Frozen Cortex Represents The Future Of Strategy

Joseph Dwan writes: I might have been playing a little too much of Frozen Cortex, Mode 7’s newest game. Released just last week, it has received positive reviews from a number of outlets, and rightfully so. A futuristic take on Rugby or American Football (depending on your perspective), it’s a whiteboard strategy simulator. 5 players on each team aim to get the ball either into the scoring zone or through specific areas to get points, the twist being that the game is a mix of real time and turn-based strategy. Both players control the whole team, and set directions for players to follow after each player (or coach) is done. The directions then play out in real time, meaning both players must simultaneously anticipate the other’s moves and outmaneuver them. A range of singleplayer and multiplayer modes on top then boost the variety, but the real enjoyment lies in the base mode.

Those who played Frozen Synapse, Mode 7’s previous game, might recognise the overall style as it also used the mix of turn-based and real-time strategy. Arguably Frozen Synapse is more complicated, as it featured different weapons to increase the variety in strategy required, although I’d say that Frozen Cortex is a better application of the base ideas and themes.