"An impact winter is a hypothesized period of prolonged cold weather due to the impact of a large asteroid or comet on the Earth's surface."
Hello, everyone.
A couple of months ago i started playing games that people recommended as being "similar to This War Of Mine". After playing a few [1][2], i bring you Impact Winter; a game that only differs from This War Of Mine in that it is not a side-scroller..
..nor does it take place during war-times..
..nor is it as emotionally impactful.
Ok, it's different in a lot of ways!
But it's also very similar, as we need to survive a certain amount of days, in a hostile environment, and try our best to keep all our companions alive.
And it's just as good!
The World
This time around we find ourselves in a post asteroid-impacted Earth, where most of the world's infrastructure is now buried under snow and ice.
Temperatures are subzero during the day and drop significantly with the intermittent high winds, so keeping warm is a constant necessity to avoid frostbite.
To make matters worse, the occasion blizzard storm downright forces us to quickly take shelter, spelling our quick demise if we don't, as temperatures plummet even further.
In this new, cold and icy wasteland of a world - which the remaining survivors call "The Void" -, we find ourselves forced to not only face the harsh elements, but also share it with the most resilient wildlife; some of which will hunt anything they can eat, including us.
It is us against a harsh and unforgiving nature in a world where we must constantly scavenge to survive.
Scavenging
Venturing out and exploring the wasteland is a constant necessity, if we are to survive.
Places from which we scavenge for supplies (which have yet to be buried by snow) are scattered around the area, and we'll need to find them before we can loot them.
Places like nearly-covered highway passes with cars and vans...
Locked containers - sitting atop of nearly-buried trucks.
Inside houses, or hotels and gas stations..
Most of which aren't always easily accessible without the use of lockpicks, or without having to look around and find the entrances to these places.
In caves and sinkholes..
Which "hide" entire streets and neighbourhoods that have been buried under the ice.
We can even look for supplies that are buried in the snow, locating them with the aid of our helper-drone's scanning and digging abilities.
Hunting is also a viable option, when no food can be scavenged, and there are a couple ways to get meat; by using traps or weapons.
Both have their positives as negatives, and both are equally precarious options.
Survivors
Not many people survived the years after the impact, not only due to the cold but because growing food is no longer possible, due to the extreme climate.
Billions died of starvation.
Still, there are a few survivors whom also roam the wasteland, looking for supplies. Some of them will ask for help (possibly putting our own survival at risk).
Some will even steal from us..
Church (our Homestead) and Team topics are discussed later.
But most of them, like us, are out there scavenging for supplies so we need to be weary with what we leave behind when scavenging. Because there's a chance that the things we leave behind won't be there when we come back.
Nomads
Some of the most prolific survivors of The Void are called nomads, which roam around the wasteland looking for unusual items; items you wouldn't necessarily need in a survival situation. They do, however, reward us for finding these items for them, if we choose to take on the task.
Some nomads have set up trading posts and have a stockpile of items which we can buy, paying for them in seeds.
The de-facto currency, as far as nomads are concerned.
Now, why, in this inhospitable world, in which nothing can grow, would nomads receive seeds as payment, is a perplexing mystery.
And one that will only be revealed with time.
Time
Thirty days in how long we need to survive this harsh climate before we're supposedly rescued..
...according to a barely understandable radio transmission, received by our helper-drone, AkoLight.
Thirty days is the time it takes for the rescuers to pinpoint our location through AkoLight's weak radio signal; a signal we can boost by performing several tasks. The stronger AkoLight's signal, the faster our location is pinpointed, and the quicker we are rescued.
But rescued to where? By whom? The entire planet is an inhospitable wasteland. A vast, freezing wasteland.
Our Homestead
The only real respite we have from this freezing planet is an old church; a makeshift homestead in which we can find comfort and safety.
Or at least, as comfortable and safe as we make it.
It's a place for us to store our gathered supplies; a place where we and four other survivors now call home.
