Arctic Awakening Reviews
Arctic Awakening delivers an entertaining, mysterious story set in a fresh Arctic environment, but it’s unfortunately held back by a sluggish pace, uninteresting characters, and a poorly fitting voice performance for the main protagonist.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
If you admire The Long Dark but bounced off its punishing survival mechanics, Arctic Awakening might hit the sweet spot. It’s a game that feels like spending a weekend in the cold; you won’t stay forever, but while you’re there, it’s an experience worth having.
There is plenty to enjoy about Arctic Awakening. Its writing and voice work bring the characters to life, and the mysteries of the abandoned facilities and plane crash are worth exploring. It's a shame that so much time is spent walking long distances to reach the next major story point.
Even though I loved my time with Arctic Awakening, it did frustrate me in equal measure. The pacing is sometimes off, and there are moments when the story wanders off track. But the overall premise is great, and the visuals and soundtrack are lovely.
Arctic Awakening starts with a captivating mystery, but fails to stick the landing. The poorly developed story, lacklustre voice acting, and technical issues let down its potential.
Arctic Awakening is an interesting story-driven adventure game that does a great job at creating a mood and delivering an emotional tale. The game's best features are its graphic design, emotive music, and the way Kai and Alfie's relationship grows. The branching choices let you see several endings, and the story is well-paced with five chapters.
While Arctic Awakening feels very directionless in its plot and frustrating character writing, it's serviceable as a walking sim for fans of the genre who may enjoy its beautiful setting and interesting premise.
With a strong narrative focus, GoldFire Studios’ Arctic Awakening feels like a five-episode series with a well-defined arc, aiming to be an event for fans of the genre, but ultimately getting lost in gameplay that’s too passive and dialogues that are more tiring than engaging.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Arctic Awakening is a stumper of a game, one that has a clear vision for what it wants to be but stumbles in its execution. I want to believe this game will reach its potential with time, and that this small team will keep making ambitious games. While Arctic Awakening sometimes left me feeling frosty, there's a definite spark that shines through.
It takes something special for me to love a walking sim and trust me there are some really good ones out there. Arctic Awakening does fine, and I’d hear an argument to include it within top contenders. For me though, what holds it back is the length and the slowness that comes with it. Technical bugs aside, Arctic Awakening is worthy title in the genre however and fans should keep an eye out.
Arctic Awakening is a beautiful walking simulator that clearly takes inspiration from those that made the genre great to begin with, and while it makes valiant attempts at creating its own mysteries and forging its own connections between its characters, it just fails to land the final punch. Choices don’t feel impactful enough, with the game remaining very linear despite the dialogue options on offer, and the game’s bugs do enough to sour the experience as a whole.
Arctic Awakening delivers a short, atmospheric mystery: as a walking simulator you trek through gorgeous, music-driven landscapes, engage in thoughtful exchanges with Alfie, scavenge food and tools (with even “useless” items aiding Kai), and make choices that shape the ending—held back only by slightly clunky first-person climbing and minor bugs/clipping.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Arctic Awakening is a genuinely good tale of mystery with some excellent audio that's unfortunately hampered by an overly long run-time and some nasty technical issues.
To put it simply, Arctic Awakening was really boring. The story does little to improve as the player completes each episode. Never do I feel that Kai is actually bothered by anything going on, but instead he comes off bored himself. With each episode feeling like it gets worse and even when uncovering information, it left me feeling like nothing actually happens. Big government facilities, why are they here? Who cares? What happened here? Ah don’t worry this doesn’t need explaining. The ending plays off like it was added in last minute with even less explanation, especially with the random reveal. This might be due to me not selecting the decoder that translates drones for Alfie, but nothing really gets expanded on, and that annoys me. On the gameplay side, it’s what you’d expect of a walking sim, but only thanks to a good few moments such as the cliff climbing or elevators. Even then I would be forced to replay a scene as Kai wouldn’t be able to move. Another large bug I came across was me finding a massive area you could fall through. In fact you saw it in the gif in the previous section of this review. This wasn’t just a small layer issue. This bug causes the player to fall to a later segment of the game and then become stuck. Which doesn’t exactly make you want to continue playing. In the end Arctic Awakening suffers with a dull story, one-dimensional characters, and dragged out scenes. So it’s the Thumb Culture Bronze Award from me.
In the end, Arctic Awakening feels worthy of standing alongside the titans of the narrative-driven genre. It doesn’t reinvent the formula, but it refines it with sincerity and focus. With its emotional storytelling, immersive world, and memorable companion, it’s an experience that will stay with you long after the credits roll. For players who loved Firewatch or The Long Dark, this is a must-play. For everyone else, it’s still a story worth braving the cold for.
This isn’t awakening. It’s a game that should have stayed buried in the snow, untouched and forgotten. The more time you spend with it, the more obvious it becomes that the foundation was never solid enough to deliver on its lofty promises. What could have been an emotional journey through survival and mystery ends up as a shallow, broken trek through technical issues, uninspired writing, and an AI companion that makes you wish you were truly alone in the wilderness. Arctic Awakening doesn’t just fail to live up to its potential, it actively wastes it, and in the end leaves you cold in every sense of the word.
Stranded in the icy wilds with only a therapy bot for company, Arctic Awakening promises mystery and emotion but delivers frustration and bugs. There’s a great game buried in the snow, but it’s still waiting to be uncovered. Maybe the upcoming updates will help.
Review in Finnish | Read full review