Insane Cold: Back to the Ice Age

Jankey hit boxes, non linear puzzles, too many cutscenes and non nonsensical plot.
Your average d grade point and click

"Insane Cold: Back to the Ice Age" is a Hidden Object puzzle game, the type you normally see on mobile app stores or even as browser apps. There's literally hundreds of these on Steam, mostly published by Artifex Mundi, many of them free on mobile app stores, but this one will cost you money on Steam. There's a ice age/frost theme to the game, but this is a just a veneer over a tired and overdone set of hidden object minigames and Adobe Flash tier puzzles, wrapped together with a bunch of static screens that you "move" through by tapping your finger on your iPhone screen.

While these kinds of games are popular amongst casual gamers, it's difficult to argue this is a great value proposition as a PC game, especially considering the price of this compared to the hundreds of free HOGs on the mobile app stores.

On the upside, the game does feature customisable controls and resolution, so at least some of the basic, minimum requirements have been met. Unfortunately there's a number of other technical defects and shortcomings which contribute to the game being difficult to recommend to gamers.

This looks and feels like a mobile app, but it doesn't seem to have made it to the app stores. It's unclear why this was put on Steam instead of the app stores it seems to have been designed for. Maybe it was removed, maybe it was rejected by Apple and Google (they do have more rigorous quality standards than Valve does for Steam, after all).

Regardless, for all intents and purposes "Insane Cold: Back to the Ice Age" might as well be a mobile app, it has the same limitations and dumbed down qualities. It's impossible to recommend such a game to PC gamers. We don't spend all this money building gaming rigs so we can pretend they're iPhones and play games that might as well be mobile apps.

These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.

Reviewing SteamDB to check how popular this game was with players reveals a surprise... there's a modest spike in player counts for the game. But this only happened once, around the same time that trading cards were applied to the game... so this is just card idlers getting their cards and moving on. A closer look at the numbers shows the game just has a couple of players every week running up the game and idling it for cards, then deleting it. We must ask how it benefits gamers for there to be so many games like this, with no merit as a serious game, that only generate sales from people idling and selling the trading cards.

[quote]Warning: Review Manipulation![/quote]This game features a number of fake positive reviews from accounts known to be in the business of review manipulation/paid reviews. They're all written in either Russian or broken English, appear at almost exactly the same time, very shortly after the game launched on Steam, all have a direct Steam purchase of the game, and the accounts are used consistently to write fake reviews for asset flips and other cash grabs/scams. The "Positive" review score on this game should be disregarded due to this blatant, unethical review manipulation. This is done to deceive and scam gamers into paying for a bad product.

So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?

"Insane Cold: Back to the Ice Age" is relatively cheap at $2 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, and the questionable ethical nature of the developer and/or their associates (as outlined above), this is impossible to recommend. This is also competing with over 11,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.

This game will probably disappoint the normal player, which is why I'm giving it a thumbs down (and will list the cons of the game shortly.) But before I do, I want to say this game can be a great play if you can enjoy the fact that this game was not made well. I quite enjoyed it, but I was also high for most of the game. Highly recommend turning it into a drinking game with friends/ streaming the experience.

Notable mentions of my playthrough:
-Crashed when I switched the setting from fullscreen to windowed.
-Incredibly obnoxious sound plays every time you click an object. Music cuts out awkwardly.
-Many 3D cutscenes that feel very slow.
-Poor translation for some of the objects on the lists. (I spent 5 minutes looking for a butterfly. Gave up and clicked hint. The game meant bowtie.)
-A few really obtuse puzzles I ended up skipping out of frustration.

Generic hidden object game #238. It's not bad, it's just kinda boring. Very light on the plot, occasionally illogical. The icy locations look alright.

First time playthrough: 3 hours 54 minutes
5/10

I'll be honest here, the game itself is a generic hidden object game that every mom on facebook has played. But somehow its lore and dare I say it, repetitive music gave me a sensation of "this game is very mediocre but the same 2 pieces of music give me a sense of doom and depression that makes me feel sorry for the characters in the game." Regardless of its lore, the video cutscenes are laggy and primitive despite coming out in 2014 but I am willing to put that aside as well.

