Impact Winter

 PC
Metascore
63

Mixed or average reviews - based on 23 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 23
  3. Negative: 2 out of 23
  1. IGN Italia
    May 22, 2017
    80
    Impact Winter is able to melt survival, management and a touch of GdR with very interesting results. It's not a perfect game, but the mix of genres is well done.
  2. XGN
    May 30, 2017
    75
    Impact Winter has loads of interesting gameplay elements that blend perfectly together and create a good experience. The tension is excellent as well, but it often gets ruined by annoying bugs. The game also suffers from really bad keyboard controls.
  3. Everyeye.it
    May 22, 2017
    75
    Impact Winter is also able to surprise even the most avid survival enthusiast.
  5. Multiplayer.it
    May 22, 2017
    75
    Impact Winter is a good survival game, flawed by some technical issues. However, if you love its genre you may give it a shot.
  6. PC Games
    May 30, 2017
    74
    In its best moments, Impact Winter delivers an existentialist experience that is pushing the stress level to the max, demands moral decisions and meets other genre representatives like Don’t Starve or This War of Mine at eye level. […] On the other side, there are many things to complain about.
  7. Gamer.nl
    May 31, 2017
    70
    Impact Winter is an original survival game. It is not an excellent game, which is mainly due to its repetitiveness. We do like the addition of the clock running backwards.
  8. Vandal
    May 30, 2017
    70
    Impact Winter has great ideas, a very demanding gameplay (in a good way) and it's deep and complex. It does need, however, a few more weeks of work to polish its technical side.
  9. Areajugones
    May 28, 2017
    70
    Impact Winter is the new title from Mojo Banes and its goal is to give a new perspective of the survival genre. However, this game becomes a little bit repetitive after playing for a few hours.
  10. The Overpowered Noobs
    May 26, 2017
    70
    When out in the snowy wasteland, the mood is tense and attention-grabbing. Graphics are beautiful in their simplicity, and although muted because of the depth of darkness contrasting against the never-ending snow, the little smatterings of color pop. Despite its current issues, Impact Winter was crafted lovingly, and the aesthetics and music alone are more than enough reasons to play.
  11. Eurogamer Italy
    May 22, 2017
    70
    Quotation forthcoming.
  12. SpazioGames
    May 22, 2017
    70
    Surviving for thirty days in the cold with a survival team is not as simple as it sounds in Impact Winter.
  13. IGN Spain
    May 22, 2017
    70
    Impact Winter is fun, complete and full of psychological elements, but also an exploration experience with some repetitive elements.
  14. Jeuxvideo.com
    Jun 2, 2018
    65
    Team survival is tough: that’s what Impact Winter teaches the player. Which is fun. But the slow-paced action, added to the lack of dubbing and a badly shaped interface will surely discourage most players.
  15. GameCritics
    Jul 17, 2017
    65
    With its stark whiteout visual style and effectively somber soundtrack, Impact Winter comes incredibly close to being a survival game that could be enjoyed by just about anyone. Until the developers make that one fix, though, it will remain a game with tons of potential marred by a fatal flaw.
  16. Meristation
    Jun 6, 2017
    65
    Has something that makes it some kind of special.
  17. The Games Machine
    Jun 4, 2017
    65
    What a pity! Impact Winter could have been a great survival game, but it's affected by so many issues that it's impossible to reward Mojo Bones' work with more than a generous sixty-five. Anyhow, you should keep an eye on it: the future patches could fix at least the major bugs and transform a caterpillar in a wonderful butterfly.
  18. PC PowerPlay
    Jun 30, 2017
    60
    With some serious control patching, Impact Winter will be great. As it stands, it's almost unplayable. [Issue#263, p.73]
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  19. GameSpot
    May 30, 2017
    60
    It's not terrible, but it's also a hard one to recommend, and I get the feeling it's one that we may revisit in the future and update the score for, when it's all patched and tightened up.
  20. JeuxActu
    May 26, 2017
    60
    Regardless of the good concepts and the journey provided by Impact Winter, the game is ruined by an appalling UI and awful controls, making it unplayable. Its gets better with a controller but overall it's not worth it until some major updates arrives.
  21. GameStar
    May 30, 2017
    56
    Right now, it's unplayable. With patches it may be a nice survival-roguelike for fans. The main problem is the botched release.
  22. Digitally Downloaded
    Jun 6, 2017
    50
    Impact Winter is a beautiful and thoughtful game, and at least initially, it ticks all the boxes in terms of emotional delivery, narrative execution, and sheer atmospheric mastery. However, the mechanical flaws are an unfortunate counter to the ambition and care that has gone into the title.
  23. GameGrin
    Aug 29, 2017
    40
    Seeing Impact Winter through to the end will be a struggle in itself. It is a shame that Impact Winter is filled with both bugs and design problems as at it’s core there are the makings of a brilliant title. For now though it is one to avoid unless you are willing to deal with the problems.
  24. Edge Magazine
    Jun 22, 2017
    40
    Sluggish menus, clumsy controls, and an intrusive, atmosphere-scuppering soundtrack mar each excursion, while excessive weather effects will have you straining to see as you awkwardly bump up against objects to find out if they can be ransacked. [Aug 2017, p.122]
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This publication has not posted a final review score yet.
These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation.

