I’ve heard many good things about Frozen Synapse but after messing about with it for a while I decided that it wasn’t really my cup of tea. It’s seems to be a multiplayer centric game. There’s a pretty extensive single-player campaign, presented using plain text and a perfunctory attempt at a campaign map, but it feels very dry to me.
I can see how it can be engaging in multiplayer and I can certainly dig the appeal of having so much tactical control over your units. But I find it too unforgiving to be much fun. The single-player missions feel like puzzles, except that many elements are randomized and certain permutations of the missions may well be impossible to win. Did your rocket launcher guy spawn right next to an enemy shotgun guy? Kiss him goodbye.
Maybe it’s a good game for people who can spend lots of time obsessing over every detail of their tactical plan and enjoy getting into an opponent’s head to anticipate what he or she will do next. But it’s too cerebral and frustrating for me.
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