Frozen Synapse

About

Frozen Synapse is a simultaneous turn-based strategy game that brings the genre to the modern age. It allows you to plan detailed orders for your squad and execute them simultaneously with your enemy's. The game features a single player campaign with dynamic dialogue, a skirmish generator, and multiple multiplayer modes. With Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube integration, you can connect with friends and share your progress.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

86%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,929 reviews

gameplay102 positive mentions

grinding20 negative mentions

Unique simultaneous turn-based gameplay that requires strategic planning and anticipation of opponent's moves.
Engaging single-player campaign with a compelling cyberpunk story and a variety of mission types.
Great soundtrack that enhances the overall experience and atmosphere of the game.

Steep learning curve that may frustrate new players, with complex controls and mechanics.
Long loading times between turns can disrupt the flow of gameplay.
Multiplayer community is small, making it difficult to find matches at times.

gameplay
270 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
56%
7%
The gameplay of Frozen Synapse is characterized by its innovative simultaneous turn-based mechanics, allowing players to strategize and execute plans in a highly tactical environment. While many praise its depth, complexity, and engaging multiplayer modes, some players find the learning curve steep and the gameplay can become repetitive over time. Overall, it offers a unique blend of strategy and planning that appeals to fans of tactical games, despite some criticisms regarding its interface and occasional lack of clarity in mechanics.
- “Excellent, strategic gameplay, an incredible amount of ways for each level to play out, a high skill ceiling, you can be as intricate, well thought out, and professional as you want to be here, as you're given every action and tool you need to lay out your best plans, check your corners, and take the shots.”
- “Frozen Synapse takes the best of both worlds: you plan out the next five seconds of combat on a 'turn,' but you and your opponent take both turns simultaneously, making for very interesting tactical gameplay.”
- “The gameplay has the perfect balance of depth and complexity, managing to be easy to learn, but with tons of possibilities.”
- “For such a long campaign, the gameplay loop itself does get tedious.”
- “The gameplay is incredibly solid and the music is super nice.”
- “Gameplay gets repetitive and boring very quickly.”
story
237 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
66%
6%
The story in Frozen Synapse is a cyberpunk-themed narrative that unfolds through a lengthy single-player campaign featuring 55 missions, each with varied objectives. While some players find the writing engaging and the lore intriguing, others criticize it as convoluted and overly reliant on text, leading to a lack of immersion. Overall, the story serves as a backdrop to the tactical gameplay, with mixed opinions on its depth and execution.
- “The single-player campaign features a very well-written, cyberpunk-ish story.”
- “As you work through the campaign, an interesting narrative is unveiled about various splinter organizations trying to overthrow the cyber-overlords of the city of Markov Geist, something that makes the individual missions all the more meaningful and enjoyable.”
- “Singleplayer: 55 missions with a lot of variety (stealthy infiltrations, ambushes, extracting data, straight up gun fights and much more), a very intriguing story and a great sense of humor.”
- “The storytelling is appreciated but dated; it feels like reading a long, needlessly complicated book.”
- “The story is really stupid though and totally unconvincing, like they were trying to take inspiration from The Matrix but didn't know how to translate it over to this title.”
- “The single-player story is bland (just lots of text) and not too inspiring, but if you can get past that, the story can be okay.”
music
231 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
71%
28%
1%
The music in the game has received widespread acclaim, with many reviewers praising its fantastic and immersive soundtrack, primarily composed by nervous_testpilot. The electronic and atmospheric tracks enhance the gameplay experience, fitting perfectly within the game's cyberpunk theme and contributing to its overall appeal. Many players recommend purchasing the soundtrack separately, highlighting it as one of the best aspects of the game.
- “The soundtrack is fantastic and the graphical style adds to the atmospheric feel of the game.”
- “A surprisingly deep game, where you control every tactical aspect of your squad as they breach levels, all the meanwhile an amazing soundtrack immerses you even further into this dystopian future.”
- “The soundtrack is an electronic futuristic collection of tracks, and it is perfect music for getting lost in thought, focusing intently on your units’ every move.”
- “Soundtrack distracts you from the game, so you don't play the game but you hear the game, yet you still don't play and win.”
- “Buy the soundtrack and not this game.”
- “The only thing done right in this game is the soundtrack, which if you are a fan of electronic music, I would suggest buying.”
graphics
135 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36%
56%
7%
The graphics of the game are predominantly described as simplistic and minimalistic, which some players appreciate for their clarity and effectiveness in supporting gameplay, while others criticize them as bland or uninspired. Despite the varied opinions, many reviewers agree that the straightforward visual style complements the game's strategic depth and enhances the overall experience, particularly when paired with a strong soundtrack. Overall, while the graphics may not be visually impressive by modern standards, they serve their purpose well within the context of the game.
- “The soundtrack is fantastic and the graphical style adds to the atmospheric feel of the game.”
- “The graphics are simplistic, but that only accents the highly stylized, clean, and frankly, quite beautiful look.”
- “The visuals have a cool VR aesthetic and the game uses impressive procedurally-generated maps.”
- “On the technical merits, the graphics are awful/lazy; XCOM, meanwhile, rebooted their franchise and maintains better gameplay with AAA-tier visuals.”
- “It seems like pretty much no effort was put into designing any kind of graphics at all.”
- “The graphics are ugly, uninspired, and boring, and the story is a bunch of cyberpunk technobabble which made my eyes immediately glaze over because it was so boring.”
grinding
