It’s a turn-based strategy game in which you decide on the tactics of a squad. You control your troops and send them around with simple clicks of the mouse, and this works because you can give really simple commands, or keep clicking to give really complicated commands to ensure victory.

The story is interesting, mildly amusing but it isn’t the most creative or hilarious story you might have heard. In Frozen Synapse (also now known hereby as “Froznapes” – pronounced ‘froz-naps’) you have to give commands to the people on the field and somehow complete the mission, which is sometimes as simple as “kill the enemy”, or you might have to escort or protect someone, as well as other game modes that just add to the hours you will spend on this.

Gameplay-wise, you are basically shown the positions of all people on the map (unless it is dark mode, and you will only see the enemy positions that your team have actually seen) and what weapons they have, you then click and drag to give commands for your team. You can then test the turn to see what happens, but you can never be sure exactly what the enemy (AI or player) will do, so you can’t always account for everything. This is what gives the multiplayer such replayability, the fact that you don’t know what the other player is planning his troops to do, so while you can move his just to see whether yours might win the fight, he may then go in the opposite direction to hit a different troop.

Without showing an actual video, the only way to describe the gameplay is to compare it to the planning phase from Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, in which you would direct your teammates where you want them to go, and they will follow the lines you drew for them. Froznapes is also more technical, almost mathematical, in that there isn’t really much luck involved, if you and an enemy go in the same direction and start shooting each other, the outcome will be the same every time no matter how many times you run the simulation before you prime your turn.

In conclusion, it is an excellent indie game, good fun and the multiplayer really makes it, as you can work your way on the leader boards and it is just perfect for competing with friends, as it not only tracks your total win-loss ratio, but also will tell you your win-loss ratio for whatever player profile you might be looking at.

Mr. Akardo