Game file / ROGUE BY ROGUEWildfrost
Take on the elements in Wildfrost, a tactical roguelike deckbuilder! Journey across a frozen tundra, collecting cards strong enough to banish the eternal winter…
Why this score?
Original text · Simplified Chinese
单位倒计时把出牌变成主动调度，饰品又能深入改变伙伴；复杂效果的顺序表达和奖励兼容性限制了公平感。
Core gameplay
Weight 25%8.5 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
每次出牌推进敌我倒计时，召唤、换位和延缓之间形成紧张的顺序谜题；首回合的部署成本对新手尤其苛刻。
Builds & strategy
Weight 25%8.5 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
部族、伙伴、饰品和关键字能形成实质不同的战术，单卡改造空间强；部分流派较强，选到不兼容奖励时转向困难。
Replayability
Weight 20%7.5 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
不同领袖与伙伴组合要求调整节奏，挑战难度增加约束；遭遇和有效卡组熟悉后，部分后续局趋向相同的方案。
Randomness & fairness
Weight 20%7.0 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
倒计时允许提前规划，失败常能追溯到站位和时机；复杂结算次序与反击连锁不够直观，随机领袖和选牌也限制容错。
Polish & usability
Weight 10%7.5 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
动画与基础界面受到肯定，核心计数规则直观；关键词交互和最终结果预判不足，实际运算仍容易超出提示表达。
- Reviewer
Original text · Simplified Chinese
Rogue by Rogue · AI 资料评测- Version reviewed
Original text · Simplified Chinese
具体构建未知；以所引资料描述的版本为准
Scope and limitations
Original text · Simplified Chinese
未进行试玩；分数是依据已收录评述与社区具体反馈作出的主观资料评测。旧反馈跨版本、部分原始材料为不可重开的本地快照；本次 Steam 核查仅确认玩法与功能，未复测平衡、性能或报告的故障是否仍存在。
Review sources 02
- 01Archived materialView archived external material ↓
Original text · Simplified Chinese
收录评论与社区资料（2026-10-01 快照）
使用 作者观点摘要 的 Tier list Part 2 (2024) 的具体优缺点，以及 玩家好评、玩家批评 与 资料核查说明；不使用旧等级、外部分数或销量反推。
- 02Web sourceView original ↗
Original text · Simplified Chinese
Wildfrost · Steam 官方商店
2026-10-08 访问。核对随机领袖、伙伴招募与饰品、动态倒计时、部族差异和每日挑战。未据介绍推定性能或故障已修复。
Video reviews
Reviews and deep dives from YouTube and Bilibili, in every language. Open the original video to watch.
Other voices, for reference.
Archived third-party reviews and community material may refer to different versions. External opinions and ratings are presented separately; consult the original videos for their full context.
Community discussion
A tactical roguelike deckbuilder from Deadpan Games and Gaziter (published by Chucklefish) where you lead a tribe leader and companions through a frozen tundra in cooldown-based card battles on a two-lane, six-slot board.
Wildfrost is well received by both players and critics: Metacritic PC sits at 80 (17 critic reviews) with a user score of 8.0, and Steam shows Very Positive (about 83% across roughly 8,860 reviews in our local snapshot; the store page itself showed a higher figure, so treat exact percentages loosely). It is praised as a distinctive, hard, synergy-rich alternative to Slay the Spire with standout art and music. The main friction is difficulty and perceived RNG unfairness, a grind-heavy unlock structure, and a divisive post-win 'previous champion becomes the final boss' mechanic. It is a finished, released game (Switch/PC April 2023, mobile April 2024, Xbox December 2024) with Steam Workshop support, daily runs and difficulty customisation via Storm Bells; one reviewer notes balance patches fixed early turn-0 infinites and overpowered final bosses. Players still ask for more content.
