Game Review: Where the Snow Settles (Xbox Series X)

A short, narrative driven game, Where the Snow Settles is the debut game from Myriad Games Studio. It follows the journey of Aurelia, a young girl whose village is in the grip of an unrelenting and lengthy winter.

It won’t stop snowing; the ground is frozen, and crops can’t grow. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so Aurelia sets off with her older sister Esta to find help. They plan to stop and pray at some scared stones first. Hoping to receive a blessing to aid them on their journey.

Against tradition, Aurelia ends up touching one of the scared stones and is transported to the spirit world. Here, she discovers that her world is dying and to stop it she will have to find the source of the problem. Her journey is about to start but she won’t be alone as a group of spirits, led by Luso are going to help.

That’s the story and… it’s not great. Bland, uninteresting and so short, there’s no time to get invested. The major selling point of this game falls short by some distance.

So, does it make up for that with gameplay? Alas, no. It’s a walking simulator with just the simplest of interactions with items and character conversations to break up the monotony. In turn, there are no voices, it’s all text and a piano or guitar chord to represent the sound of someone speaking. Cute at first, monotonous by the end.

Does Where the Snow Settles get anything right? Yes, it is a very pretty game made up of audacious pastel colours and has a strong, if underutilised soundtrack.

Of course, that is never going to be enough to convince a person to invest in a game, especially one as short as this. It will take you no more than an hour to complete. The length isn’t the problem, we’ve played games just as short that we love. It’s that Where the Snow Settles doesn’t have a gripping story or enjoyable gameplay. Harsh, but true.