L7: Frozen Synapse in the Humble Bundle
For anyone following this journey down the Tumblr rabbit hole from the beginning, Frozen Synapse was the very first thing I blogged about. Now it’s available as part of the latest iteration of the commendable Humble Bundle, which brings together a collection of indie games for a pay-what-you-want price, which you choose how to split between the developers and charity. That’s right. For two more days, you can basically get it for free, or use it as an excuse to donate to charity. You have literally no reason not to get this now. Except you, Imogen “Probably Won’t Like Frozen Synapse” Dale. You’re excused, sweetie.
Like chess. That’s the old chestnut, isn’t it? The holy grail of strategy game design? And yes, Frozen Synapse is a bit like chess: a turn-based game of combat between two opposing sides, different classes - knight, castle, rocket launcher guy, shotgun guy, bishop, etc - each with their own ways of moving and attacking. Most importantly, it shares those mind-expanding moments when you can predict exactly what your opponent will do next, and the agonising slap to the brain when they do something totally different.
But in terms of how it actually plays out inside your brain and what the game demands of you, it’s actually closer to another classic game of high tension and extreme strategy: Squares.
Remember Squares? Most commonly played on scraps of maths-book paper in the forgotten corners of double-period classrooms? You draw one line at a time, trying to complete a square before your opponent can? Yeah, you remember it.
Now, can you remember the number one cardinal rule of Squares? Never be the one to draw the third side of a square. If you do, your opponent can go on a square-completing rampage, and that way lies defeat.
In Frozen Synapse it’s more or less the same. It doesn’t sound it: the game runs in turns of five carefully choreographed seconds. You have as long as you need to put that turn together, telling your three or four soldiers where to run, what cover to duck behind, and/or where to point their guns. Meanwhile, your opponent is doing the exact same. Once you’re both ready, you press play and those five bloody seconds play out, revealing to each player what the other has been planning and scheming this whole time.
But here’s the key thing: in a one-on-one conflict, you never want to make the penultimate movement. You have to lure the poor sucker into your zone of fire, or you’re dead. As in Squares, this means that a stalemate can occur and that corner of the screen will get struck off for a few turns, noone daring to make the first - and possibly last - move.
Because the deciding factor in Frozen Synapse’s combat, at the end of the day, is motion. Not strength of numbers: theoretically, one guy can take out the squadron surrounding him in a single turn. It’s not about how well-equipped the combatants are either, or what kind of cover they’re behind - though those are factors.
Ultimately, it all comes down to… if your opponent is standing still, and you’re running towards him, you’re dead.
So, for all Frozen Synapse’s complexity and micro-management (tweaking the motion path of a unit by a couple of pixels can make all the difference) the way it plays out in your brain is basically a very pretty, violent game of Squares. Just remember that when you’re knee-deep in the tutorial and scratching your head at why you need an “ignore area” option. It’s just like Squares, really, and who doesn’t like Squares?
If anyone does get the bundle, please let me know your username and stuff and we’ll set up some games. It’s perfect burst-play material and I’m not very good, so you will in all likelihood beat me. And who can resist that, eh? You have two days. Go get this now.
