It might be spring but the chill of winter can still be felt in the air for most people, but for the topic of this review, winter has just begun in Winter Ember, an isometric stealth sandbox action game taking players to the city of Anargal where they can lurk in the shadows as a former Nobel turned vigilante. A big thank you to Blowfish and Skymachine Studios for making this review possible!
In Winter Ember you play Arthur, a Nobel playboy turned hooded vigilante after going into hiding leaving others to assume you met the same fate as your family after your mansion was destroyed. Arthur returns to the city he once called home to exact revenge and uncover a growing conspiracy involving cults, street gangs, and other wicked foes.
Now onto the game itself. There are only a couple of issues with the game I’ll address first before getting into what I like about the game. There seem to be some audio sync issues with the cinematics of the game which made my teeth itch. The game’s framerate is low, making camera movements choppy along with the animation of the movements made by characters and NPCs. The game’s combat is difficult as there’s a parry move you can make but I can’t ever get to work even after pressing the button when I’m supposed to which leads to my final issue with the game being that the controls seem to not respond when you need it to.
The art of Winter Ember is intriguing with the world looking like a mix of Victorian and medevial periods. The city of Anargal is open for the most part but as your skills grow you can find your way around the city easier and find hidden paths to take to avoid enemies. The soundtrack of the game fits the game’s tone though it could use some variety as it’s obvious at times that some songs are quite short and are looping. The game is fully voice acted which is good but the NPCs’ dialogue could be improved as I can only stand hearing them say “Bloody Freezing!” so many times in three different voices.
Overall gameplay is, OK. A lot of my experience I attribute to the framerate and control issues as I felt that issue affected my progress and made the game feel boring quickly. I’ll be honest and say I don’t know if the issues I mentioned will be fixed on day one of launch which I hope it is because I feel that this game has potential but it’s hard to enjoy a game when certain mechanics seem to be bugged.
With the art and story being one of the few good things going for it, Winter Ember is a 7/10 from me as the unresponsive controls, framerate issue, and audio sync issues are not lurking in the shadows as they should.
Winter Ember will stalk from the shadows April 19th for PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, and PC (STEAM and GOG).
