Moonfrost makes me think about all the DIY-focused games I’ve played. I can’t help but wonder why I gravitate towards games about a thing that I am legendarily terrible at. If you asked me to put together a wooden chair for you, it’d almost certainly end in a trip to A&E. One hand would be completely sawn off, while the other would have a bunch nails hammered into it. Maybe I play these games to do things I can’t do in real life. Things like being fully rested after waking up at six in the morning. But I feel like there must be more to it than that. There’s gotta be something that keeps me plodding through the loop.
A good argument is that it’s the enjoyment of watching something grow. Both on the small scale, by planting crops, and the large scale, by cleaning up the place we inhabit. It goes from a rickety hut to a sprawling farm, with an attached idyllic village next door. Moonfrost purported to be just that thing. We take the form of a sort of celestially-appointed handyman, tasked with cleaning places up and building things. Theoretically, it would scratch the itch perfectly. While it’s doing a few things right so far, the early access build seems hesitant to ever remove its leash.
The Moons Are Rising
Moonfrost opens with a casual mention that there are two moons. No one seems particularly bothered by it, but it is causing some weird things to happen. Most notably, the titular Moonfrost. These are big lumps of ice-like stuff that rain down on the world as meteorites. After a big chunk lands in the middle of a village, our protagonist is suddenly woken up. We have no real memory of what’s going on, other than we have a gift that allows us to change this moonfrost into buildings and items. That makes us, in name at least, a Frost Hunter. The village we’ve landed in is a total dump, and the few people that remain are struggling to recover from their broken pasts.
That sets the overall goal for Moonfrost: tidy things up. Quite literally. You cut away the weeds, pick up the rubbish and fill in potholes. It’s a nice goal, as it allows you to constantly see how much progress you’re making. When I first wandered into the town square, it was a complete mess. Now it’s all clean with soft lighting and places to sit. It’s nice to feel like we’re making an impact. My little farm grew as well, as crafting tools got plonked around the place. It’s a loop with a lot of promise to it.
In terms of actually playing, it’s fairly similar to others in the genre. We get a little plot of land, which we dig up and plant seeds in. These actions require the usual set of tools of varying qualities, so we hunt for minerals. As we come in contact with tougher resources, we swap stone tools for copper, then for silver and so on. There’s even a dungeon to descend in. Outside of that, we talk to the villagers. They do have nicely rounded backstories, and I got on well with Walter, the local shop owner. Though some of the writing can afford to tone itself down a bit. The first character, Ash, does the classic insecure move of constantly deriding you. It got old quick, and became more grating than endearing.
Out Of Time
I don’t have too much to say on Moonfrost‘s mechanics themselves. They’re engaging, even if the fishing mini-game is a bit painful. But when isn’t it? There are some novelties here too. I like that when you build something for the first time, you do a little puzzle game to slot it together. Though, for a game about building lots of things, it does have a lot of timers. It reminds me of the ‘My Time In…‘ games, where things dissolve into my twiddling my thumbs, waiting for boards to finish. It just feels like an unnecessary delay at times, when basic things take just three seconds. Why not just give me what I need straight away, unless it’s complex? Even crops are on timers, rather than growing per day.
The timer combines with two other major annoyances. Firstly, much of Moonfrost is just being led by the nose. Part of that is down to the fact that you can’t just sell crops, you just hand them in when a special request calls for them. So my farm was empty until I was told what to grow. It’s also down to the expansive task list, with everyone giving me a list of what to build for them. So I never really took time to build for myself, as hunting materials took time. It felt like I was never out of the tutorial. Secondly, I detest the tool degradation for the same reason. No point building things for myself if I would have to keep spending more resources on keeping my pickaxe intact.
These things ultimately soured me on Moonfrost as I felt like I was back at work, in the wrong way. I play games to escape management, but here everyone is the manager. I can’t earn money on my own terms, only on other peoples. That and there are a host of minor annoyances. The graphics is a strange one. The world’s art style is gorgeous. It pops out in the perfect fashion. But the character models look a little out of place, like someone dropped their dolls in the garden. That and everything waving back and forth is slightly sickening. Gameplay-wise, it’s annoying that scrolling off the end of the hotbar doesn’t bring it back to the start. Oh, and please let us just pick up litter. The leaf-blower mechanic is just annoying.
Moonfrost – Slightly Shaky Start
While I’m busy shouting at Moonfrost, the dungeon feels superfluous right now. Its useful for getting materials, but in my seventeen hours of play, I only went in about five times. A large part of that is the awful combat, though. A dodge move would help immensely. Still, let me ease off for now. I don’t hate Moonfrost, and I think it’s got a solid core – which is half the battle for an Early Access game. A lot of my complaints are quality of life stuff. The characters seem sound (my own distaste aside), and there’s clearly a lot of content here. It just needs a bit of TLC and, perhaps, a loosening of the leash.
I should also mention the elephant in the room. Moonfrost has a tumultuous history, being intertwined in the NFT nonsense that was all over the place a while back. The creator has publicly stated that Moonfrost has now split from that part of its history. I see no reason to doubt that, but the accusations remain. Do your homework on that and make your own call. Once you’re actually in the world of the game, it doesn’t matter too much. As a game, Moonfrost has promise as a cozy little sim, but to properly be cozy for me, it needs to stop hounding me and putting a clock on everything I do.
Please Note: a Steam code was provided for this preview.
