I honestly don't understand the praise this game recieves from the top reviewers. So many people talking about how polished and smooth the gameplay is and just how great it is. I mean, the game definitely has some good aspects. The graphics are beautiful, the maps are huge and filled with things to do and explore, and there are a lot of cutomization options, challenges and events. From the outside, it does seem like a great game. The more I play it, though, the less fun I have and the more frustrated I get between grinding seemingly endlessly for credits and failing again and again on seemlingly impossible events, often due to physics issues and glitches.

The Grind

The average cost for cutomization options is roughly 150 credits, with some ranging from 30's (mainly goggles) up to 1000 (mainly snow mobiles.) The main method of earning credits is every 5th level, where you will recieve 25 credits. The problem here is both only getting 25 credits every 5 levels, and the leveling frequency diminishes due to increased experience requirements as you level. You quickly end up having to grind for hours just to get 25 credits that isn't enough to actually afford anything on its own. In the 9 hours I have on this game, I have been able to afford a mask and a jacket. The cheapest snowmobile is ~400 credits. 25 credits goes into 400 16 times and you need 5 levels to get 25 credits. 5 x 16 is 80, meaning you would need to reach level 80 to afford the cheapest snowmobile. Most snowboards and other options, as mentioned, average at about 150 credits meaning you could, at level 80, either buy a snowmobile or ~3 other average price items.

The Bugs

I will admit, there aren't a lot of bugs in this game. There are, however, a small few bugs that happen very frequently and are very infuriating. During events you will crash or need to restart and do so very often. Roughly half of the time you restart an event and try to rush past the 3 second count down to get on with the event your character will end up facing the wrong way and in your attempt to get moving you will end up walking or pushing yourself the opposite direction which is especially irritating in time trials. Another big one is, for some odd reason, sometimes when you land in the snow your snowboard/skis will be stuck underneath the snow and cause you to instantly die. This also happens frequently when you try to respawn or join a friend and you end up instantly dead and, in free mode and certain events, costs you points/exp. I've had times where I crash consecutively up to 5 times before I'm able to keep going.

Over half of the events in this game rely on your score, obtained by doing tricks. Scoring high is very difficult when a lot of your score relies on perfect landings that are nearly impossible to land and often don't even register. Half of the time I do a backflip it counts as a frontflip. Tricks don't seem to register an annoying amount of the time and even when you get a high score you'll likely end up losing a lot of it due to glitches and the shoddy physics.

The Constant Connection Requirement

You have to be connected to the internet to even get to the main menu of this game. This wouldn't be HORRIBLE if you always had a stable connection to the servers. Unfortunately, that's nothing but a dream with SNOW as there are constant connection issues, even while doing singleplayer events. Everytime you restart or finish an event, it needs to check in with the servers which can take up to a couple of minutes sometimes which is even worse when you're constantly restarting events. I've had the game straight up freeze when it tries to connect leaving me to force close it after a few minutes of waiting. The servers are also frequently laggy and crash on occasion.

Conclusion

SNOW can be fun. It's definitely fun to play with a few friends and explore the large and detailed map as well as share laughs with some of the bugs and bull ♥♥♥♥ fun you experience while flying down a mountain at 60 MPH. Unfortunately, that's all that this game really has to offer. Outside of that is a bunch of events that won't be completed by most of you due to the difficulty, infuriating bugs, rampant connection issues,and an insane amount of grinding to be able to afford even the cheapest customization options. I can recommend this game if you want to have a couple hours of fun with friends but as soon as you start trying to take this game seriously and wanting to complete events, challenges, and progress to further your character you quickly start to realize how unfair and annoying this game is to play.

I launch up the game for the first time.

I complete the basic training knowing that I can be the best around. All my life I've been preparing for this (about 10 minutes). I spawn up at the highest peak I can find and I start to speed up. I reach a speed of a dangerous factor. "It doesn't matter" I say. I'm the best and I know it. I continue to speed up, avoiding trees and rocks, expertly making each turn. "This is so easy" I say. I get even more cocky. I start doing extremely tight flips and I bounce off rocks, grinning, knowing I've mastered the art of Skiing. I take a look at the secenery and I close my eyes. "Easy" I continue to say. I open my eyes up and I see a broken fencing on the side of the track. "This is my chance." I yell as my eyes widen. "This is my chance to prove to the world that I'm unstoppable. I'm the single most skilled level 1 in this game." I take a turn so fast my computer skips a frame. I'm headed down the slope. The HUD says, "An Unamed Valley." I look at this and tilt my head, "Huh? That's a weird name for a Valley, I mean, kind of stupid, really. Like, if someone, like me, were skiing by and--That's when I saw it. A plastic fence about 50 meters in front of me. I make my first--and last mistake. "Hah, thin plastic? I'm headed over 100 mph, why would a plastic fence--" I strike the fence with such speed all the bones in my body instantly *CRACK* and the (apparently) infinite elasticity of the fence bounces me back with such velocity I hear the booming thunder of my body breaking through the sound barrier. I slide back through the snow so fast I explode a rock and snap a tree in two. My near-corpse starts to flail at a ridiculous magnitude and I rapidly start to elevate. The friction of the air as I shoot up the sky ignites my clothes and I change directions as my body desides and collapse in on itself. I rocket towards the mountain so absurdly fast I rip through mach 1. I collide with a cabin so hard I kickstart fusion and the house explodes. This only speeds me up. I launch straight down into the snow, burying myself 20 feet through the rock. The sheer heat I generate as a result of me doing this separates the oxygen and hydrogen from the snow and ignites---the entire mountain combusts and spews plasma everywhere. My body is shot up straight to the heavens at such indescribable speeds that I'm having trouble describing it. As I shoot straight through the atmosphere my flailing body heads towards the Sun. My vision starts to strech out as I reach light speed--passing straight through the Sun, killing it--and all life on Earth. As my body passes through the Milky Way--dragging parts of it with me, I think, "Level up!"

