With CryoFall, a new survival title celebrates its release on Steam and hardly anyone has it on their radar. That’s a pity, because the approach is quite good – at least that’s what MeinMMO author Benedict Grothaus thinks. However, one must also be willing to warm up to CryoFall.
Since April 2019, CryoFall has been playable in Early Access on Steam. Since then, it has been in constant development and the devs are continuously working on new content, features, and systems. Now, on April 29, 2021, CryoFall is celebrating its official release.
The survival game comes from the studio AtomicTorch and is published by the German story specialist Daedalic from Hamburg. Daedalic is actually known for excellent point-and-click adventures like Edna 's Escape, The Whispered World, and the Deponia series.
With this, the Hamburg team mainly caters to a niche of loyal fans, and CryoFall is more of a niche game. The approach is unique and tries to find a route between casual and hardcore, which proves to be a difficult mix.
This mix, however, makes the charm of the survival MMO. As part of Find Your Next Game, we want to introduce you to CryoFall in more detail.
Isometric Survival with Mixed Reviews
What is CryoFall? In CryoFall, you play as a survivor of a catastrophe in the distant future. You land on a foreign planet virtually naked and are to rebuild civilization.
You play on official or private servers with up to 200 players either in PvE, completely without contact with other players, or in PvP as a competition for survival. In addition to simply surviving, CryoFall places a central focus on building your own house and even industry, similar to Factorio.
CryoFall comes with an isometric 2D perspective (“shaded from above”) and offers a timeless comic-style graphics. Gameplay and graphics remind a bit of a middle ground between RimWorld or Stardew Valley and Conan Exiles or ARK.
The visuals and the various building systems such as agriculture and trade primarily remind of Stardew Valley. However, CryoFall combines these with hardcore survival elements that are missing in Stardew Valley.
In addition, the survival game offers high modifiability and its own map editor. CryoFall is 100% open source, allowing anyone to create and share their mods freely.
How is CryoFall received? The reviews on Steam are “mixed” to “mostly positive.” Overall, the game has received 79% positive ratings across all reviews. In the last 30 days, it has dropped to only 69% (as of April 29, via Steam).
The player base is relatively small. In March 2021, an average of 177 players played CryoFall, peaking at 385 (via steamcharts). Since 200 players fit on a server, the population is thin.
The Typical Survival Problem: Too Little PvE?
This is criticized: A major criticism of CryoFall has been that PvP has been too much in the foreground. This is something that many survival games are often accused of. When you log out, you remain in the world and “sleep,” which makes it easy for trolls to ambush other players.
In addition, the PvE content is said to have been quite sparse. There was little to explore, and the wildlife and enemies were either non-existent or too aggressive at the beginning, resulting in little atmosphere.
Steam user SirArghAlot even describes the PvE servers as a “demo” and there is criticism of the absence of a solo mode for players who prefer to explore the world alone.
This is what CryoFall does better: We sent the developers some questions in advance, which they answered for us. Among them was the question about the changes CryoFall has received. Since the Early Access release in 2019, many new contents and features have been added, such as:
- a electricity system
- vehicles
- factions
- a completely redesigned map with ruins to explore
- world events and bosses
- fishing
This is primarily intended to enrich the PvE content, which was previously regarded as too thin. According to the developers, there are even several players with over 1000 hours in CryoFall, who apparently find enough to do.
Everything a Survival Game Needs
These are the features of the game: CryoFall particularly plays with the fact that you continuously earn progress. The main core of the game consists of research, crafting, and industry.
You start as a “primitive” player and experience a development up to the technology level of science fiction with exo-suits, outlandish weapons, and cybernetic bio-implants. These features are strongly reminiscent of RimWorld, except that you control a single character here and not an entire colony. In the process, not only do you improve your character, but you also expand your base:
- you start with a simple house
- later, you provide for yourself through agriculture and thus secure your survival
- with industry and production chains, you drive technological progress
- sciences such as chemistry, physics, and medicine then turn you into a futuristic superhuman
Additionally, there are the classic survival aspects such as hunger and thirst, which are however expanded by numerous status effects. You must not only pay attention to food and drink, but also to radiation, poison, and injuries. For every status effect, there are also items that can counter them.
