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‘Tis the Season to Cool Off With ‘Frozen State’
Depending on where you live, “Winter is coming” can be used as a reference to Game of Thrones, or as a mantra that makes life inside the Eye of Sauron seem bearable. Certain video games can have a similar placebo effect, but today I’d like to chat about Frozen State. After what’s felt like an Ice Age, Flox Studios has finally freed the chilling arctic survival game from Steam Early Access, where it’s spent the last two years in-development.
The highly replayable, challenging, and often genuinely frightening open-world survival game I previewed back in 2014 has since evolved into a highly replayable and often genuinely frightening survival game set inside an enormous procedurally generated world populated by a cold cast of frosty freaks. Frozen State is available for purchase on Steam for $11.99.
Some key features:
Rogue-like and normal modes
Three main characters
Diverse enemies
Large open world
Dynamic weather conditions
Procedurally generated building interiors, loot and enemies
Stealth
Crafting and building
Transport
Basic needs (hunger, thirst, sleep, etc)
NPCs and Quests
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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