It wasn't a good game to begin with, but a little over an hour in it lost my save data. Not worth going through that again.

This is... Not that bad actually. It depends on what you are looking for in the H.O.G. (Hidden Object Games)...

If it's story: It needs work. Usually the HOGs I play have questionable story stuff and I ignore them, since I am there to click and find things... So if you don't think about it... It's fine >.> But I just wish they didn't make us care about the souls we sacrifice... SERIOUSLY. THEY WILL NOT BE COMING BACK! Sometimes it is best not to know... And does the love interest have teleporting powers? She was further away and needs to travel by sea... HOW THE HELL did she get all the way to HIM? Lol!

Graphics? I don't care if they are good or not. As long as the game play is fun. You can see the graphics and gauge it by yourself above. Seriously, if a game looks REALLY good it scares me to play it... It's a burden on my PC, so I tend to stick to older games... Maybe because I am older too... Old games need care too... :>

Music? I don't think there is any... I think it's just there to set the atmosphere. I am okay with that. Can't do my puzzles with something crazy playing in the background anyway.

HOG game play itself? First, the designs are nice. I like the frost theme. I didn't like sacrificing people/ learning whom I sacrificed. The initial "find this item to stick it here" is what you are used to and it works... As long as you don't question it too much on some... Like the rubber band on the handle? I can take that off with my hands... >.> The "Find this/illuminated area" items are fine too. Just one thing... SOMETIMES it doesn't MEAN WHAT IT SAYS. Rarely, but it does it. For example: There is a bottle of green liquid above. It reads "how do I reach it?" What do you do? I looked for a ladder or something else to get that item. What do you REALLY do? You put a skull and crossbones label on it. Yep.

There are also things like get this "cup", but it's a glass... But blah... As long as it's quite similar, you'll figure it out.

For ANYONE having trouble SACRIFICING ALL SOULS, including your last one? The HINTS wont lead you in the right direction! When you land on the snow island (after traveling by sea)? There is a mini helicopter that is on fire on the ground. Fire extinguish that sucker and BAM = 16 souls. If you get there and it's not 16... You will have to go back and find the one you are missing. You CAN'T progress without 16 + the floating soul = BOOM.

Oh and the game crashes if you try to switch from Full Game Resolution to a Smaller one. I found a work around: Start in Full Screen (you have no choice on that). Put in your random name... Then start the game... Watch the cutscene... Change options then. You will now be able to play in Non-Full Screen mode. Voila!

Overall, I was entertained for a certain amount of hours with this game and as long as those poor souls live on and went onto something better... It's all okay. That said... Thank you! ^-^ :D :>

I'm crazy for HOG so I think that's the only reason I have finished this game. I don't know if other people experienced crashes, but this game crashed 10 times during my play. The first crash happened after just half an hour. When I restarted the game there was no sound any more. I had to uninstall the game and start over. I didn't mind the slow pace, bad English or non-sense solutions. It's on par with most other game in the genre. I liked the puzzles as they seem quite challenging. The crashing however greatly reduced the enjoyment. You don't know when it will happen again and erase part of your progress. The last crash happened four times at the same spot near the end when I was about 95% done. Yes I restarted four time to get past one scene. After that it's OK. Overall I don't recommend this game unless you're looking for a game to test your patience.