What makes CryoFall special? The unique selling point of the survival game is that it takes elements from both casual games and core games and mixes them into something of its own. CryoFall tries to strike a balance in all aspects:
- the graphics are pretty and detailed but kept simple in 2D
- enemies are deadly, yet you can easily avoid them
- the systems are complex but intuitively easy to learn and build on each other
- various status effects weaken you but can be avoided with proper preparation
- when you log out, you can still be killed but are protected in your own home
However, this puts CryoFall on a difficult path. For the survival casual player, the systems may be too harsh, while they may seem too easy for the survival pro. Exactly this intertwining of various systems makes it appealing and encourages a deeper engagement with the game.
Who is CryoFall For?
If you have played Stardew Valley or Terraria but find nothing more to do there or are looking for more of a challenge, you should give CryoFall a chance. The MMO aspect differentiates this survival game from Stardew Valley and Terraria, while its operation and interface remain quite similar. However, CryoFall does not provide a story like Stardew Valley.
CryoFall is also suitable if you find hardcore survival games like Rust or Conan Exiles too harsh, but still seek a certain level of difficulty. CryoFall offers a somewhat easier entry and is much more forgiving of mistakes.
Even newcomers will find CryoFall worth a look, especially if you tend to enjoy strategy and management games. Base building and industry in CryoFall remind a bit of Factorio or simulations like RimWorld.
However, if you are looking for a chill survival game to relax or the absolute competition with other players, you are in the wrong place with CryoFall.
By the way: The requirements of CryoFall are extremely low. With just 700 MB of required storage, 3 GB of RAM, and a Dual-Core processor at 2.2 GHz, even an old computer with a weak graphics card is sufficient. A resolution of 720p is already adequate.
If you are still unsure, CryoFall even offers a demo. It includes the full game, is free, and you can play for 8 hours. Just use the “Download Demo” button on the CryoFall Steam page.
What’s next for CryoFall
The developers revealed their plans for the future. For the modifications, the Steam Workshop could be implemented, making it even easier to get mods for CryoFall and customize the game.
A major goal is to improve single-player and co-op content. At the moment, there is no option to play CryoFall completely alone or with a friend without running your own server. The developers want to introduce a way to start a private server directly through the game and play with friends when everything goes well.
When asked if there would be a battle pass, add-ons, or DLCs, they only said: “Everything is possible, but right now we are focusing on expanding the core of the game. There are a few other things we are considering, but we would like to keep that secret until we are sure we can pull it off.
Niche game with hidden gem potential
With its crazy intertwining of casual and hardcore elements, CryoFall definitely appeals to a very specific group of players, and I am still not quite sure who that should actually be.
So far, I have played only a little, but what I have seen I liked. The approach sounds incredibly interesting, and I would really like to explore the world further – if only the mechanics didn’t look so strenuous.
I like to read up on systems, but CryoFall sounds a bit too complex for a relaxed survival game. However, it may well be that understanding comes naturally while playing. The tutorial was definitely good already, and I can recommend everyone at least check out the demo. However, I think you have to be a certain type of gamer to really immerse yourself in CryoFall.
Niche games are not bad at all. Studios that know only a small group of enthusiasts will play their game can tailor it much better for exactly that group. I hope that this is exactly what happens with CryoFall and think that AtomicTorch has the right publisher in Daedalic to help them achieve this goal.
Benedict Grothaus
Freelance author and survival expert at MeinMMO
Whether the developers’ plans will work and what the new content will look like remains to be seen. However, it sounds like there is enough for the studio to do to further improve CryoFall. In our list, you will find more survival games worth a look:
The 25 best survival games 2021 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC
