“Are you familiar with the game Gloomhaven or the board games?” Hristo Petkov, Game Director of Frosthaven at Snapshot Games asks. “All I know about these games so far is the little I’ve played of the tutorial before we hopped on a call.” I almost laughed at how woefully unprepared I thought I was. “Okay, perfect.” He replies, immediately putting me at ease.
Gloomhaven is a particularly popular award-winning board game. It’s also a tactical RPG that I’ve seen here and there developed by Flaming Fowl Studios. The board game was made by Isaac Childres and he managed to raise $386,104 in April of 2020 to make Gloomhaven. It’s a pretty successful board game and fairly popular amongst the board game community.
Following the success of Gloomhaven, Isaac Childres took to the kickstarter community again for his next game. This time, a standalone adventure using the combat from Gloomhaven but adding new characters, races, items, enemies, campaigns, and more. He raised nearly 13 million dollars on Kickstarter.
When Hristo said that, I put in my notes to double check that number, because I didn’t believe him. He has no reason to lie, it’s not like his video game looks better based on how much Isaac raised, but that was just such a bonkers amount of money to me. I believed it even less when I saw how much Gloomhaven’s first kickstarter made. 13 million dollars for a board game and that’s damn impressive.
That’s also a lot to live up to. Snapshot Games is taking their job seriously. I was in the middle, one of the earlier groups of the day and not the first day they were giving presentations. I was speaking primarily to Hristo Petkov as he walked me through the game. Going through his rundown of the game, it was clear to me that Hristo was passionate about the game he was making. He gave me a breakdown of some numbers that exhausted me to my core.
- 150 different monsters
- 500 items in game
- 64 main compendium missions
- 236 scenarios total
- More than 200 hours of gameplay
I sank into my chair thinking about just dealing with that from my perspective. How could I possibly review that? Then I started thinking about friends who come home from the workday to unwind and having to slog throu-but Hristo kept talking. He kept talking about how close the game was to the board game, he talked about unlocking new cards and perks, and the town sections, and did you know that Isaac Childres is making a campaign for Frosthaven?
We’re not even at the gameplay yet and I can tell you without a doubt that Frosthaven rules. Not just because the game looks and feels good but because the people developing it are beyond excited about it.
Joining the multiplayer session that was set up for my preview, it was time for Rossen Cholakov to chime in. Rossen is the Lead Game Designer for Frosthaven and is equally enthusiastic about the game. Walking me through character creation, I had my pick of four classes.
- Banner Spear – Support Class – Uses banners for buffs
- Boneshaper – Damage Class – Necromancer
- Drifter – Tanky Damage Dealer – Uses lots of buffs and sustain
- Deathwalker – Damage Class – Creates shadows on the ground to attack remotely
Advising against Deathwalker, I created a Boneshaper for the purposes of the preview. After expressing an interest in it, Rossen donned the mantle of the Deathwalker to show me how it plays.
Frosthaven battles operate on a simple hex grid, offering various terrain and obstacles for movement. While the game looks and feels like a standard RPG, it operates as a deckbuilder, having movement and attacks dictated solely by the cards you choose.
There’s also a default attack and movement option, which still consumes the card but allows you to take a safer approach if the card isn’t giving you exactly what you’re looking for. Playing this game made me realize I need some friends that play board games.
Playing through the tutorial, I felt like the game was doing a pretty excellent job at communicating what was necessary for me to understand to get through battles in Frosthaven. Hristo was apologetic, saying that they’re working on making it better, he kept saying they were improving the UI.
I thought the UI was pretty good if I’m being honest.
As I cleaved through enemies and Rossen’s Deathwalker created shadows on the battlefield, I got to see him reach through the shadows to attack and kill an enemy across the board. It was pretty cool.
After clearing the first encounter we moved to the second one and I laughed out loud. There were a lot of enemies in the next area.
“It can get very hairy very quickly.” Hristo laughed.
Unfortunately, we were running out of time and there was one more thing they wanted to show me, and I’m really glad they did.
Frosthaven isn’t just tactical battles and quests, though there are plenty of those. In fact, during character creation Hristo made mention of personal quests for your characters, giving a permanent buff in a roguelike fashion while retiring the character itself.
But it also has a town to build. In the town you’re able to craft items, buy items, play alchemist, remember all those items I talked about earlier? There are over 40 potions that can be made from stuff you just pick up off the ground after defeating an enemy.
There’s a lot to see in Frosthaven, it’s a big game. Bigger still when it releases eventually. For now, Snapshot and Arc Games are aiming for a 2025 Early Access release. After playing the game, I have to imagine that most of what’s left to implement is content, because my initial impression is that the game felt like it was in a very good state.
In particular, I think the visuals are beautiful, the game ran well on my old tank of a computer, and I was having fun. I had a great time playing with the devs and I’m looking forward to playing more Frosthaven.
