supporting your soldiers and providing population to fill the ranks. If you aren’t constantly replacing the units that are lost to raids, you can quickly find your peaceful village overrun by other Vikings trying to burn it all down.
As I’ve mentioned, everything about Frozenheim has an unpolished feel, and I really enjoyed it. However, some features and gameplay can be frustrating and detract from the overall experience. I will get into that a little later in this review.
Audio and Visuals
There are not many negatives to the look and sounds of Frozenheim. Sound effects for storms and packed battlefields are great and the background music matches what’s happening on-screen which definitely puts you in the Viking frame of mind. Norse vocals and time-appropriate strings and drums add to this sense of belonging.
Visually this game is stunning! The overall look and feel are wonderful, and watching the seasons change and seeing how that affects the day-to-day movements in the village is very cool. A photo mode gives ample opportunity to check out fun angles and take great screenshots of your growing villages and the environment changing with them. Paths form where people consistently walk, with grass and snow being trampled and really showcasing all the activity taking place. While the battles are somewhat lackluster, seeing a village in flames around the battle definitely adds to the effect.
Replayability
To be quite honest, without more modes and ways to change custom scenarios there isn’t too much replayability once you finish the short campaign and play a few multiplayer rounds. Unless there are some changes to unit types, new factions, or some sort of crazy raid and city builder split mode, there’s probably 15-25 hours of gameplay here depending on the type of player you are.
What It Could Have Done Better
More units, more buildings, more capacity, more, more, more! My biggest complaint with Frozenheim is that it feels very confined, and the game plays much the same with every new village. While this wasn’t bad for me, and really got me to create different and interesting village layouts for the rule of cool, many city-builder fans will grow bored quite quickly.
A distinct lack of information about the intricacies of your city’s upkeep can also be annoying when trying to keep track of what buildings are needed. Resources per minute or if you are in a surplus or deficit would be helpful and save players from suddenly realizing they have no food in the middle of winter. However, this UI deficit could also be seen as a feature, forcing players to keep track of the levels of their resources on their own and prepare for winter with as large a surplus as they can. For this player, however, it definitely bothered me that my people starved because I couldn’t track how quickly they ate.
Verdict
While I had a good time with Frozenheim, I understand many players would dislike some of the things I loved and vice-versa. With that being said, I still believe Frozenheim is worth the current price, but definitely feel it came out of early access a little too early. If the team at Paranoid Interactive keeps updating and tweaking it as time goes on, it could be a very fun city builder. As it is, it is fun but not groundbreaking. Minor UI annoyances and a distinct lack of replayability cause me to leave this with a lower rating than I may have if I felt there was more to do. If you are a fan of strategy games and city builders, I definitely recommend picking this up, especially with the price sitting around $20. However, I don’t think it will change your life or be a game you think about for years to come.
Frozenheim is available on PC via Steam.
