Wildfrost rolls onto PC and Nintendo Switch on 12 April and while we’re all decked out for a glorious spring, this beautifully animated deckbuilding adventure from publisher Chucklefish and developer Deadpan Games is filled with the joys of winter. So, wrap up but remember to stack defence because it won’t just be the cold that gets you during our Wildfrost review.
A Chilly Reception
Read the blurb and Wildfrost might not seem definitively different to many other deck builders. Stumble upon this over on Steam, however, and you’ll realise that this really does stand out from the pack. The opening animations and gorgeous artwork by Gaziter catches the eye almost immediately. Drawing parallels with the likes of Slay the Spire and Monster Train is easy enough, but this prologue to a frozen world is slightly less chilling than these two fantasy adventures. Individual player and enemy cards are wonderfully detailed. Bright color palettes are inked in to create a cast of characters that are just joyful. The mallet wielding Wallop that grins hilariously, the snow dog Snoof, and or enemy Chungoons are just a few of the faces that bring a levity to the whole affair. An angry monkey boss battle feels particularly on point for a game that looks and feel more like an episode of Steven Universe or Adventure Time than a serious deck building experience.
Taking place in a land where spring hasn’t gotten around to it quite yet, players will pursue a quest to reach the Sun Temple. This legendary location is likely to be the end of a prolonged cold snap, but it won’t be easy to reach. Like the aforementioned games, there’s a strong core journey to this title. Instead of escaping Hell, you’ll wind your way through open ice sheets, caves, and mountainous regions to finally push back the night. Despite this serious sounding setup, Wildfrost never forgets itself. You’ll encounter a title that opens with a multi laned, turn based experience that is willing to sit back and allow players to play at their own pace. Decks begin by dealing a leader character and fill out the rest of a hand with a mix of companions, actions, utilities, and buffs. Companions and leaders are dished out across a small number of lanes. Each comes with their own attack properties, buffs or other enhancements.
Character specific attacks trigger after a set number of turns, as will enemy cards. The team toiling away at this title has managed to fill out these hands with a solid mix of ideas, interesting mechanics, and concepts that don’t overwhelm the uninitiated. There at familiar melee attacks, defence, armor stats, debuffs, crits, combos, and DoTS with no more than a couple of these ideas generally assigned to a base card. This makes the first few runs in this rogue lite don’t overwhelm new adventurers. Difficulty and complexity do inevitably ramp up and makes some cards are far more important than others. Retaliatory buffs and cards, in particular, prove extremely powerful when things get busy, and you need to learn the whole myriad of systems eventually.
In addition to this mix of cards, you’ll find a mix of in game stops to fill out your deck and a range of gacha styled charms, allowing players to add extra elements to individual cards. Thee initially seem either insignificant or utterly overpowered depending on the hand you’re dealt but become essential as things progress from simple starting rounds, to being smashed apart in bigger boss battles.
Difficulty
For anybody who is attracted to the unusual aesthetic and chilled play style of Wildfrost, don’t expect to have it easy the whole time. After dispatching a couple of angry penguins you’ll face off against more difficult boss encounters with their own mechanics and phases. The joy of seeing a boss change mechanics and regenerated health with no warning for the first time was a great moment. This does inevitably mean newbies will be stomped into the ground repeatedly before filling out the card deck and understanding when to make the long play. Wildfrost allows companions to be drawn back from the battlefield, healing these cards and putting them back into the deck for replay later,
It adds AoE attacks in the form of Barrage effects, introduces charms that buff combatants, and allows cards to imbue other members of a party with extra effects. While each individual idea isn’t difficult to understand, you’ll need to synergize these to keep defeat at bay, especially when the enemy decks start mixing up their abilities too.
The Road To Victory
After taking a beating in the ice caves and beyond, Wildfrost returns home, allowing players to cash in achievement points and take on daily challenges. This home base allows players to unlock a range of new cards and capabilities. It makes new companions available, enhances pets, players, and playstyle on offer. Once you’ve had a chance to explore the various unlockable areas of this homestead, then it’s back out under the guise of a new expedition leader, a different set of potential powers, and the same bloody angry penguins in your way.
Wildfrost manages to mix a solid mix of roguelike ideas, a charming aesthetic, and a playtime that doesn’t have to exceed more than ten minute. In actuality this chilled deck builder took up hours at a time. It never overburdens players, picking just a couple of lanes to begin with and simple cards that become more compels you gain more experience in using the deck. New features unlock on a regular basis giving a satisfying sense of progression, even if the jump in difficulty between each area of an expedition could scale a little less drastically.
Wildfrost isn’t going to distract anybody looking for a hardcore high skill play on the genre, but this quest never presents as that. It’s a joyous and accessible twist on the roguelike deck builder that you definitely want to deal into. Find Wildfrost on the Steam Store and Nintendo eShop in English, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese, and Korean for $19.99/ £16.79/ €19.50 / 60¥ / 125 HK$ when it shows its hand on 12 April 2023.
