Sit back, grab yourself a warm cup of coffee or tea, and relax in this atmospheric first-person narrative adventure. You play as Kai, an aeroplane pilot who has crashed into the frozen wilderness with his robot companion Alfie, as well as his lost friend Donovan, who accompanies you through your walkie-talkie.
The story of Arctic Awakening has you surviving the wintery landscape, while trying to find your co-pilot who jumped off the plane early and got separated from you, while learning about the other robots, while uncovering the other mysterious buildings near your crash site (yes, there is quite a lot happening). Even though there are several plotlines happening at the same time, the reveal of each feels natural and harmonious with each other, leading up nicely to the finale of the game.
The game has some amazingly breathtaking views that make you just want to sit down and take it all in. The simplistic texturing works in favour of the game, as it gives space for the lighting to carry the atmosphere. There are multiple times where the game plays beautifully with colour contrast, such as an icy blue environment being brightly lit by orange lights that amazingly captures the definition of “breathtaking views”. Several times throughout my playthrough I would stop myself in my tracks and just let the game run with winds whooshing in my ears, watching the clouds slowly drifting while the birds fly away.
The atmospheric music and sound effects add so much flavour in immersing you within the game and the world. The moments of creepiness, loneliness, awe of discovery and calmness – all these feelings are elevated beautifully with the music that accompanies those story beats. Without getting into specific spoilers, my personal favourite music in the game is “Northerly Star” by Joff Winks, which fit wonderfully during its appearance when Kai was asked to perform a song.
During my playthrough, there were several moments that were a bit finicky with their hints. Since the game does not use a lot of user interface to inform the players, such as their health, hunger or where to go, it relies more on the dialogue between the 2 characters. Sometimes your robot companion hovers over the interactable that you need to click to continue on the story, but these moments can be glitched out, so you are left confused on where it is you need to go or what to interact with.
Another small issue that I have with the game is in its survival elements. It is clear that the developers were inspired by other survival games such as The Long Dark, but the execution of it within Arctic Awakening feels like a late feature they added during the production of the game. It feels more of a hindrance, something you have to consciously remember, rather than a mechanic that actually affects gameplay.
My annoyance with managing the survival elements was compounded by the fact that in order to use consumables, you had to first open a main menu and then open your inventory just to be able to access them. If the process was a bit more streamlined, it would have alleviated some of the friction I had with the survival elements.
In summary, the game is definitely worth picking up. While it does have its quirky moments in terms of gameplay, the story is something worth experiencing for yourself while you immerse slowly into a beautifully crafted and well-loved world. Get the game for yourself on Steam.
