Frozen Synapse Brings Intense Strategy to Android

This app is good for people who love strategy and critical thinking, it will enjoy you a lot.

Strategy games need to be approached delicately on a touchscreen device, but these titles can work out extremely well. Frozen Synapse is a turn-based strategy game that has just arrived on Android after winning fans on the desktop and iOS. This detail-oriented title will test your planning and critical thinking skills from the very beginning.

Most games ease you into the experience, but Frozen Synapse tosses you into the action with very little training. There are tutorial videos in the main menu, but you aren’t required to watch them, and it’s an imposing list. There is definitely a learning curve, but it’s not as difficult as it first looks. That’s not to say it’s an easy game. Frozen Synapse is serious business, and some of the later battles are unforgiving.

You play an organic-digital hybrid called Tactics in the story mode. The narrative is actually better than you might expect from a game the stresses pure strategy. The gameplay acts as a way to advance the storyline, but sometimes feels only loosely connected. In the 55 campaign levels, you have to clear the map of enemies, and sometimes complete other tasks.

You have to plan carefully whether you’re playing the campaign, a random skirmish, or the extensive online multiplayer mode. For each turn you select the units you want to use and set waypoints for them. In addition, there is a grid of commands off to the left which can be attached to any waypoint. This could have ended up tedious, but Frozen Synapse is very smart about automatically setting paths for each waypoint.

When you have a plan of attack, it can be previewed with the play button. This only shows your troops moving, though. The mystery is how the enemy will respond when you commit. The result takes a few seconds to load, which does slow down the action a bit. The turn plays out, and some shooting will probably take place, but hopefully you come out ahead. Your units will keep following their orders through multiple turns if they still have orders to complete.

The graphics have a sort of digital minimalism vibe, at least when you’re zoomed out. You can move closer and pick out details etched in shimmering light. The game is all top-down, but it really has a sense of depth thanks to smart use of lighting. It’s like a neon video game version of a cyberpunk novel.

Frozen Synapse is really set apart with it’s level design—or lack of design, maybe. All the levels are randomly generated. You never know what kind of units or layout you’re going to end up with. Even knowing this, the stages feel intentional at times. The developers worked some magic to make random levels feel so perfectly suited for strategic combat. Because it’s turn-based, the multiplayer system is asynchronous, making it easier to actually finish games.

Frozen Synapse does not come cheap. It’s $6.99 in Google Play, but this is far and away the most advanced strategy game we've seen on the platform so far. It’s also in the recently posted Humble Bundle, but that expires July 2, 2013. It's only for tablets currently.

Source: pcmag.com

This app is good for people who love strategy and thinking.