What players praise
- Distinctive cooldown-counter combat where every card played ticks down both your units and enemies, making turn order and positioning the core puzzle
- Charms (up to 3 per card) allow deep, creative unit customisation and exponential combo builds, often compared favourably to Inscryption-style run modification
- Huge variety of companions, cards and keywords across three tribes (Snowdwellers, Shademancers, Clunkmasters) gives many viable strategies
- Strong, charming cartoon art style and animation; critics and players both single out the visual polish
- Well-liked music and atmosphere; one reviewer discovered the game via its soundtrack
- Satisfying skill-testing difficulty: failures usually traceable to misjudged turn order or overlooked enemy effects, and wins feel earned
- Accessible to learn but deep; some families play it together, and reviewers say it stays as dynamic on the twentieth run as the first
- Meta-progression through Snowdwell town building, daily runs, challenges and Storm Bell difficulty scaling adds replay value
What players criticize
- Unfairness and RNG: random starting leader stats, bad character/enemy rolls, and enemy groups that feel like they counter-pick your strategy
- Turn outcomes are hard to predict because of many interacting mechanics and poorly explained order of operations; players lose turns they thought were perfect
- Uneven build viability: a few keywords and archetypes per tribe dominate, and many unlocked companions or cards are conditional or worse than starter options
- Early pacing is tough because placing a single unit costs a whole turn while multiple enemies already race ahead
- Steep learning curve and a high barrier to entry for genre newcomers (Twinfinite cautioned this); IGN France cited very high difficulty and inconsistent card balance
- Post-victory 'posse' final-boss design can lock players out of repeating a win if their winning run was very strong
- Windows-only on Steam (no Mac/Linux); a top-voted negative Steam review is purely about publisher Chucklefish's alleged treatment of unpaid interns, not gameplay
- Limited content depth for some players who finish unlocks and want more
- The leader doubles as your lose condition, and the abundance of area attacks, counter-attacks and reflects can make the leader's own attack kill it in retaliation (tactics-minded players find this infuriating)
Distinctive features
- Cooldown-counter (tick-down) combat on a six-slot, two-lane board instead of energy/mana-based hands
- Losing your leader ends the run instantly, while allies can be rescued in later attempts
- Charms applied to cards for extreme per-unit customisation, with some players saying it does this better than Slay the Spire 2's augmentations
- The previous run's winning champion returns as the next final boss, scaling difficulty with your own success
- Secret true boss unlocked at maximum Storm Bell difficulty
Divided opinions
- The winner-becomes-the-final-boss loop: some call it inventive and self-scaling, others call it unsustainable bad design
- Difficulty: fans call it rewarding and among the hardest deckbuilders, detractors call it unfair and luck-driven rather than skill-driven
- Randomness and unlock structure: part of the roguelike appeal for some, a time-waster for others
- Comparison to Slay the Spire: some place it among the genre's best, others feel mechanically something is missing despite the polish
Repetition and friction
- Unlock grinding that reveals conditional or weak content, frustrating players who put tens of hours in
- Restarting runs or cancelling them from the town just to reroll better starting leaders
- Hour-long runs ending in a loss to a boss built from your previous best run
- Having to mentally simulate many stacked effects each turn and losing runs to misunderstood ordering
- Feeling forced into a small number of dominant keywords per tribe on higher difficulties
- No quick-restart option, and manually calculating every stacked effect each turn because the game shows no damage predictions
Hoped-for improvements
- Add a preview or simulation mechanic for a turn so players can confirm the outcome before committing, given the many interacting effects
- Offer an alternate or less punishing boss mechanic after the first win so a strong champion does not soft-lock replayability
- Reduce or smooth randomness in starting leaders (for example, reroll or choose stats) so bad draws do not force restarting runs
- Rebalance weaker cards, companions and keywords so more archetypes are viable, and make unlock rewards less conditional
- Explain unusual mechanics and interactions better in-game
- Release more content (cards, tribes, modes), which reviewers explicitly request
Launched on Switch and Windows on April 12, 2023 to strong reviews, later ported to Android and iOS (April 11, 2024) and Xbox (December 10, 2024). Early balance problems (turn-0 infinite combos, overpowered final bosses) were reportedly patched. The game is not abandoned but players still ask for new content. Steam recent reviews were still Very Positive (about 85%) at fetch time, with low review volume in the last 30 days. PC is Windows-only. Note: OpenCritic could not be retrieved (web search budget was exhausted and OpenCritic/Reddit/RPS/PC Gamer fetches failed), so opencritic is null, and community detail draws mainly on Steam reviews and Metacritic user reviews rather than Reddit.
Community sources
- Local file of top helpful positive and negative English Steam reviews ↗
- Local Steam metadata: appid 1811990, reviews, tags, SteamSpy owners, revenue estimate ↗
- Metascore 80 from 17 critics, user score 8.0 from 45 ratings, critic quotes (Softpedia, Checkpoint Gaming, IGN France, Twinfinite) ↗
- Metacritic user review themes: art, deckbuilding depth, difficulty/fairness complaints ↗
- Gameplay, development, platforms and release dates, Metacritic scores per platform, RPS quote ↗
- Steam store page: review summaries, Gamereactor 9/10, ScreenRant 4.5/5, tags ↗
- Boxleiter-method revenue estimate (gross about $5.6M) ↗
- Steam discussion hub structure (644 general threads, 308 bug threads) ↗
Archived creator commentary 1
Third-party summaries based on automatic captions may contain transcription or interpretation errors.
Tier list Part 2 (2024)
Wildfrost is a board-focused deck-building roguelike where you play one card per turn and units act on countdown timers. He adores its visuals, music and approachable-yet-strategic gameplay, and has played it heavily, near 100%. His main complaint is the complete lack of card rarities, which makes finds feel random and flat, and he wants a larger card and unit pool. He still calls it a phenomenal game and lands it in A tier.
What the creator praises
- Immersive, beautiful visuals that made him want to play immediately
- Phenomenal soundtrack; several tier-list music tracks come from it
- Simple concept (one card per turn) that is approachable but still strategic
- Countdown numbers under units create interesting pacing
- Gameplay itself is almost not random; only the draw is, so everything can be figured out strategically
- Final boss becomes your next run's deck, upgraded, which works well as progression
- Very hard true final boss on top difficulty is satisfying to beat
Issues raised by the creator
- No rarities at all, so all cards and units feel equal in power and finds are less exciting
- Card offers are often three weak or off-build options, making runs inconsistent and less satisfying
- Too few cards and units; he thinks it could use double
- Lack of rarity plus small pool creates a weird limbo of randomness
Design observations
- Only deck-builder he knows with no card rarities
- One card played per turn while enemy and friendly units tick on countdowns
- Beaten final boss becomes your deck in the next run, upgraded, as a fight
- One of the least RNG-focused deck builders in terms of in-combat play
