Snowsquall Grip [Review]
Short horror set in the Re.Surs universe has plenty of chills, but is frustrating.
Snowsquall Grip. Credit: VidyGames
Your helicopter crashes in a remote, icy wilderness en route to delivering batteries to a mysterious research facility. Now, you must complete your delivery before you freeze to death or get eaten by wild animals. What is it that they’re researching? Snowsquall Grip, a game set in the same universe as Re.Surs and Plastomorphosis, will shed some light on those games’ stories by answering that question.
Snowsquall Grip is an hour-long, short-form survival horror game. It streamlines some standard survival horror systems; for example, rather than having an inventory, you can carry one item at a time, and physics drives all item interactions. Puzzles are straightforward; they are either single-item or combination lock puzzles. If you interact with something that requires an item, a HUD overlay will appear, telling you the direction in which you’ll find it and how far away it is. The trick is that you must avoid freezing to death or getting eaten while you search.
Snowsquall Grip. Credit: VidyGames
The game is in first-person 3D with basic controls. You can run, jump, interact, fire, or reload your gun. There is a janky feeling to the gameplay; aside from a couple particularly frustrating and unnecessary sequences, it would be fine. If you die, you’re sent to hell, where you must complete a platforming obstacle course to return to the world of the living. The controls and collision make platforming feel imprecise—it’s simply not the game’s strength. I was so frustrated with this section that I nearly abandoned the game until I discovered I could reload my save instead. If I’m allowed to do that, why even include the platforming puzzle?
Similarly, there’s a boss fight near the end where you finally get to use your gun. The fight is made difficult because of the imprecise feeling of the controls rather than the combat itself. I couldn’t win until I discovered a way to cheese the boss by finding a precise location where it could no longer follow me. If the developers couldn’t find a way to make the combat feel good to play, they shouldn’t have included it in the game.
Snowsquall Grip. Credit: VidyGames
The game’s graphics are in a satisfyingly blocky, well-executed PSX 32-bit style. Video artifact effects and good sound design help create an unsettling feeling and convey the desolate atmosphere of the environment.
The visuals attracted me to the game in the first place. I’m a fan of games that do retro well, and this one does. The story isn’t engaging, perhaps because I haven’t played the other games set in this world, but the atmosphere makes up for it. Unfortunately, key sequences feel bad enough to play—due to unresponsive, imprecise controls—to the point where they become frustrating. It never sits well with me when difficulty comes from poor gameplay.
Snowsquall Grip is available now on PC (Steam).
Overall Score: 4/10
Played on: Steam Deck
