Wolfbiter reviews IFComp 2024 - latest: Eikas; wrap-up

Winter-Over by Emery Joyce, co-written by N. Cormier
Playtime: 1 hour

The one where: we solve crime in an Antarctic research station using the power of RELATIONSHIPS!

Not that long ago, I played Fiasco set in McMurdo Station, so I felt somewhat prepared for the concept of murder in Antarctica.

Winter-Over is a semi-realistic investigative game. The play mechanic is mostly developing facts by interviewing the NPCs (not a lot of exploration of the physical environment or physical clues). Luckily I love interviewing people! It also has some relationship-simulator-adjacent mechanics–you can improve your relationships with the NPCs by doing activities with them, and, somewhat amusingly, as the PC you can force them to attend activities with you at any time (although they do not necessarily STICK AROUND after to be interrogated, alas). The game also lightly simulates the stress on the PC, calling on you to take time off and sleep.

I thought the mystery was well designed and executed. The NPCs were well written and realistic feeling “types,” and I was very engaged in going around putting together the pieces of the social network. This is a larger topic, but I’ve noticed I find this larger genre super compelling in fiction: any plotline where you (or the main character) have met a bunch of new people and must figure out who to trust. There’s something almost compulsive about how engaged I am, I think it’s channeling this-social-interaction-is-life-or-death-ness (dating back to hunter gatherer times?). But, back to Winter Over.

One thing that struck me as a bit odd—I don’t have a transcript, but as I recall the NPCs pretty much let me lead the conversation and bring up Daniel’s death. My brother just died in our shared workplace! Normally I would expect some “oh my god, I heard about Daniel, so terrible” / “I’ve been telling Bob for years that kettlebell rack was unsafe” (??).

There’s an in-game timer and plot events that seem to mostly happen regardless of player action. The escalation of the threats to the PC was well-done and scary.

I could tell that locating the different NPCs when you wanted to interact with them was supposed to be a challenge. Boy, was it! For example, I spent a long time looking for Amanda, after having a decent number of cycles doing activities with her, and I think after that I spent 2-3 cycles unsuccessfully looking for Gabby so she could finally open the phone. At that point the police arrived, so I never saw what was in the phone. Not that that stopped me from identifying the murderer, natürlich.

Hunting for people had a bit more friction than I really wanted it to have. I did recall the PC saying they were going to take notes, but never looked at the notes, and it sounds like from others reviews that might help you track where people are.

Also, this didn’t fit anywhere, but I somehow became convinced after the first night that there was a message in the scrabble tiles and I kept (unsuccessfully) checking if I could read them, but, alas.

Front matter
Could better set the table for the game Successfully sets the table for the game Successfully sets the table for the game PLUS

The blurb does a great job setting expectations, and the cover art is very moody and atmospheric!

Overall, a very engaging and well put-together investigation game. Would recommend!

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