I do like this game it has potential for sure!! But.. for now I am staying away from this until it gets a bit more work done with the performance and bugs lol unfortunaly the game crashed my system and a friends pretty harrd after exiting. Made my i7 6th Gen, ROG system start running at half the speed it should.. yet after a good game delete and reboot it's all sweet!! Even though I give this a thumbs down I do enjoy it and hope i can give this a thumbs up in the near future!

First off, SNOW is a game that I wish I could mark as "neutral". Since Steam doesn't allow that recommendation, I ultimately went with a "yes".

With a vast glistening landscape and much land to explore, it's hard not to appreciate the beauty that is SNOW. Make your way through the powdery bliss while taking in the various sights and wonderful wilderness. Like the wise Eminem once said, "lose yourself in the moment".


If you ever had the joy of owning a GameCube, and played SSX Tricky for that matter, then you'll feel relatively at home with this PC translation. If not, then you're still in for a decent treat. While the game has some Early Access issues, ranging from severe graphical glitches to a terribly unforgiving "death" system, this game still has its delights that make me recommend it overall.

Within this game, you are able to explore a fictitious mountainside named Sialia. There are a number of things that you can do, such as free roaming sessions, and Olympic imitation half pipe performances and ramp jumps. Truly, SNOW offers a fairly realistic winter sports package.

Of course, as stated previously, this game has some irritating issues. First off, the punishment for hitting a rock is reasonable. It's death and a restart. Fair enough, yes? Well, then comes the plastic fence. Did you accidently - lightly - graze it? Too bad. Here's your gravestone and a restart. Happen to land on a small twig? Death and a restart. Want to test the fluffiness of that snow bank? Well... yeah, you get the picture. If you're not precise and exact with your movements and control (in other words, a pro), expect to restart this gae a hell of a lot of times.

Simply put, the graphic in SNOW is absolutely stunning and breathtaking. There is no denying it. Never have I ever been so impressed with a snowboarding/skiing game, and never have I seen one so realistic. The day and night cycle is definitely a huge plus as well, as it further enhances the immersion effect.

There is one small gripe that I have, however, and that is the quality of gameplay that you can achieve with a low end PC. My Toshiba E45T is considered one of these said machines, and it makes the game somewhat difficult to play, While I can still enjoy the beauty of the game, the Field of Vision (FOV) is just terrible for me. For example, by the time I see a tree, I've already "Dittoed" into a gravestone. This goes for other objects as well, such as the rocks and snowbanks.

The 3 songs that this game has to offer is amazing. The first time I heard them I pretty much fell in love. It really compliments the title. Then I heard them again, and again, and again, and again... the same 3 songs for the next 2 hours that I ended up playing. So while the music is amazing at first, plan on listening to your own playlist... your sanity will thank you later.

In regards to the atmospheric sounds, I have no complaints. The wind picking up while your speeding down a slope sounds so authentic, it's amazing. Another plus one to the immersion factor. The scratching of the board on ice is realistic as well. Everything just sounds so perfect, I really can't compliment this aspect enough.


+ Tons of challenges
+ This is a great game to play with friends; easy game to get in to if you're already familiar with winter sports
+ A lot of things that you can do in this game: "Fochi 2014" (play on Sochi 2014), half pipe parks, and free roam
+ There aren't a lot of decent snowboarding/skiing games out there, and this one brings me back to my SSX Tricky days
+ Honestly, you can't beat the fact that this game is free; does have microtransaction, but it's an amazing product overall
+ The graphics are just wonderful - of course it has its issues, but hopefully they're all taken care of by the time this game leaves Early Access

± There is controller support but it doesn't really feel complete... I could just suck at this game, though... I wouldn't put it past me
± If you like electronica music, then the soundtracks in this game will attract you. However, you'll fast become annoyed with them due to there only being 3 so far
± It takes some time to connect to the server, but I can't completely blame the game. There are plenty of people who have noted the server issues though, such as losing/dropping connection, but I can say this with 100% truth: I have yet to be kicked from the servers
± Decent enough to play on a low end machine, but you will experience some issues. Also, for some reason my friend, who has a better rig than I do, is unable to play this game (it crashes all the time on him). Maybe there is an issue with various graphic cards? Expect some issues in this department (or maybe it's the server issues)

