(Review) The Frosts: First Ones

Narukoopa
Sep 13, 2021
4 min read

A well-polished walking sim delivering a gripping narrative adventure, coupled with charming visuals and excellent atmosphere. It's just a shame that it's brought down by a few poor design choices.

The Short Version:

Putting its short length aside, The Frost: First Ones packs enough into its narrative to provide a substantially compelling experience, one thats charm is bolstered by its attractive visuals and authentic atmosphere.

It is, however, not something I can recommend to absolutely everybody. From a gameplay standpoint, it’s basic, and there are some issues that can, at times, make it feel like a chore to play. Regardless, I liked it, and those looking for a story-driven experience will likely be satisfied with this as well.

Pros:

-Nice visual aesthetic -Immersive atmosphere -Intriguing narrative -Meticulous environments

Cons:

-Levels are confusing to navigate -Translation issues -Repetitive soundtrack

My Rating: 7/10 - Decent

Game was provided by the developer for review purposes. Thank you!

A Journey of Discovery

The Frost: First Ones is a top-down adventure/walking simulator set in a frozen, post-apocalyptic version of Earth. Humanity has been reduced to nothing more than groups of hunter-gatherers striving to survive the freezing temperatures.

You play as Berak, an experienced huntsman living in a small settlement. The story begins when he’s approached by the wife of a fellow hunter, who tells him that her husband, Hendrik, has gone missing after setting out on a hunting trip. With some persuasion, Berak agrees to search the wilds for any traces of where he might have gone.

Despite his skills as a tracker, the journey of finding Hendrik is far from an easy task. The world of First Ones is a brutal one. Human life is scarce, and as a result, the majority of the landscape has been covered in thick snow and overgrown with dense foliage. The further he travels away from his home, the more out of depth he finds himself, as his search for the missing hunter takes him to the spirit lands, an uncharted area said to be roamed by ancient spirits.

Berak will frequently take opportunities such as this to reflect on the world around him. Moments such as these help you connect with him.

The narrative as a whole is a rather solitary adventure. You’ll occasionally interact with other survivors, and even the odd animal or two, but the majority of time is spent alone, trekking your own path to your destination. The pacing is rather slow at first, but once you reach those unexplored regions, the story begins to open up to and become much more complex than what was previously imposed.

If I could describe the writing in one word, I’d choose: compelling. What could just be a simple tale of loyalty and camaraderie is instead broadened to a much larger-scale conflict that could have serious implications. Sad to say however, it might not be for everyone. This is a dialogue-heavy game. Your character will often talk to himself to reflect on his journey and what he must do, and these monologues can stretch a bit. While I found them to be interesting, the abundance of text boxes might be off-putting to some.

The spirits introduce a surprising twist to the story that not only increases its scale, but also makes it a lot more gripping.

It’s also worth noting that First Ones is riddled with translation issues. For the most part, it’s manageable, and I was able to enjoy everything the story had to offer, but there were definitely a handful of moments where I had to scratch my head for a little while. This is something that could potentially be fixed in future updates.

Braving the Harsh, Winter Climate...

While translation errors definitely have an impact on immersion, it never took long for me to be brought back into the engagement, and that’s thanks to the game’s incredible atmosphere. Permeating through its excellent audio quality, the sounds of fast-moving winds followed by the rustling of trees and the cracking of ice make the world feel more gritty and realistic.

Expanding further on this authenticity is the challenging nature of traversing the levels. Although very much a linear game, the maps themselves are usually wide, containing multiple routes that lead to the same destination. It may be a walking simulator, but it’s far from a straightforward one. Finding paths was a tricky endeavor, but searching for them kept me entertained.

The camera can only pan so far, so constantly being aware of your surroundings is a must. You never know when a path you're following will lead you into danger.

The amount of detail that’s placed into these locations is immense, and despite the fact that the world has become a much more hostile and inhospitable place, there’s still a certain beauty to it, whether that’s a result of the herds of animals that pass by on occasion or the presence of some spectacular vistas.

All of it is really nice… until it’s not. The level design frequently goes overboard in how much clutter there is. Numerous areas could use with fewer bushes and trees, or even opening up some of the crevices and cliff edges a bit more. I often completely lost track of where my character was since, thanks to the game’s colour scheme, you blend in to the environment pretty easily.

Can you see me? It makes sense for Berak to blend into his environment, being a hunter and all, but in dense areas, it's easy to get lost.

Then there are the invisible walls situated in parts of the maps where you wouldn’t expect to encounter them. Issues like these ended up making traversing and exploring feel cumbersome and irritating, to the point where I would sometimes spam the jump button just to push myself up a hill.

It doesn’t help that the soundtrack is highly repetitive either, as it ends up making the frustrating moments all the more annoying. Don’t get me wrong, it sounds really good and I liked all of the tunes, but there simply isn’t enough variety in the tracks to keep it refreshing. Some of them don’t quite fit the atmosphere either; one of the last instruments I’d expect to hear in a game like this is an electric guitar, as cool as it may sound.

Faulty design choices aside, First Ones is a remarkably well-polished product. Sure, some animations may look a bit wonky here and there, but I didn’t encounter much in the way of bugs. There isn’t much to the gameplay aside from navigating the levels, and while it does attempt to shake things up occasionally - climbing up cliffs, running from a rockfall, avoiding a pack of wolves - the majority of it is simplistic, but in a good way.

One of my favourite moments was helping a deer get back on her feet by patching up her wound. It's a nice change from all the walking.

Taken as a whole, it’s an experience that’s driven mostly by it’s intriguing narrative and worldbuilding. It may be a little hard to understand at times, but overall, it’s gripping and decently written. As a gaming experience, the mechanics are superficial, and while I still enjoyed my time with it, it may not appeal to those looking for more complex gameplay.

Technical Details:

My PC Specs: Operating System: Windows 10 Processor (CPU): AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Graphics Card (GPU): Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Memory (RAM): 16GB Performance: Consistent 60FPS from start to finish with no noticeable stutters.