In Progress & Unscored

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  1. Eurogamer
    May 30, 2017
    Beautiful but bug-riddled, Impact Winter isn't the game it could be yet.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
4.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 28 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 28
  3. Negative: 14 out of 28
  1. Methias
    Jun 23, 2021
    4
    I gave this game two chances. The first was when it was released day one and I dove into it with excitement for a new survival game asI gave this game two chances. The first was when it was released day one and I dove into it with excitement for a new survival game as survival games are almost my most played type, sitting at a tie only with tycoon games and RPG games. But my first experience was plagued with issues ranging from game breaking bugs and just so many things that I couldn't understand how they weren't caught before release.

    So I went away for a while. I didn't want to write this without playing Impact Winter again to give it another chance. I was happy to see many of the issues from before that I found have gone, such as ghosts walking about in the snow (literally you'd see a trail of footprints being made in the snow be seemingly nothing. Just one footprint after another appearing from thin air. Was really weird.) Some text bugs I saw are gone, and some audio bugs too. But other issues have arisen. One of them is the notorious "sticking" bug. Where you'll randomly get stuck to a collision and not be able to move, resulting in reloading from your last save or auto-save. This bug is in the game as of the time of writing this review. I've experienced it only once, but it was there. So far, it's the only major one I've seen with a couple of others, like the characters in the church phasing through solids once or twice, or not being able to be interacted with. These only lasted a few moments each and haven't been game breaking.

    Now, onto the main game itself. There are no changes from what it was the last time I played Impact Winter about two years before.

    The game is a smooth experience with a unique set up of being survivors after an apocalyptic event leading to what is essentially the second ice age.

    There is fun to be found in the game, the prime hook of it being you never know what you're going to find where you go, and whatever you do find can likely be used in some fashion.

    It's a simplistic level of mechanics. Food is food, you eat it to fill yourself. Drink is drink, you drink it to sate your thirst. Heat is heat. Cold is bad. Warmth is good. Simple.

    The game throws a bit of a curve ball at you as the guy you play as (who I swear isn't wearing any pants) is the only one fit enough or experienced enough to go out into the world to find things. To me, this is a bit of a bad reason to throw all the weight on the players shoulders of having to find food and drink and even then manage it between yourself and four other survivors.

    The game gets very tedious and repetitive quite quickly. Even faster if you're someone who gets irritated at fetch and retrieve quests easily. That is essentially what the whole game is. Run outside, find something, come back, do something, sleep. Rinse and repeat.

    The whole upgrading your base camp in the church is likely the funnest part of the whole game. It was what kept me wanting to find more materials for making stuff with. I wanted to see the changes that happened in the church as you upgraded it. Sadly, this was a very limited thing in the game.

    The four other survivors are interesting and each has their own story to tell which you unravel and learn about the more you do for them, but like I said. Fetch and return quests. The whole game.

    In game trading system with the Nomads as they're called is one of the most frustrating parts of the game for me as they just have such over priced things and they only trade in seeds which can be hard to come by if you don't know where to look or have run out of places to look. This is extremely enraging especially when you have to buy something from them for a story quest.

    There is some gritty darkness to the story. Such as if you're low on food and one of the survivors dies, leaving four of five left alive, I'm sure you can put two and two together and get cannibalism.

    The little robot is an interesting touch, but just implemented in a really annoying way. There are so many things you need to use him for, but at the start of the game, he's useless for everything save for scanning and being used as a light.

    The wildlife in the game (mainly wolves) can be really annoying if they start trying to hunt you down, because they will chase you relentlessly and will kill you.

    Overall, Impact Winter is a game that had so much potential and still does, but it's been buried beneath a thick layer of cold screw ups. I still can't give this game a positive review. I want to, since I usually love these survival crafting games, but it's just all the tedious stuff. The amount of time you have to play for to complete one play through. The slowness of it all, the repetitive nature of it. How the game will offer you barely anything new AND exciting once you've learned the ropes. Impact Winter could be easily enjoyed by people who have patience or don't really care what game they play. It's certainly not the worst game ever, but it's got a lot of problems that won't really be fixed at this stage.

    It's a 4/10, below average.    … Full Review »
  2. hoanns
    Jun 6, 2020
    4
    You can dehydrate in a world filled with snow. Bug ridden, performance is arse (loading takes ages). Game mechanic do not really get explainedYou can dehydrate in a world filled with snow. Bug ridden, performance is arse (loading takes ages). Game mechanic do not really get explained thoroughly, I just ran around looted stuff, but could never upgrade my robot or my team. It at least looks good… Full Review »
  3. nik_balani
    Oct 20, 2019
    5
    Idea behind the game is excellent - survival, resource management, upgrades based on scavenging and leading / managing a team who you need toIdea behind the game is excellent - survival, resource management, upgrades based on scavenging and leading / managing a team who you need to keep alive. A perfect combination for a gamer like myself. However implementation was poor - too many bugs, such that I was unable to complete one of the main quests (and could not obtain a vehicle - snowmobile), and no fast travel system resulting in hours of simply walking in the snow before being able to do anything. Sad really.… Full Review »
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