Arctic Awakening

I had played the demo for Arctic Awakening during a recent edition of Steam Next Fest and was immediately drawn to what the game had to offer. This is a walking simulator that clearly found inspiration from the likes of Firewatch, one of my all-time favourite games, so I was hyped to find out what the full release had to offer. After a couple of delays, the game is finally here, so I finally got to dive into the many mysteries it has on offer.

As Kai, you and your co-pilot Donovan – and the adorable drone Alfie – crash-land in the Arctic during what should have been a routine mission. Donovan lands somewhere completely different from you, so it’s up to you and Alfie to find him before the elements prove too much to handle. At the same time, you might discover clues as to just what it was that cut your plane in half mid-flight as you explore the stunning countryside.

That’s the first thing I want to get out of the way about Arctic Awakening: its landscapes are just absolutely gorgeous. I don’t usually go on hikes in nature, as where I live doesn’t really provide me with beautiful national parks to explore, but walking around these frozen lands made me wish I could do it more, even if the weather in the game isn’t always your friend. Some of the views you get from up high are just jaw-dropping, and I was glad for the formations of rocks that allowed you to do some breathing exercises at these particular spots. As someone who lives with anxiety, I’m used to doing these to calm my mind, but I’ve never been able to do them with a backdrop as phenomenal as this.

Yes, breathing exercises are a thing in this game. It’s clear that Kai has some trauma he’s carrying with him – even if he won’t admit it easily – which does explain why Alfie is there as well. Alfie is a therapy bot who has been assigned to Kai’s case and is not allowed to leave his company at all costs. As your main companion in the game, Alfie will make you think and (re)consider what you say and how you say it. He’s incredibly kind to Kai, which makes it harder to accept how you treat him throughout the first acts of the game.

Kai isn’t too keen on this kind of companionship and would much rather remain stuck in his ways, even if that is to the detriment of his two kids who are waiting for him at home. This struggle also flares up during the conversations you have with Donovan through your watch, as it’s clear that both men have a history together that hasn’t been dealt with in an adequate way. Dialogue options give you the choice on how you want Kai to continue with these struggles, as they allow you to remain stubborn or to open up a bit more. But while some of these options seem nice when you select them, they have a habit of turning nasty quickly, which is a shame. I understand that the developers need to tell their story at their own pace, but having the illusion of choice kind of spoils things at times.

GoldFire Studios also chose to release this game in an episodic way, with the game’s five episodes taking about two hours each. However, they released all episodes at once, so exactly why they made that choice is a bit unclear to me, especially as it doesn’t really service the game all that much. There’s a lot of circling back to the same locations over and over because of this, which breaks the rhythm of Arctic Awakening at times. It’s a minor problem, but I feel it should be mentioned, especially seeing as the credits roll after the first episode ends, which was a bit odd.

While the game started out strong, I did feel my enthusiasm diminish the longer I played. There’s plenty of intrigue on offer, but for some reason it never hooked me in the way walking simulators normally do. Maybe this could be due to your major conversational partner not actually being human. While a game like Firewatch thrived on the talks between its two leads, Arctic Awakening doesn’t feel all that thrilling to listen to. Alfie might mean well, but he’s so bound to his function as a therapy bot – and not bound at all to actually helping out when you get stuck – that the conversations don’t feel all that natural. And that’s before you add in how antagonistic Kai, at times, responds to Alfie’s prompts.

It also doesn’t help that the game gets buggy at times. Having to restart certain levels because of a bug is not a nice feeling, and climbing – which is pretty important to the game’s traversal – doesn’t feel all that smooth either. With the game’s world being pretty big, I also found myself getting lost a bit at times. Yes, you have a compass to help you find your way, and most of the game’s areas are pretty linear, yet still it wasn’t always clear what exactly you were meant to be doing or where you were meant to be going.

It’s a shame, because Arctic Awakening is clearly a game made with a lot of passion and a ton of inspiration from the greats of the walking simulator genre. It just falls slightly short of reaching the heights that some of its predecessors managed to reach. I’m still glad I got to play the game, but it’s one I don’t see myself returning to as much as I do the classics.