Project Winter: Game Review
12.14.2021 | By Yaroslav Moklyak
What is Project Winter? It is an 8 player multiplayer game based on social disguise and survival. To escape, survivors need to communicate and work as a team, gather resources, repair buildings, and conquer wildlife. However, at the same time, there are traitors in the game who have a completely different goal.
Winter, cold, constant storms, and betrayal – these are the thoughts that arise when you see the gameplay of the game.
Publisher: Other Ocean Group
Developer: Other Ocean Interactive
Release Date: 05.23.2019
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5 Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch.
The Main Problem of the Game
Since this game has one important problem, I decided to tell you about it from the very beginning, so as not to waste your time.
Despite the fact that the game is already several years old, I manage to play it with varying success, since there are not very many players in Project Winter. This leads to two main problems: the lack of constant online in the game and the long process of recruiting players.
It is worth noting that the match itself lasts about 15-25 minutes, while the search may take a little longer. It is good that the game can be started without the required number of players. Sometimes you have to play in a squad of six.
Moreover, if you have a large group of friends, then you will not face such a problem, since you can play together. Moreover, the game is available on 4 platforms at once (PC, PS, Xbox, Nintendo Switch), which can sometimes speed up the search significantly.
The Essence of the Game
Overall, the Project Winter is very similar to Among Us. All players appear on the map in one place, but only 6 players have the goal “Survive”. Among your group of eight survivors, two are traitors who must kill the rest of the players.
If you have the role of a survivor, then you must not only avoid death at the hands of traitors but also survive in the cold desert teeming with various wild animals, which is quite difficult even under normal conditions.
If you started the game as a killer, then the most difficult thing for you at the start is not to get caught in sabotage and all the time to play along with other players.
Project Winter Gameplay
Playing as the Traitor
The gameplay as a traitor is significantly different from the normal survivor.
In addition to the simple actions of the survivor, the player can perform additional, characteristic only of the traitor, actions. Project Winter gives you many additional functions and ways to thwart the survivors, but this gives the survivors hints of who the traitor is.
Moreover, throughout the location are scattered special metal boxes intended for traitors, which contain weapons, traps, and poisons.
Traitors can sabotage access panels to loot bunkers, drop traps, and ambush other players on long-distance walks.
At the beginning of the game it is very important to understand a little about the mechanics of the game and to know what actions are typical for the survivor, and what for the traitor. Otherwise, you can accidentally betray yourself by some special action.
Playing as a Survivor
From the very beginning of the game, you will have the main task: to call for help and escape, but on the way to this goal, there will be many problems. Since the game provides the mechanics of hunger and cold, you need to take care of the basic needs first, so from the very start, you need to engage in gathering and extracting useful resources.
It is not very quick to break trees, stones, and other resources with your hands, so then you need to make some tools to greatly speed up the extraction of basic resources and the crafting of useful things.
Next, the survivors must gather enough resources, make fuel, and then repair and start the power station. Traitors usually help at this stage of the game to avoid being exposed. However, after that, the survivors begin to move around the location, doing various tasks to achieve a common goal, and it is here that traitors begin to actively act.
Gameplay After Death
After your death, most of your functions become inaccessible to you. As a ghost, you can teleport around the map to watch the rest of the players. Unfortunately, you will no longer be able to speak and provide other players with useful information, however, you can have a lot of fun watching other players argue and fight with each other.
Live Communication
One of the biggest challenges in Project Winter is the element of trust. However, it is very difficult to get it, since due to the voice chat in the game it is very difficult to prove that you are the survivor, and the other player is the traitor, and not vice versa. At the same time, you will not be able to play without this chat either, since you must coordinate your actions with other players in order to survive.
The Project Winter game has a local voice chat system, so you only hear the conversations of those players who are close to you. It often happens that you can meet several players in the midst of a skirmish, and without going into the essence of the matter, kill several survivors and stay with the traitors, thereby losing the game.
Influence of the World on the Player
One of the main threats to players is the world around them. First, you will encounter severe frost, from which you need to flee near a fire or in a shelter.
Moreover, from time to time, various storms occur, which makes the visibility in the game almost zero, slows down movement, and also makes your character freeze much faster.
Animals can be another serious one at the start of the game. They will not appear near the starting camp, however, moving a little further you will begin to meet bears, moose, wolves, and other wild animals that do quite strong damage.
Project Winter Recommended Requirements (PC)
- CPU: i5 6600 +
- CPU SPEED: Info
- RAM: 8 GB
- OS: Windows 10
- VIDEO CARD: GTX 970
- PIXEL SHADER: 5.1
- VERTEX SHADER: 5.1
- FREE DISK SPACE: 3 GB
- DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 4096 MB
Overall, I enjoyed playing Project Winter with friends, and even with random people online. However, after 7-8 rounds the game starts to get boring and becomes a little of the same type. There is not as much variety in the game as we would like.
