Frosthaven – the sequel to Cephalofair’s knock-a-horse-out massive board game – is getting a digital version from Julian Gollop’s Snapshot Games. You can sign up here to its closed beta kicking off March 27th, and it’s coming to Steam early access later this year.
Like predecessor Gloomhaven, Frosthaven is a tactical RPG where you’ll resolve story events and encounters between dungeon delving, retiring old characters and unlocking new classes as you progress. New to Frosthaven is a fleshed-out management game that has you build up and protect an outpost, while dealing with harsh seasons and invaders.
I really enjoyed Gloomhaven digital, mostly for not getting in the tabletop game’s way to much, but also for not requiring glue to put third party token trays together. Core to the game is tactical card combat where everything from movement to spellcasting is dictated by your hand. You pick two cards a turn from a deck you customise as you progress, and select actions from the top of one card and the bottom of the other. Each card also has an initiative value, so you’re constantly assessing threats to see if you can pull off slower moves, or even whether you’re better off sacrificing advanced plays altogether and opting for the generic attack or move option each card offers.
You can get old cards back by resting, but this means burning others. It’s all crunchier than a Crunchy bar dredged in grit then left out to dry under an alien sun that emanates ultra-crunchy crunch rays, but also full of character and a bit of roleplaying.
Designer Isaac Childres has consulted on the digital version throughout development, and Snapshot say they’ve spent a lot of time getting the feel of the world right in motion. In a preview session I attended recently, Director Hristo Petkov gave me the example of the Snowdancer. She’s a bestial, graceful hero character whose dance-like fighting style the team had originally animated as similar to Capoeira – before Childres told them he’d imagined it closer to ballet. There’s an entire environment named the Metallic Ruins in the digital version that only exists as prose in the board game, and they’ve worked closely with Childres to bring it to life here.
They’re keen to highlight a more robust tutorial this time, too – also designed by Childres – alongside some more granular difficulty selections, including ones that prevent you getting exhausted and failing. The early access version has 35 quests across the first two acts of the game, with the full game planned to have over 130. There’s also 2-4 player co-op multiplayer. I’m excited! I never ended up buying Frosthaven, since I’d also need to start sleeping on the box to justify the space investment, so this suits me just fine.