By Quintin Smith on January 11th, 2011 at 11:46 am.
Episodes 1 and 2 of startlingly ambitious indie RPG Winter Voices have been released, though they’re technically episodes 2 & 3 since episode 0, Avalanche, is a standalone purchase in itself. You can get any of the episodes from Steam or from the Winter Voices site. I reviewed Avalanche here, and despite its crippling flaws it managed to be one of my favourite indie games of 2010. I’m head over heels in love with Beyond the Pillars, devs of Winter Voices, and what they’re trying to do. A video tour of the studio with lots of excitable chatter from the developers follows…
Winter Voices tells the story of a woman in a rural community trying to get over the death of her father, with all of her emotional battles taking the form of more traditional turn-based tactical battles against various physical manifestations of her misery. Like I say, ambitious. Excitingly, a patch is now out addressing some of Avalanche’s more unforgiveable problems, so if you were on the fence about this game before, by all means, topple off.
Here’s the link to my Wot I Think of Episode 0 again. I’ll see if I can get another one done for episodes 2 and 3 later in the week.
…and here’s the trailer for Episode 0: Avalanche, which I’m sure we’ve posted before.
11/01/2011 at 11:48 skinlo says:
Read the Episode 1/2 bit first,somehow converted it to Episode 3, combined it with the snow in the picture , got excited about Half Life 2:Episode 3 for a second then got disappointed 1/2 a second later.
11/01/2011 at 11:52 Handsome Dead says:
My computer just isn’t strong enough to match the high res visuals of Winter Voices.
Killing Floor is fine though.
11/01/2011 at 11:53 Rich says:
Nothing like standing around the funeral pyre, discussing last nights X-factor. Some employers think it’s bad for productivity, but I’ve always felt it builds a sense of community within the office environment.
11/01/2011 at 12:11 polyorpheus says:
The “Beyond the Pillars” youtube video has been taken down. Any other links to it?
11/01/2011 at 12:13 Quintin Smith says:
It has? Can you see this- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaQYwmN3EtU
Is the video working for everyone else?
11/01/2011 at 12:14 Rich says:
Works for me.
11/01/2011 at 12:45 skinlo says:
Fine here :)
11/01/2011 at 13:25 Jhoosier says:
The top video is blocked in my region (Japan), but Quintin’s link here works fine.
(Evidently blocked because of ‘playcast’, whoever they are, on copyright grounds.)
12/01/2011 at 17:00 DOLBYdigital says:
Blocked for me too (US), getting this message more and more… who is this playcast anyway, time to do some googling :)
11/01/2011 at 12:23 Serenegoose says:
Bought it. Even if it’s flawed, I can’t let this kind of originality go at that price. Here’s hoping the patch helps, as the complaints are what put me off last time (I mean, obviously, really.)
11/01/2011 at 13:09 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
So… who played the other episodes? Any thoughts?
11/01/2011 at 13:24 Nameless1 says:
Interesting and inspiring. The interview, especially. I’ll give it a try, probably as soon as the full “season” gets out.
11/01/2011 at 13:26 jdeuel says:
I got the first one, but those 15 turn battles took foreverrrrr. Thank god they’ve been patched down to 10. Maybe I’ll go back and finish it now.
11/01/2011 at 23:19 Anonymous Coward says:
I give this game kudos for the strange narrative and great soundtrack, but wow, unless you can seriously plunge your mind into it (like if a game Immersion junkie), this is probably one of the most tedious games ever released, let alone the bugs (constantly freezes up, thanks a lot adobe air, lol). I won’t be buying any more episodes unless the freezing problem and “do nothing” problem where nothing happens after loading a game are fixed. heh
12/01/2011 at 11:13 T4ffer says:
Word of warning: do not buy the Mac version of the game directly from the developers. Episode 2 download is corrupt, other installers require manual messing about with file permissions after installing. In 20 hours I still haven’t got a response from them regarding this problem.