Winter Burrow is visually stunning, offers an enchanting atmosphere, and feels satisfying. Cozy gamers have been waiting for this game with bated breath, and I was cautious, hoping the game wouldn’t lose its flavor (so to speak) as quickly as a piece of Fruit Stripe gum. Instead I discovered this game lives up to the online pre-release excitement.
Gnawtusk the Squirrel is one of the gorgeous characters in this hand-drawn game.
You begin as a young mouse who is leaving the city to reclaim his childhood burrow. It has been unoccupied for some time, so you need to make repairs. Wasn’t your aunt supposed to take care of the place? Better gather and harvest resources from the wilderness so you can customize your home, plus figure out what happened with your aunt.
And that’s about it for direction from the game. Winter Burrow is intentionally not handholdy. It’s meant to be played at nobody’s pace but your own. I went into the game without playing the demo and without reading previews or any specifics about gameplay. Where’s the map? Oh wait, I’m a mouse. Hey, at least I have footprints in the snow to help me figure out where I’ve been for a while. Wilderness exploration is a little dicey, and that brings in the survival element. If you stay away from home or a campfire too long, it won’t go well for you. If you can’t slay or escape the aggressive insects, same.
The ubiquitous storage bag. Even the unlock banners look enchanting! They nailed the details.
Luckily there is knitting, woodworking, mushroom growing, toolmaking, and cooking to gear you up. Those woods aren’t empty … there’s more than just you and the insects. You meet a small cast of characters who help you along your way as you help them along theirs. The first thing you need is a nice wooly outfit to help with the cold. Brewing some tea for the journeys into the wilderness is especially adorable, and the pies you bake would make Greedy Smurf jealous! (I could see the Smurfs living on the other side of a river from our burrow.)
Recipes for crafting come from exploration and from interactions with your distant neighbors — and I do mean distant. The map of wilderness feels huge, especially when you don’t want to freeze your cute little mouse tail off. As you gain more skills, other areas become accessible. I want to reiterate how glad I am that the game has depth — even with a fairly good sense of direction, I still get lost on my way back to the burrow. It gets tense when the frost encroaches across the screen!
Returning to the burrow feels good. It’s safe. It’s warm. It’s cozy, not just in size. As you go about decorating and customizing your in-game home, the basement and upstairs become accessible after finding a lost key and repairing a staircase. Again, I’m going to mention the visuals. The 2D isometric hand-drawn ink-outline comic book-style art (especially the burrow in the tree) reminded me of illustrations from Winnie the Pooh, one of my favorites growing up.
My storybook burrow, intentionally rough around the edges, Winnie-the-Pooh style
Developer Pine Creek Games said, “The setting is inspired by books like The Wind in the Willows, the comic Mouse Guard, and the animated TV-series Over the Garden Wall.” And to brilliant effect. It feels so peaceful in my burrow with the fireplace and all my decor that I don’t always want to stay out very long. Mice scurry back to their nest often, so this personal style of gameplay just feels right.
Combat, crafting, and the like aren’t terribly hard, and none are terribly trite, which is a nice yin to the manageable-but-not-crazy-challenging survival elements’ yang. They hit Goldilocks level with this one, gameplay that’s “just right” for chill evenings when I’m not up to other games.
With robust content like more zones than I expected, tool upgrades, and the gradually unfolding stories from your neighbors, this game promises to keep many gamers happy this winter. I know I’m going to be playing and replaying this for a while.
Winter Burrow is visually stunning, offers an enchanting atmosphere, and feels satisfying. Cozy gamers have been waiting for this game with bated breath, and I was cautious, hoping the game wouldn’t lose its flavor (so to speak) as quickly as…
Winter Burrow is visually stunning, offers an enchanting atmosphere, and feels satisfying. Cozy gamers have been waiting for this game with bated breath, and I was cautious, hoping the game wouldn’t lose its flavor (so to speak) as quickly as a piece of Fruit Stripe gum. Instead I discovered this game lives up to the online pre-release excitement.
Gnawtusk the Squirrel is one of the gorgeous characters in this hand-drawn game.
You begin as a young mouse who is leaving the city to reclaim his childhood burrow. It has been unoccupied for some time, so you need to make repairs. Wasn’t your aunt supposed to take care of the place? Better gather and harvest resources from the wilderness so you can customize your home, plus figure out what happened with your aunt.
And that’s about it for direction from the game. Winter Burrow is intentionally not handholdy. It’s meant to be played at nobody’s pace but your own. I went into the game without playing the demo and without reading previews or any specifics about gameplay. Where’s the map? Oh wait, I’m a mouse. Hey, at least I have footprints in the snow to help me figure out where I’ve been for a while. Wilderness exploration is a little dicey, and that brings in the survival element. If you stay away from home or a campfire too long, it won’t go well for you. If you can’t slay or escape the aggressive insects, same.
The ubiquitous storage bag. Even the unlock banners look enchanting! They nailed the details.
Luckily there is knitting, woodworking, mushroom growing, toolmaking, and cooking to gear you up. Those woods aren’t empty … there’s more than just you and the insects. You meet a small cast of characters who help you along your way as you help them along theirs. The first thing you need is a nice wooly outfit to help with the cold. Brewing some tea for the journeys into the wilderness is especially adorable, and the pies you bake would make Greedy Smurf jealous! (I could see the Smurfs living on the other side of a river from our burrow.)
Recipes for crafting come from exploration and from interactions with your distant neighbors — and I do mean distant. The map of wilderness feels huge, especially when you don’t want to freeze your cute little mouse tail off. As you gain more skills, other areas become accessible. I want to reiterate how glad I am that the game has depth — even with a fairly good sense of direction, I still get lost on my way back to the burrow. It gets tense when the frost encroaches across the screen!
Returning to the burrow feels good. It’s safe. It’s warm. It’s cozy, not just in size. As you go about decorating and customizing your in-game home, the basement and upstairs become accessible after finding a lost key and repairing a staircase. Again, I’m going to mention the visuals. The 2D isometric hand-drawn ink-outline comic book-style art (especially the burrow in the tree) reminded me of illustrations from Winnie the Pooh, one of my favorites growing up.
My storybook burrow, intentionally rough around the edges, Winnie-the-Pooh style
Developer Pine Creek Games said, “The setting is inspired by books like The Wind in the Willows, the comic Mouse Guard, and the animated TV-series Over the Garden Wall.” And to brilliant effect. It feels so peaceful in my burrow with the fireplace and all my decor that I don’t always want to stay out very long. Mice scurry back to their nest often, so this personal style of gameplay just feels right.
Combat, crafting, and the like aren’t terribly hard, and none are terribly trite, which is a nice yin to the manageable-but-not-crazy-challenging survival elements’ yang. They hit Goldilocks level with this one, gameplay that’s “just right” for chill evenings when I’m not up to other games.
With robust content like more zones than I expected, tool upgrades, and the gradually unfolding stories from your neighbors, this game promises to keep many gamers happy this winter. I know I’m going to be playing and replaying this for a while.
by Theresa Samons
