Hands On: Frozen Endzone

Frozen Endzone will be the premier tactical future sports game!  It combines the strategic depth of Frozen Synapse with an elegant interface, completely original creative gameplay and a thrilling futuristic aesthetic.  Two teams face off in a randomly-generated situation. You must design a play to get the ball into your opponent’s endzone, using the stadium’s terrain to your advantage.

Pros:

• Slick sport centre style presentation. Feels and looks like a high tec sports broadcast.
• Full detailed tutorial section with added videos to explain everything.
• AI challenges for you to practice your skills on. Various scenario based situations.
• Can export matches to YouTube. It will take all the notification of turn screens and show the whole match as if you were watching it live.
• Accessibility has been greatly improved since Synapse. From the very beginning, You feel in control and can hold your own. Skill cannot be taught how ever so if you still suck after hours of play, You may want to look at yourself.
• Controls are easy and stay on the ease of access route. The whole game can be payed off the mouse! You will still need the keyboard but not for setting up, Instead only really for editing plays or deleting routes etc.
• Online is the same as Synapse. Easiest way to describe it to older gamers is, Its like fantasy football by post that we had, But instead of post its email. To the newer generation. You can have multiple games going as you have your go and then send it to the your opponent who gets a email notification, They then do the same for you. This system means you can log on and have your turn then walk away.
• The game is split into a planning and action phase.
• Before you commit to any moves within the planning phase, You can preview how it will play out. Obviously you wont know where your opponents are or headed, Instead only knowing where they were. You can edit and tweak until you are happy. No matter how long it takes.
• Action phase is where both players moves have been executed and this is the final result.
• Character models are really detailed and look aces. Imagine if Tron and Short circuit made an American Football film and you would be close. Animations are slick and smooth. From running to catching to smashing the holy hell out of the ball carrier. All animations look brilliant.
• Chat rooms are available. Apart from ones in your private games, You can chat in a global room to help set up matches or gloat.
• You have full control over the frequency of game invite pop ups. Invites can come through no matter what you are doing.
• The game is so much fun to play with emphasis on tactics and fun. Rare to hear fun and tactics in the same sentence but the game pulls it off.
• The stadiums look every bit as good as the models with no expense spared.
• Music is once again to a high standard.

Cons:

• No custom AI matches as of yet.
• No offline single player campaign yet.
• Don’t buy if you don’t like American Football.
• Don’t buy if you suck at strategy and need your hand held.

In Summary, For the early access state in which its in, Its brilliant. All the charm and precision you had from Frozen Synapse is wonderfully preserved and upgraded in this new game. All the neon and violence, Its hard not to fall in love with the game. I couldn’t honestly think of any major issues with the game outside of my own skill. The game is still evolving and will continue to do so until a full release. Think of it as a futuristic interactive violent chess game. In short, If you love Synapse then buy this. There is more than enough new additions to warrant a purchase.

You can buy the game from here