*Note: I received the game for free for my honest review of the game. Thank you to Future Friends Gaming and Pine Creek Games for the game key!
From the start Winter Burrow has a charm with the lovely hand drawn art style bringing to mind a lovely story book. The young mouse talks about their childhood home and the death of their parents which leads to them returning to their old home to rebuild and begin a new life in the burrow.
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| Memories of home. |
The tutorial for the game is pretty easy to follow. You have to forage for food, gather crafting materials, and fight giant bugs while surviving the cold. You also have to keep an eye on your health. The game feels like Don't Starve, but less punishing. If you do pass out, you drop all your items and just wake up in your home. You can go back and get all your dropped items and you don't lose your progress which I really appreciated.
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| Out in the wilderness. |
I also liked the accessibility settings in the game which allowed me to turn off spiders. I have pretty bad arachnophobia so I was delighted to find I could turn that setting on and the spiders look like giant ants. There is crafting and cooking in the game which I found enjoyable. Various meals give different benefits like more health or increased stamina. With the crafting, you can make warmer clothes for the little mouse which definitely helps with the cold. You can also craft all kinds of cute furniture items and as you progress the story you do unlock more recipes for each thing.
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| Taking some time for crafting. |
The game is fairly linear which isn't a bad thing. You meet all kinds of interesting characters who you have to help with various tasks and the rewards are upgraded tools, new crafting recipes, as well as useful items. The one issue I kept having was inventory space. I was constantly running out of room and would have to rush back to my little home and dump a bunch of things in storage. I would be proactive while I was there and cook more meals to take with me. Luckily after a bit of story, I was able to get recipes to craft bigger backpacks and increase my inventory space so running out of room started happening less often.
I loved the story for Winter Burrow. It was interesting and the gameplay for me was fun. I don't usually like survival games, but this one made the whole experience pleasant. I appreciated the common theme of community throughout the story and I was rooting for the little mouse the entire time. I liked upgrading the house and unlocking new areas as part of the story. I was especially thrilled about having a little mushroom garden in the basement which was not just cute, it took a bit of the edge off having to constantly go foraging. The game isn't very long; about ten hours, but when I finished I felt like I was saying goodbye to dear friends. Another thing that's rather lovely is you can keep playing once you finish the main story mainly to keep crafting the furniture sets and get any collectibles you may have missed. It's obvious a lot of love and care went into Winter Burrow and it created a charming cozy survival game that is well worth the visit.
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| Indoor mushroom garden. |
*Winter Burrow is available to play on the following platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Steam
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