The social deception genre isn’t new in video games but wasn’t always that popular through the years. Among Us changed that perception by becoming a global hit. Project Winter by Other Ocean Interactive is riding on the hype to promote their game currently getting a release on Nintendo Switch after being available on most other platforms.
Survive on the go
Project Winter was released back in 2019 on steam and later on saw releases on Xbox and Playstation. The aim of the game is depending on your role in the game. You are either a survivor or a traitor. Despite your role in the game, you are stuck on a snowy mountain in very rough conditions. As a survivor, your goal is to get off the mountain. The traitors act as survivors all while trying to deceive the survivors in order to sabotage their escape from the mountain. The game is essentially a mix of among us with survival elements added to make the experience a bit more substantial. Project winter is only playable online and a headset is highly recommended. The game was rather well-received when it first got released on Steam with a community of fans regularly populating the servers.
The release on consoles was a bit bumpier. Due to the cross-play implemented people were matched with PC users. The game uses a twin-stick set up to handle the weapons making them a bit finicky to handle. PC users didn’t have such an issue because of the use of the mouse which meant they had a huge advantage. Later on, Playstation users came into the mix which smoothed out this issue. With the release of the Nintendo Switch version, the pool of console players could potentially grow even more. As it stands right now I fear the ship has sailed a bit. When I tried to get into a match my options were almost non-existent. I had to change regions a bit to get a match started and even then the pool of players didn’t fill up to actually start a game. Maybe the lifespan of this game has run its course and the last hope of life with a Nintendo Switch release is already dead in the water from the start.
Communication is key
In order to survive in Project Winter, you need to juggle with many balls in the air. A life meter, a hunger meter, a cold meter, and of course the actual goal of escaping the dreaded scene are all aspects to keep an eye on. The idea of Project Winter is to beef out the popular concept of Among Us. The number of things to do in order to survive can be combined in so many different ways. Each match is different because of the sheer amount of options. The thing that is consistent during each match is the fact that communication is key. When the survivors don’t work together to succeed in their shared goal, survival is hopeless. Herein lies another challenge. Finding a group of 8 people who are willing to work together and communicate in the same language is deemed the first major hurdle in the Project Winter experience. Matches often tend to be a free for all with traitors having a field day without the survivors working together.
Global events
Winning Project Winter is heavily favored towards the traitors. Because of the difficulty to find survivors willing to work together, the traitors don’t need to do much to sabotage the mission. Bunkers shattered around the map have great resources in them but can only be opened by pressing multiple consoles at once. So it’s vital to stick together and work towards one task. If this becomes impossible due to your group, you can only rely on what is found in the wild. Resources gathered can be used to craft items that become essential to rebuild communication. While going alone makes you extremely vulnerable to traitors picking you off one by one, the game adds extra threats into the mix to make it near impossible. Wildlife is out to get you and global events like blizzards will make your chances of (solo) survival slim to none.
Conclusion
Project Winter was thriving when it was released. The experience was deemed fun and exciting but it feels most have moved on. Matches are hard to come by and when you finally get into one you’ll hope you get assigned the traitor role in order to limit your frustration level. The idea of Project Winter is great but it’s time for something new…