Our Team
Four other survivors have elected us as their leader, leaving their fate and decisions on how to survive in our hands. They're dedicated to work as a team to ensure everyone's survival in the homestead, lending us their crafting skills, and they'll craft and upgrade what we ask of them.
In return, it's our job to provide for them and keep them healthy. Failing to do so, and they just might lose faith in our leadership and leave the homestead.
Leaving us without a pair of skilled hands.
Crafting
Each individual has their own unique set of skills and unique items they can craft and upgrade, at our request.
From research and engineering.
To survival skills.
Handywork.
Cooking and medical help.
There are a ton of things we can get crafted. From traps to ammo, snow boots to snowmobiles, home upgrades, food recipes, electronics, etc, etc, etc.
The game is a scavenger/crafter's dream, as the items available to scavenge and the number of different things to craft is enormous.
I didn't even craft a portion of what's available to craft in one playthrough!
Paths
Even as a team, each of our companions have their own idea of what is the best strategy to survive. We can take advice from each team member and follow their "path" (completing missions for them), which allows them to craft bigger and better things as we progress through the missions.
Selecting an event from any of our companions' path will lead us to a specific location on the map; a location where we can complete the event. The journey however, we not always be easy.
As their leader, however, the decision to follow which path and when is ours to make, ultimately shaping our survival story.
We're free to switch between paths without losing progress, and complete multiple events from different paths all at once.
Reputation Points
Completing events awards us with Reputation Points (RP). In fact, almost everything we do in-game gives us RP; from discovering new locations, crafting items, keeping our companions happy for long periods of time, helping survivors out in the wild..and the list goes on and on.
There is, in fact, a ton of different things to do in this game. You're very likely to not experience even half of what the game offers in one playthrough. A ton of things to craft, locations to find, events to complete. There's no lack of choices!
As we gain Reputation Points, our Reputation Level increases. This, in turn, reduces the rescue timer by a couple of hours.
Roles
Increasing our Reputation Level will also allow us to unlock Roles and assign them to our companions. Roles are perks that have positive and negative effects on the companion, and we can change the role each companion has at any time, to help us with surviving.
Difficulty & Replayability
I found the game to be very well balanced with the difficulty. Every day was a struggle to maintain everyone alive and happy. If the game was any harder, you'd find yourself having to restart it over and over, and you'd eventually become fed up of doing the same things over and over again.
Instead, what the game offers is a constant state of urgency at all time, barely giving you moments where you can sit back and not do anything.
And with the multiple paths available, replaying the game to experience specific paths is an excellent way to give the game some replayability; this because you won't be able to experience even half of what the game offers in a single playthrough.
Coming back to the difficulty, i found myself with no choice but to change paths. The game is balanced to the point that you just have to do whatever it takes to survive, and not do whatever you want, just to see what else you can craft.
Extra Difficulty?
Still, you can increase the difficulty of the game if you're up to the uber-challenge, by doing these things:
- Don't change paths; start the game on one path and see it through;
- Or ignore paths altogether; don't start any path and utilize the bare minimum tools you have, from the start of the game, to the end;
- Don't use roles; no positive perks to help your companions;
There's a couple of more ways you can fake the difficulty level of the game but i'll leave it at those three. I'm sure you can find many ways that'll make the game more challenging.
There is also an Expert Mode, in which dying means you will need to restart the game from the beginning, but i played it in Normal Mode (in which our character will respawn after death) and i didn't die once, so, either i was lucky, or you can totally beat the game in Expert Mode.
Aside from that, as far as replayability, you do get a Ranking at the end of a playthrough, but this is not solely a good enough reason to replay the game, in my opinion.
Btw, that one death shown in the image was due to a glitch - read more about those, below.
In Conclusion
I could go on about this game, showing everything that can be done in-game, but there's just too many things to talk about; many many things to explore and scavenge and craft. Which is great!
