Among the many impressive demos I’ve played this week, Arctic Awakening demands my undivided attention. It’s a first-person mysterious narrative adventure taking place in a futuristic Alaskan landscape that’s both unforgiving and thrilling at the same time. You play as Kai, a pilot accompanied by his partner, Donovan, along with a therapy bot named Alfie whose friendliness becomes infectious right away. However, when a storm crashes their plane during a routine supply drop, Kai gets separated from his co-pilot and finds himself in the middle of a cold arctic terrain with only his personal bot to rely on.
With the Arctic Awakening‘s demo just being around an hour, there wasn’t much going on as it seems to be a very early part in the game. However, it was enough to get a taste of what the developers at GoldFire Studios are cooking up. The first few minutes of gameplay had me fulfill simple survival objectives like collecting branches to build a fire, stocking up on leftover resources, and inspecting the crashed plane all the while keeping up conversations with the chatty bot Alfie, who’s poised to be a lively companion.
After establishing communication with Donovan, Kai’s top priority is to reunite with his co-pilot before getting out of wherever they crash-landed. Once getting past the main objectives, I realized the game doesn’t indulge in much hand-holding, a quite refreshing experience, especially when it came to exploration. Even though Kai gets a compass to help him navigate while being stuck in the middle of nowhere, I was still clueless when it came to knowing where to go. Because of this, I found myself getting lost multiple times as the game gives no indication or even a marker for which path I needed to take. But fear not, Arctic Awakening does have an “unstuck” button to help you get back on track. This did help sometimes, but mostly I had to count on my sheer luck and guesswork.
The highlight of the demo for me were the interactions between Kai and Alfie. Although Kai treats the bot just as a tool, Alfie makes him and, to an extent, the player feel less alone in this arduous journey. What excited me about Arctic Awakening is how it’s a choice-based game where your interactions and decisions very much matter. As I couldn’t fully experience this feature in the hour-long demo, I’m very much looking forward to how it evolves Kai and Alfie’s relationship and their story when the full game launches.
Arctic Awakening is the type of game that grips you so unexpectedly and then you know, yeah, this is going to be a good time. With interesting characters, a cute robot companion, choice-based gameplay, first-person survival exploration, and a story that blends futurism and mystery, this is a game that checks all the right boxes. The short demo satisfactorily managed to peak my interest and leave me with anticipation where the ending made me go, “I need more.”
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