The big highlight for me at Eurogamer this year was the amount of really creative, interesting and unique Indie titles on display. These were my personal highlights, continuing with Frozen Endzone.
Frozen Endzone promises to be the “premier tactical future sports game” and it definitely delivers. It’s a sort of hybrid of a turn-based strategy and NFL. I played probably around twenty minutes or so and, after kindly being shown the basics by one of the developers, I started to get to grips with it.
The objective is simple, to score points by getting the ball into either the endzone for seven points or one of the highlighted boxes dotted around the stage for three. Each turn allows you to move your robotic players around the stage; one to pick up the ball, and the others to position strategically. Some will need to be making offensive runs whilst others are needed to block opposition players from sacking your quarterback or intercepting another player or pass. Each team only has a limited number of plays to score until the roles are reversed. Tactical thinking is essential.
The environments are great too. Each match takes place atop a skyscraper, above the clouds in a futuristic cityscape. The robot players have some cool animations and run and catch fluidly. The robot players and the futuristic aesthetic really work in Frozen Endzones favour with it’s tactical gameplay making it feel like a futuristic equivalent of chess.
I only played some of the single player challenges but the full game is set to include player vs AI matches as well as a multiplayer component. It’s set to be a fun alternative sports game and I’m definitely going to keep an eye on it as we near it’s 2014 release date.
Frozen Endzone is developed by Mode 7 Games and is currently going through Steam Greenlight.
