If you peruse my reviews here, you’ll see I’m a bit of a connoisseur of roguelike games, with my all-time favorites being The Binding of Isaac and Dead Cells. These are the top of the crop that I typically compare all other games from this genre to, and it’s not just because I consider myself borderline god-tier at the latter (it does help though), because if we are being honest I am downright trash when it comes to the former. Then there is the one roguelike that I really don’t click with – I know it’s super popular and I know I am going to piss off a few people for saying this, but I absolutely hate Hades. Granted, my time with it was somewhat limited because I only jumped in within the final days of its run on Game Pass and it didn’t sink its teeth into me early on, which is a key element to these games. If you do like Hades, I suggest you stop reading this review, skip leaving the snarky comment, and promptly go buy Warm Snow, as it’s super similar in many ways. Now that we got that out of the way, I’ll say Warm Snow isn’t a terrible game by any means, but I would firmly plant it as good – nothing more and nothing less.

There is a vague narrative in place that follows a warrior by the name of Bi-an who is caught in the midst of a strange event where warm snow falls from the sky that is hot to the touch, doesn’t melt, and turns everyone it touches into a raving lunatic. Outside of it being hot, this is much like spending a winter in the state of Ohio. From here, our hero sets off to defeat the Five Great Clans and save the day. Additional story elements are drip-fed throughout your runs at random. The narrative isn’t something I find super important in this style of game, but it’s nice that the touch is there – I just wish it was delivered in a more consistent manner.

I enjoyed the paper cut-out style animations and presentation. Initially the combat was fast and fluid enough to keep me engaged; I really loved all of the ways I could combine different perks and buffs to craft a unique build that suited my overly aggressive play style, but to find your groove you really have to invest significant time and effort into learning the ins and outs of the game due to how deep the systems go. Typically, if you pick up something that completely ruins your run, you’re stuck with it until you either die or end the run voluntarily; however, it’s here that you can pick from four different areas to place the perk that opens up a wealth of options. Maybe you just want to buff how much you heal, but you could opt to add a buff where when you do heal, you’ll leave behind a cloud that will heal you further if needed, or maybe you just want to roll the dice to give Bi-an a shot at healing without cashing in a health potion.  Unfortunately, unlike some of my favorites in the genre, the further I made it into the game the less I was invested in it.

The game’s biggest issue for me was the difficulty – not that it was too difficult, but that there is no middle ground between being overly easy and excessively difficult – it’s either one or the other, nothing in between. Right out of the gate, Bi-an is able to mow down waves of enemies in a single hit leaving nothing behind but body parts and red snow, which is empowering and makes you feel like a top-tier ass kicker; once it actually requires a few attacks, it quickly becomes frustrating. Bi-an by default has a standard melee sword in addition to magical swords that will float around and typically be a factor that plays into your upgrades that we’ll get to later. There is an option to shoot the magical versions in the form of a ranged attack, but I personally didn’t use this much as the initial starting upgrade that spoke to me negated this as an ability in exchange for dealing more damage. There is a dodge or dash move available, but the sweet spot for avoiding damage is entirely too small and feels inconsistent, especially when dealing with some of the melee-focused enemies that rush you.

The boss battles are downright tough and are a worthy challenge, but I feel like they are a little spongey in most cases. As I watched their health chip away, I noticed that it never really felt like I was getting any more or less damage output regardless of what upgrades I was running. Despite this, they were one of the high points of the game, even if they would take a few runs to get their patterns down to figure out when to dodge and when to move in for the kill. I am not sure if you’d consider this a positive or not, but most of the bosses do appear in the same order, with only the prologue seeming to have an alternate foe appear.

The other glaring problem was how the upgrades were presented, which totally lacked any player direction. Normally it is clear what upgrades carry over between runs, but here it’s something that you kind of have to learn as you go. It wasn’t until my fifth or sixth run that I really got the hang of what I needed to put where and which options would continue with me through my journey.  I wouldn’t say it’s a situation where it’s too much for everyone, but I can see it being a turn-off for some players and could’ve been streamlined a bit. You are thrown different upgrades at a rapid pace in so many different varieties that it really is hard to keep track of them outside of the weapons, which largely feel the same outside of some occasionally high-level options that feature additional perks. You get one right off the rip before you’re even into the game proper, then you find them in chests, dropped from enemies, sold at vendors, as an award for completing boss battles, and just randomly dropped within the randomized paths the games feature. There are also the ones where you unlock permanent upgrades post-game that are particularly grindy, with each tier requiring three upgrades to max, and these tokens are seemingly only awarded for beating specific bosses. Having run through the game 20+ times, I still only have a few areas upgraded fully despite making it deep into the third area on my best run as of this writing.

You’d think when the game drops an avalanche of upgrades, it would eventually become a cake walk, but it really doesn’t. For me, the fun in roguelikes comes from trying to make the most OP game-breaking build I can, and I have yet to get anywhere close to that feeling in this game.  The same weak enemies remain weak and the hard ones never seem to get easier, even once I felt like I was making forward progress. This led to becoming repetitious – the mortal enemy of the roguelike genre, where the other overly repetitive issues start to stand out more. The game is mostly randomized, but outside of the rewards, most of the time it feels like you’re playing a linear game with the only truly randomized aspect being the upgrades and drops. This becomes even more frustrating when you have to complete the same uber-basic prologue every time you fail.

I didn’t hate my time with Warm Snow, but after the first few runs, I was ready to revisit some of the better options in the roguelike genre that I openly place on a pedestal after the first few hours. If you like Hades, which I do not, this is an easy recommendation that will offer you hours of gameplay thanks to all of the various systems and upgrades that will likely overwhelm newer players who may not have the resolve to see it through to its end.

7 out of 10

Pros

• A Beautifully Crafted World that Looks Like it was Cut from Paper
• It’s a lot like Hades
• The Combat is Thrilling When You’re Not Underpowered
• Selecting the Benefit of Some Perks is a Game Changer

Cons

• Grindy Permanent Upgrades
• It’s a lot like Hades
• Difficulty is All Over the Place
• All of the Various Perk Systems Can be Overwhelming

Warm Snow was developed by BadMudStudio and was published by bilibili in conjunction with Microids. It is available on NS, PC, PS4, PS5, and XSX. The game was provided to us for review on XSX. If you’d like to see more of Warm Snow, check out the publisher’s site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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