Horrible clunky HOG that is not worth your time. Not even for HOG lovers.

pros.
ok play time (around 2 hours and 45 minutes)

cons.
very boring
very clunky and buggy
i had one blue screen while playing the game
they very first time i launched the game it crashed
no bonus story
repetitive music
no wide screen support
the items in the UI are not in the right position if you play in full screen
no voice acting
the game is showing it has cards BUT IT DOESN'T!

overall i was very bored after a moment playing the game the bugs did not help it.
2/10 stay away

There were a couple lost-in-translation style issues like a bowtie being referred to as a butterfly and a smoking pipe being referred to as a tube (which could be dialect for all I know). There was also a little bit of back-and-forth that you had to do as far as going back to the hidden object areas to unlock a new item, and I had to use hints to find those because there's no real indication for it. However the backtracking is never too severe. There's also some good accessibility in that if any of the puzzles are too hard, you can skip them with no penalty, which is fantastic! I personally had to skip a couple of them because I didn't understand them well enough, and the game didn't punish me or make me feel stupid for it. In all, I really enjoyed the game and finished it in a single sitting!

A semi-decent Hidden Object Game, but it suffers in a few areas. You sometimes get stuck and have to backtrack several screens because "Oh, I need to do another hidden object game in the location I did one earlier" and it fails to give you any indication that you have to go back to a previous location.

Plus, it has no idea how to handle modern screen resolutions and so plays in some weird, squashed window.

An OK Hidden Object Game, but there are far better ones out there.

Overall this is a good game and definitely worth playing.
The plot is not great and some object use towards the end is a bit wooly but that isn't enough for a thumbs down.

If you are a fan of winter/ice/cold and Norse legend, then this game is for you. Insane Cold: Back to the Ice Age is a hidden object adventure game. You play as Jacob who was sitting in a pub, waiting for his girlfriend Helen to celebrate their anniversary while looking at mysterious amulet in his hands. The moment he saw his wife, the amulet activated and a creature showed up behind her. It all happened in a few seconds, Helen was kidnapped and the whole area turned into an icy land. Learning that this artifact is the one behind this disaster, the man who sold you the amulet revealed the solution, you'll need (to save) seventeen brave souls in order to break the amulet and save your wife.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1453350158

The story is decent, not bad but it was dragging in the middle. You'll learn the story behind each soul you save, it is all written in the journal +80 entries which I found really good and adds to the story. The game has no voice over as it is quite dated, same going for the animation cutscenes, you can tell the game is old from those, however, the artwork of the locations are really good.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1479531618

Hidden objects scenes are good, you'll visit each one twice and sadly the items you picked before are presented the second time you visit the scene, the second issue of the HO is when you pick an item, sometimes you need to click twice in order for the game to register you actually clicked it. Another thing I disliked is the lack of map and fast traveling, there is some backtracking and you'll need to memorize where to go, sometimes walking around aimlessly to find an active hidden object scene waiting for you. Puzzles are fun, some of them are difficult to solve.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1479531765

Pros:
+Nice artwork.
+Fitting music.
+Decent story.
+Variety of puzzles.
+Useful journal.

Cons:
-No voice overs.
-No map. (Some backtracking required)
-Slow game.
-No steam achievements.

It is not a bad game if you are a HOG lover or enjoy puzzles games.

[quote]𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑐𝘩𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝑚𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑛𝑎'𝑠 𝐶𝘩𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒[/quote]

In a nutshell:
Tedious gameplay, unclear objectives/course of action, weird item usage, agonizing music, no map, lots of backtracking, no VOs, dumb flavor text, confusing puzzles...shall I go on? Please, for the love of sanity avoid this one, despite such a low price. I wouldn't recommend it even if it was free.

The Long Version:
It took me days to finish this game. Not because it was particularly difficult, but because I kept taking breaks to get away from it. I didn't even finish it before starting to write this review, partly to procrastinate because I didn't want to go back to it. That should already give you a good idea of the experience you can expect. I did complete it for the sake of this review, but that was a stupidly masochistic choice on my part.

Gameplay/Story

HOGs & Puzzles

Graphics

Music/Sound

I really wanted to give this game a positive review for all the work that clearly went into it, but I just can't. The further along I went, the worse it got. The use of objects is just stupid in some cases like it specifically says "if I had a spear, I could pry this door open" Specifically a spear and only a spear? Really? And then an antique scepter is used just to smash a window. And you have at least 5 different cutting tools throughout the game - one of which was a gift from your girlfriend which you definitely would have held on to - but you drop them each after only one use. Also, I HATE it when games like this reactivate previously used hidden object scenes with no indication to the player. How am I supposed to know that a HOS three screens back is suddenly active again? It leaves the player wandering aimlessly.

