Having a mouse moment.
Don’t be fooled by Winter Burrow’s cosy aesthetics and adorable rodent protagonist, because this survival game can be a lot more stressful to play than it looks. Game developer Noodlecake’s new woodland survival game puts players in the teeny-tiny shoes of a mouse looking to patch up their old childhood home. This simple mission is made complicated by the various worldly threats that are constantly trying to murder our unfortunate protagonist, ranging from starvation to nasty spiders.
Despite the cruel environment, however, fans of the survival genre might want to check this game out, if only due to its rustic Winnie the Pooh-like visuals and art design.
Cosy up by the fire, or die trying
Winter Burrow begins with a real gut-punch of an opening. Players are introduced to a humble mouse who has moved out of its childhood home to get a job in the big city, and take care of its sickly parents. When both parents perish to their maladies, however, the mouse has no recourse but to return home and try to start living anew.
Unfortunately, the family’s many years of absence have not been kind to their old burrow. With only an aunt living some distance away left to maintain the property, the house is practically crumbling to decay and overgrowth. Insects roam the borders around the house, and wilderness is creeping in to reclaim what’s been left behind.
All that means is that our poor little rodent protagonist is going to have to rebuild the old house-in-a-tree brick by brick, and not only make it somewhere liveable–but cosy enough to feel like a true home amid the wilderness. Thankfully, it’s not as hard a task to complete as it sounds. With the forest teeming with materials to harvest and forage, the mouse has plenty of options and tools with which to redevelop and furnish their home.
Winter Burrow offers a short-and-sweet story campaign for players to progress through, with a constant stream objectives given for them to work towards while building up their home. Side characters, like the mouse’s kindly aunt, keep things from feeling too dreary despite the story’s grim beginnings, allowing some warmth to seep into the game’s sometimes brutal gameplay loop.
The game’s art style is also beautiful in a rustic Winnie the Pooh-like way, calling to mind games like Don’t Starve with its mix of comforting aesthetics and harsh gameplay elements. The main draw is to craft cute little items like clothes and berry pies after scavenging for resources in the forest, which offers the story some sorely-needed novelty. Outside, the world is cold and harsh–but inside, it’s warm and lively.
It’s not exactly a cosy game; that label might better fit Twinkleby and Tiny Bookshop from earlier this year. Instead, it has cosy decorative elements to pair with its more challenging survival elements, and the two do make a surprisingly fitting pair at times.
There’s danger in them thar woods
The mouse’s home is a tree burrow in the middle of an open forest teeming with dangers, meaning that one step outside immediately puts players in danger. However, you’ll have to go several steps further than that in order to survive, as resources like leaves, mushrooms and tree bark are necessary to craft key items required for progress. Throughout the story, the game hands players a string of deceptively simple tasks largely dedicated to the restoration of the burrow.
I say deceptively simple, because it’s a lot harder than it sounds to do things like plant mushrooms, bake pies, and knit clothes. Items found outside must be crafted into resources like yarn and planks, before they can actually be used to make furniture and tools. That means the player is constantly lacking in important items, and must venture outside to scavenge more resources, to make more items, in order to actually make the tools they really need.
This crafting loop can get tedious surprisingly quickly, as the player will soon find themselves following the same trail in and out of the burrow a hundred times before it feels like they’ve made significant progress in fixing things up. The mouse also has to manage health, warmth, hunger, and overall stamina while trudging around in the snow picking up branches. That means trips will often be cut short simply because the mouse is getting too cold.
Granted, these are all quirks considered fundamental to the survival genre; they only irk me more here because, due to the beautiful 2D art and warm surroundings, I would simply prefer to spend my time at home with the mouse. I want to plant mushrooms, craft sweaters, and bake pies, and I can do that–but only after I’ve gone through hell outside to make that happen.
The game’s actual combat and crafting gameplay is rudimentary, though a layer of customisation pulled over what the player can wear and furnish their home with does keep things interesting. Resource gathering is also a bit of a pain at the moment just because the game lacks an in-game map, and it’s annoyingly easy to get lost in the forest even when you're trying to make short trips outside.
Verdict
Winter Burrow is a charming take on the survival genre, with an attractive art style that appears to have leapt from the pages of a children’s picture book. Its atmosphere balances its darker elements with a comforting sense of hominess, thanks to the adorable nature of its protagonist and the burrow they’re attempting to rebuild.
Unfortunately, its crafting and combat systems aren’t nearly as compelling by half, leaving the game’s survival gameplay feeling half-baked. Thus, if the game’s visuals leave you unimpressed, it’s hard to imagine its gameplay making up for it. For this price and length, however, it’s still an enticing option for players looking to cosy up with a game this winter.
Winter Burrow is out now on Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC for US$19.99. We received a copy of the game for this review.