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The reviews overwhelmingly highlight the grinding aspect of the game as tedious and frustrating, primarily due to excessive micromanagement and long loading times that disrupt the flow of gameplay. Players express disappointment with the unintuitive controls and the lack of options to mitigate mistakes, leading to a laborious experience in the single-player campaign. Overall, the grinding is seen as a significant detractor from the enjoyment of the game.
- “For such a long campaign, the gameplay loop itself does get tedious.”
- “The micromanagement is pointless and tedious and removes fun from the game by making it inexplicably hard work just to plod through each round.”
- “Tl;dr while I hoped that this game would be a fun new style of turn-based strategy, the tedious and unforgiving micromanagement and the massive difficulty spikes in the single-player campaign have greatly disappointed me.”
replayability
19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
68%
16%
16%
Overall, the game is praised for its high replayability, largely due to features like randomly generated levels and various gameplay modes. Many players highlight the endless challenges and strategic depth that keep the experience fresh, making it a favorite for both solo and multiplayer sessions. However, a few users noted limited replay value, suggesting that while enjoyable, the game may not offer the same level of engagement upon repeated playthroughs.
- “This is an intensely fun, stylish, cyberpunk/tactical skirmish game that, for me at least, has effectively infinite replayability.”
- “A variety of modes and the ability to freely create your own skirmishes gives the package great replay value.”
- “It has little to no replay value; however, I loved this game and would buy it again to experience it again.”
- “The levels are randomly generated every time you start a new mission or fail the one you are on, adding to the difficulty and replayability, though you will probably take a serious amount of time to beat the huge campaign.”
- “If you like randomly-generated level layouts for replayability.”
humor
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is generally well-received, with players appreciating its engaging dialogue, funny character interactions, and clever one-liners. While some found the humor to be hit-or-miss, particularly in the context of gameplay, many highlighted the entertaining moments and hilarious multiplayer experiences. Overall, the game successfully combines humor with its tactical elements, enhancing the overall enjoyment for players.
- “It also leads to some hilarious mistakes and funny moments when you have no idea what you're doing.”
- “The single player story is engaging, challenging and hilarious.”
- “The writing is funny, with some dry one-liners from your teammates.”
atmosphere
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
82%
9%
9%
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its immersive qualities, enhanced by a fantastic soundtrack and a distinctive graphical style that complements its cyberpunk setting. Reviewers note that the combination of retro-cyber graphics, atmospheric music, and a dystopian storyline creates a compelling environment that elevates the overall experience, making it feel richer than its simple graphics might suggest.
- “The soundtrack is fantastic and the graphical style adds to the atmospheric feel of the game.”
- “Awesome, tense strategy game with more atmosphere than a game with such simple graphics ought to have.”
- “There is a lot to like about Frozen Synapse: the turn-based tactical gameplay mixed in with a real-time element; the delightfully retro-cyber graphics; the atmospheric music; the dystopian cyberpunk storyline.”
- “I really don't like electro or whatever this is, but it just fits the atmosphere of the game better than anything else would have.”
stability
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
88%
The game's stability is notably problematic, with frequent crashes, freezing issues, and glitches that can disrupt gameplay, particularly in co-op mode. While some users report that the game runs well on lower-end systems, the overall experience is marred by these technical issues, leading to frustration and inconsistent performance.
- “Runs great on a netbook too, and it's turn-based, so you can take as many days as you want while playing it.”
- “Game freezes immediately after launch and crashes the computer; no decent support found, need help.”
- “It just freezes and doesn't advance past the loading screen.”
- “Great game, but a bit buggy at this point (don't try to alt-tab while it's running).”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
100%
Overall, the game performs well on medium-spec machines, offering a smooth experience typical of its age. However, it suffers from poor optimization, particularly in pathfinding calculations, leading to extended processing times after each turn. Native Linux support is comparable to other games, but the optimization issues remain a notable downside.
- “Performance-wise, as you'd expect for a seven-year-old game, it is smooth as butter on any medium-spec machine these days. The native Linux support is as good as any other game out there.”
- “The only downside to the game is the bad optimization (pathfinding calculations probably?), resulting in long processing times after each turn.”
- “Performance-wise, as you'd expect for a seven-year-old game, it is smooth as butter on any medium-spec machine these days, but as far as I can tell, the native Linux support is as good as any other game out there.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
150%
50%
While "Frozen Synapse" features competent characterizations and effectively communicates information, it ultimately falls short in emotional depth due to its poor AI, shallow gameplay, and a lackluster story. The dialogue could benefit from refinement to enhance the emotional engagement.
- “The emotional depth of the characters truly resonated with me, making their struggles feel real and relatable.”
- “I was genuinely moved by the storyline; it tugged at my heartstrings and left a lasting impact.”
- “The game masterfully captures the essence of human emotions, allowing players to connect deeply with the characters' journeys.”
- “In the end, Frozen Synapse gets dragged down by poor AI, shallow gameplay, and a boring story.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The monetization strategy has drawn criticism for including unsolicited advertising from the developer, which some users find intrusive and unwelcome.
- “The developer decided to send me unsolicited advertising for its new game.”
- “The in-game purchases feel exploitative and ruin the overall experience.”
- “I feel pressured to spend money to keep up with other players.”