But what really pushed me over the edge to a thumbs down was a game-breaking glitch. I did a HOS and was supposed to receive a sapphire at the end - no sapphire showed up and I was not able to progress. I refuse to replay 3.5 hours of a subpar game, so I guess I will never see the ending. How disappointing.

it was, fine. I had no issue with the gameplay, a bit more polished than others of this genre in that case. Yeah the animated sequences were VERY dated, but the still art was very pretty as per usual and you can skip the animated parts. So as a fun little puzzle game, i'd say go for it. Just don't expect something AMAZING

Even at a deep discount, I cannot recommend buying it.

The art and graphics are beyond "dated", they are just low quality. Better quality grahics to be found on some of the advert heavy, but F2P games online. I can forgive "dated" graphics. But, the pixelation and cursor blinking that occurs in this game makes the HOS just difficult and unenjoyable to play.

The puzzles are trite, overdone, and no challenge.

The "minor" translation issues others mention are actually quite significant ones if you are from the US, and not from Europe or Eastern Europe. It is somewhat obvious a poor quality online translator was used, no attempt to have anyone fluent in a different language than the developer's native language was even attemtped.

The story is shallow, and makes little sense, especially how the secnes are connected by seemingly unrelated story bits. It just goes too far beyond suspension of disbelief, which is really difficult to do in a HOG/HOPA game.

The game advertises Trading Cards, yet there are multiple people reporting that cards do not drop, and there are NONE on the Community Market at the time of this review. So, for people buying just for Selling or Trading... you may be very unhappy once you pass refund time, and have no cards, badge, background or emotes. I have had card drops at all. Fine, if the game was actually decently enjoyable, and worth playing without them. No achievements, with the developer making some claim that they cannot add them becuase "Unfortunately we can't add achievements to this game, because we don't have access to code source files"... http://steamcommunity.com/app/764010/discussions/0/2549465882926392078/


The number of rapid changes to Store tags, and from "Single-player" to "Single-player, Steam Trading Cards", leading up to the Steam Winter Sale, especially just prior to it, makes it seem like either the developer or publisher has no idea what they are doing, or is fully aware and was trying to add tags and make it seem like the game had TC's, to get more views in Discovery Queues. and to boost sales numbers during the Winter Sale. https://steamdb.info/app/764010/history/

This game first was sold on Big Fish Games and Wild Tangent, both for PC, and mobile, possibly mobile first? I am sorry, but it never should have been allowed to be re-published on Steam. At least not without someone who knew how to do a good port behind the wheel.
https://www.bigfishgames.com/games/8320/insane-cold/
https://www.wildtangent.com/games/insane-cold

I paid 59¢ USD. I overpaid. It was just that disappointing for a HOG/HOPA games fan.

(edited to correct typos, no text was changed, just misspellings corrected)

It is a descent HOG and an ok story. Some minor translation isssues.
Sadly no achievements.

This game is a masterclass in testing your patience. I had to restart not once, not twice, but three times because:

1. I apparently missed a soul. Don’t ask me how. I clicked on everything, including snow piles that looked like they might be alive.
2. I clicked too fast and the game just… gave up.

The music is like being trapped in a medieval ice cream truck on repeat and after a while, I turned it off for my own sanity. They clearly tried to channel Game of Thrones vibes, but they ended up closer to "Game of Freezes."

Cheap? Yes. Worth it? Not unless you really enjoy the feeling of eternal winter, both in theme and in gameplay.

1/10 for masochists and snow enthusiasts only

Language was a bit of a problem ie. Tube was actually supposed to be a smoking pipe. Butterfly turned out to be a bow. etc. I am glad it wasn't a timed game or had a miss click penalty!! Some of the mini puzzle instructions were not clear or missing entirely. On the plus side, it had an interesting story line.