Mechanics aside, the game's also got a great atmosphere. From the stylish art style, to it's moody "80's music synth vibe" - they're both great complements to the gameplay - headphones recommended!
At the end of the day it's a really fun exploration/survival game. The game's mechanics are good. The crafting if satisfying. The exploring is fun. It's an explorer and scavenger's dream; finding new locations, looking for supplies, crafting, upgrading, fixing what's broken, dealing with several random events..surviving!
And in the end, the story well justifies a sequel, and i kinda wish this studio would fix their shit and make one!
Glitches
Because...The game is riddled with glitches.
From small, forgivable ones, to more severe ones which can make you lose quite some progress, there's always some glitch lurking around the corner when you least need one to appear! IE, when you're racing against death out in the cold wasteland!
However, the glitches in the game are easily mitigated so i still do fully recommend this game because once you learn how to avoid/fix the glitches, i'm sure you'll enjoy it too!
Mitigating Glitches
In order to help you avoid headaches and frustration navigating the glitches, i've made a small list.
The following three bullet points are like your ten commandments. Except they're only three.
#1 - If a UI glitch appears (in which you can't click a button), use the keyboard arrows, slow-spamming them until the buttons work with the mouse again. The Enter key also usually works as a mouse click, so try using the Enter key as well.
#2 - If a glitch doesn't go away, return to the main menu and click continue. If that fails, quit the game altogether, and restart it!
#3 - Save often! Manual saves are made when you sleep, so sleep for just a minute or two, every chance you get. This way, a glitch won't make you lose much progress if you find yourself needing to reload the game.
CAMPS
When building camps, keep the camp's radius free of any other structures - ie, cave entrances, homes, containers. The camp might glitch and stops being 100% usable.
Don't also build camps behind structures which hide your camp from view of the camera. If the camera's in an awkward position, where you have a structure blocking your view of your camp, just don't build there. Interactable elements of the camp can simply vanish and your camp becomes unusable.
CRAFTING
- In the crafting menu, if the mouse doesn't activate a button when you hover over them, use the keyboard arrows. If those don't work, try the mouse again. The mouse should now work. Try this with exiting and entering the crafting menu. It'll work eventually.
SCAVENGING
- If you're unable to click on any lootable container found around the world, it's likely because your inventory is full. You should still be able to open the lootable object, but...glitches! So, try clearing one of the slots in your inventory (by eating or using an item) and then click on the lootable object. It should open now.
HUNTING
You don't have control over what animal you aim at with a weapon. You can't even switch between targets. Your character will randomly point to a animal, regardless of proximity to you, or even regardless of how dangerous the animal is - he will sometimes point at a squirrel 20 meters away when you have a wolf 5 meters away, ready to attack you!
This might not be a glitch per-say, but it sure is poor programming and something that is important to take into account.
MISC
Try to avoid frostbite from settling in with your playable character. After getting frostbite he should still be able to move, but i've seen him not be able to move at all and die there after a few minutes.
When you select a trap from your inventory and use the "place in world" option (it's how you place items on the floor), avoid standing on a dead animal (be sure the dead animal is not highlighted). If you place a trap on a highlighted animal, the trap will simply disappear from your inventory and vanish from existence! And these traps are craftable, which use up supplies we scavenge. So loosing them to this glitch is just not a good thing in a survival game!
PSA
The game got so much backlash due to the amount of glitches that the studio behind it prefered to pull it from Steam rather than continuing fixing them. So you'll have to get it from other sources.
Many glitches were fixed, but many still remain. Version 2.0.10 of the game is the version you want to download, as it has less of them!
The End
Well, that's it for this post. After all is said and done, i really enjoyed playing this game, glitches and all, and totally recommend it for players that love scavenging, exploration, survival and crafting.
Glitches and all, i think the game is well worth the play! So i do hope you try it out and hopefully enjoy it!
Thanks for reading!