The cold winds gather and bring danger with them, as thefantasy board gameFrosthavenis being adapted into a video game. DualShockers had the chance to preview the game ahead of its demo being made available atSteam Next Fest.
Frosthaven is set in the same world asGloomhaven, where the fate of the region is determined by mercenaries, who venture into dangerous areas to kill as many monsters and grab as much loot as possible, hopefully with their heads still intact at the end of it.
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While Gloomhaven featured the more standard fantasy Medieval dungeons, Frosthaven takes theadventure to the far north, where a lone outpost is being threatened by the Algox, a race of yeti warriors, who are gathering their forces to crush this budding settlement before it becomes entrenched.
The only hope for this new outpost is mercenaries, whose hunger for coin and adventure will lead to them engaging the Algox in battle. It won’t be long until the true danger threatening the region is discovered, and it’s up to these heroes for hire to stop it.
Gathering Your Frosthaven Party And Venturing Forth
Frosthaven can be played as a single-player game or with 2-4 players. Each player creates a hero, and it’s possible for solo players to fill up a party of four. However, during our preview, the developers advised against this, going against all my gamer instincts to max out the party size.
Instead, I was advised to make a party of two as a first-timer, asmanaging a full partyof four can be overwhelming. Indeed, this was how my demo experience went, with two of us on a quest to complete the first mission, where the Frosthaven outpost comes under siege from the Algox.
The Frosthaven demo has four classes available, with two more promised for the main game. The four classes are the Banner Spear, whose flags can buff allies, the Drifter, who is a melee tank, the Boneshaper, who uses their own blood to summon monsters, and the Deathwalker, who uses the shadows themselves as a means of striking enemies.
When making a character, the player doesn’t have many options for customizing their heroes, at least not in terms of appearance or stats, which might be surprising to RPG fans. Instead, the main choice during creation is Personal Quest, which is more of a long-term goal, as completing it will lead to that hero retiring, prompting the player to make a new one.
If the player has gold to spend, then they can also drop cash on some extra starting equipment. There are also battle goals, with the player able to select one of three options, and completing these will unlock Perk marks.
Frosthaven’s Battles Are About Two Halves Of Cards
The main gameplay loop of Frosthaven involves its battles. These take place on hex grids, with a turn order available for the player characters and the monsters. Character position is very important, as there are hazards on the battlefield that can hinder the player’s progress.
Each character in Frosthaven has a deck of cards with two abilities: a top half and a bottom half. This is important, as each turn, the player can only select the top half ability of one card and the bottom half of another.
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For example, the Boneshaper’s “Returned Servant” ability has a top half effect that summons a Shambling Skeleton at the cost of two health, while its bottom half lets the character move four spaces.
During the player’s turn, each character selects two cards. Then, the turn order is decided, and on each character’s turn, they select their top and bottom ability from each card. Those cards are then discarded.
When a character takes damage, they can choose to take it (and potentially reduce it with an item, such as the Heater Shield), Burn an available card, or Burn two discarded cards to protect themselves. Burning cards might seem like the safer option, but there’s a huge problem, as the cards essentially determine the time limit for each quest.
Like in the board game, time is of the essence in Frosthaven, as when all cards are discarded, the mission is a game over. Fortunately, there are two ways of getting them back, as a Short Rest lets the player discard a card to reclaim all other discarded cards, and a Long Rest burns a card to recover all cards, refresh all items, and heal two health. However, there is a strict limit to the number of rests that can be taken, so the player needs to get a move on to complete each mission.
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One of the more forgiving aspects of Frosthaven is the map design, as each area is broken into rooms, denoted by doors coated in colourful flowers that stand out among the white and browns of the snowy ground. The self-contained rooms mean you can focus on sorting out the nearby monsters, while also giving you the option to open up new areas, so you can kite foes or try and bottleneck them into an area where you can make the most of AoEs.
The player also needs to be aware of the ground, as some enemies can lay traps, while hazards can be used to slow movement. Crucially, loot also drops on the floor, and it can only be picked up by ending a movement on the tile.
The fact that the player only has a limited amount of movement/turns means it can be risky to gather too much loot, but there are items and abilities that make this easier, such as the Banner Spear’s Pincer Movement secondary ability, allowing the player to grab items as they go.
Frosthaven comes from theSouls school of difficulty,where the player can’t afford to underestimate the enemy. The clock is always ticking and resources are always dwindling. This makes combat exciting, as things can get extremely tense over the course of a quest, and the player has to balance what’s in their hand.
Building A Better Base
But what about outside the quests? Surely there’s more to do with the loot than just buying swords. This is where the village of Frosthaven comes into play, as it acts as the player’s base between missions.
Frosthaven is a ramshackle dump at the start of the game, but over the course of the story, you’re able to construct more buildings and improve the facilities that you already have. Think of it as a way of making future runs easier, as pumping more money into the town means you’ll have extra resources for new characters.
Examples of the facilities available to the player include the Craftsman, who can fuse junk loot into items, the Barracks, which creates NPC soldiers that can protect Frosthaven from attacks, and the Alchemist, which brews potions.
There wasn’t much to the outpost in the demo, but it’s easy to see how it enhances the game. This is because you don’t get to keep access to your characters, as they’ll either retire or die over time, with new heroes replacing them. The Frosthaven outpost is a way to keep their accomplishments alive and make things more forgiving for the next band of mercenaries.
Frosthaven Needs More Time In The Oven
This Frosthaven demo was released ahead of thegame entering Steam Early Access, which is planned for later in the year. It’s clear that the game is a long way away from release, which the developers confirmed during my preview.
The UI is currently extremely hard to parse for a newbie, with lots of symbols thrown at the player at once. There are some instances where right-click is used to confirm actions, while the player constantly needs to click a bar to confirm actions, rather than having a quick keyboard command.
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More importantly, the current version of Frosthaven has a lot of bugs that need ironing out. This is what an Early Access release is best for, as it gives the developers plenty of time to sort out the problems ahead of time.
Hopefully this time will be well spent. The popularity of Gloomhaven (both the board and video game iterations) has proven there’s a thirst for this ultra-challenging style of experience. The developers need to focus on honing the experience as much as they can.
Closing Comments
Playing the demo almost felt unfair, because I wanted to dive into the full experience, as the taster I had for its world-building and combat just left me wanting more. It’s clear that there’s a lot that needs to be done, especially regarding QoL features, but the bones of a great game are here, and I can’t wait to see more.