- Why am I stuck with a bald headed man?
- Weird physics at times: you mean to go one way but end up twirling the other
- How do you gain big air? I see it happening in the video, but I can't achieve it in any way whatsoever... please teach me your secrets
- I got stuck between a snow bank and a cabin roof. This only happened once, but it was still pretty annoying have to load up the game again
- Currently way too easy to die/fail when performing tricks; sometimes you die for absolutely no reason (I remember spawning and dying immediately. What gives?)
- While you're able to customise your character, the grind is honestly too real. In the time that I have played this game, I have yet to gain any kind of coin. I'm not really interested in customising my character, however, but I can see where people will have issues with this


My first impression of this game has been decent. I was not here from the very beginning so I can't compare it to then (supposedly it was even better than it is now). Is that true? I will never know. The best I can offer you is the experience that I had and, while it's probably not popular opinion, it is my own.

I'm already biased due to the fact that I never really found a good snowboarding game after my GameCube days. Despite its laundry list of issues, SNOW ended up being the jump back into time that I needed. Furthermore, I really do appreciate all that this free to play game has to offer. From its gorgeous graphics to the size of the map, I personally find it rather difficult to completely dislike this title.

Like I said, hopefully the issues can be worked out. This game has been out for a long time now - since October 2013 - so I have hopes for it. If you're into winter sport's, then I'd say SNOW is a decent contender in this overall lacking genre on Steam.

5.5/10


Like my review or have any questions? Then please consider joining my review group, the Sonny Report! I will keep it up to date with the games that I plan on reviewing and will also accept suggestions.

If you would like to see how SNOW performed on my laptop, you can check out some footage here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yMmAdjEL6Q

I've been here from the start, I bought into early access and I had high hopes... I've seen it all change for better or worse. The developers are amazing and ambitious but my problem is it's always been average the game isn't amazing but neither is it terrible.

The good well the settings are all there screen options, a tonne of advanced graphics settings... all the good stuff! The music is by far my favourite thing in the game there's only a few tracks but those few tracks are so calming and beautiful. You can deck out your character as much as you would like the options are all there clothing wise anyways and with the new addition of snowboarders there's even more! I can say for a small dev team the content updates come out quite frequently which is never a bad thing. Maps are nice and big and online play works for the most part!

Now the bad the game is a buggy mess for the most part constant crashes, the physics seem off to me and the wait for snowboards was far to long to warrant how average the gameplay is, what I'm trying to say is I don't think it's fun... it's actually quite boring after the first 2-10mins. As a founder I expected more than what I got, I get it microtransactions is all fine and dandy since it's free now but what about when I paid to support you? A few clothes is all I'm worth... that's great! Aside from free roaming there is nothing else to do the game is tedious, slow and most of all not fun.

Look it's fine as a free to play game, I'm trying not to bash it because I wanted to love it and I know plently of people like this game and that's fine but what I expected was Skate in the form of snowboarding/skiing but what I got was a bland free roaming buggy mess. I've been patient for 3 years and now I finally know were this is headed, I hope all the best to the devs but this game isn't what I'm after... maybe someday in the future but now it's a strong no!

This has a lot of work to do before I can consider this smooth gameplay

Good cause its free and you can go mach 7 down a mountain

SNOW is a 'Exellent' Game

- Fun to play with freinds
- Easy to navigate ( Interface )
- Clean Interface
- Easy controls
- Big Open Areas to explore
- Graphically Pleasing
- Rewarding when pulling off stunts/tricks
- Unique Xp system
- Challenging yet rewarding Events
- Good slection of music

But 'Exellent' Games aren't Perfect

- Server connection issues
( Dissconnects you from joining a server frequently)
( Character Freezes often, leaving you without free movement)
- Crashes Frequently when Navigating the Menu's and when joining a server.
- Minor input Lag
- Not much to do ( in terms of multiplayer, There is only free roam)
- Physics Glitches E.G ( Character sliding on vertical walls with no momentum)
- Player Glitches through Objects often
- Music becomes repetitive and monotonous ( Would be nice if players can add their Own music )

Overall I belive this is a game worth downloading as it is Free To Play.
But as i have only played 4.6 Hours it truly shows how quickly you can become uninterested.

So yes I do reccomend this game as these Bugs are often Frequent in many Titles on Steam as it is in early access I look foward to futher updates to come.

...if only it was playable. There's too many bugs to make this game enjoyable. For starters, I can't play the game above 800x600 without it looking like garbage. Its physics are worse than QUOP. Many times I simply crash into a tree going ~5mph and get blasted around the map. The controls are clunky and hitboxes/sensetivity is rubbish. I can't even exit the game to desktop without it crashing. The only playable map is Sialia, which gets boring after a few minuites. When you're going down a hill at over 40mph and you turn a tiny bit, your charecter freezes and climbs the hill backwards before crashing. The drone (Activated with F3) has no physics at all; you can fly it into a mountain at full speed and is just stops. There's too many controls an buttons to press.

Overall, don't get it unless you want to waste hours of your lives trying to do something fun with it. It'll be fun to see what the developers make of this game when it gets fully released.

Are there even any servers?