Winter Burrow Review | Harsh Survival, but Make It Cozy
I live over in the South Eastern United States where we don’t really get any harsh winters. We usually get one or two snows a year, but it’s never enough to cause any alarm. Well, as someone who grew up in Florida, I’m always slightly alarmed, but that’s just me. Still, it’s nothing like the harsh winter that the little mouse protagonist from Winter Burrow experiences. And their story of survival won my heart from the very beginning.
Winter Burrow is a cozy survival game about a mouse who has returned to restore their childhood home. This little protagonist has a terribly sad story, but they don’t stop persevering and doing their best against all odds. Players will have to quickly learn how to gather resources, craft items, knit clothes, hunt dangerous enemies and much more to not only survive but create a sustainable home for themselves.
Right away I was hooked on Winter Burrow. I’m a huge fan of Klei Entertainment’s Don’t Starve, and I was reminded of it right away as you start with very few recipes and slowly uncover more to help with your daily chores and, ultimately, your survival. Your main goal, at first, is to find your Aunt who was meant to be looking after your family’s burrow so you’ll be working on making yourself winter clothes and finding food so that you can venture further away from your home in search of her.
In your burrow, you’ve got an oven, a chair to knit on, a workbench, and not much else to start. Thankfully, you’re able to craft a rudimentary axe in order to chop down nearby branches and twigs to get materials to make yourself a bed. The more you explore and craft, the more you’ll be able to make your burrow more like home. The years haven’t been kind to it, so a little bit of elbow grease is just what it needs to be restored to its former glory.
When you’re exploring outside, you’ll have to be careful. The winter is incredibly harsh and, if you’re not wearing the appropriate attire, you’ll start to freeze and it will slowly chip away at your health. As you progress in the game and go further and further from home, you can set up camp in the wilderness in order to stay warm. There are also some hostile creatures you’ll encounter and you’ll have to fight back, being rewarded with some tasty food in return.
Combat in the game isn’t difficult, but Winter Burrow is meant to be “approachable survival” so while the combat isn’t complex, it makes sense for the environment of the game. In the beginning, much of what you’ll fight will be large bugs, some hostile and some not, and if you dodge their attacks, which is very easy to do, they won’t pose much of a challenge to you. To be clear, the game settings did mention spiders that are likely also present in the game, but they give the option to turn them off. As someone with intense arachnophobia, I was SO thankful to be able to do this so I’m unsure how difficult those enemies are in the game.
I have very few minor nitpicks with the game. In fact, I only made note of three things and none of these made me want to stop playing the game by any means. First, there was a minor issue where after crafting something the box that pops up and says “New item crafted” would be stuck on the screen with no way to remove it. Thankfully, restarting the game fixed the issue and this is something that will likely and easily be patched out soon. Second, sometimes there are heavy snow storms in the game that make the game itself very difficult to see. This is, of course, a creative choice that the developers made to immerse the player and make it feel like a real snow storm, but I found myself squinting at the screen, unable to see and simply going to bed to avoid these stormy days altogether.
And my last minor grievance is the decorating element of the game. I always love being able to decorate a home base in a game, but Winter Burrow’s mechanics are pretty clunky and a bit unsatisfying because of its limitations. Decorating isn’t meant to be a huge, main feature of the game, so like I said, I wasn’t upset by these limitations, but not being able to rotate furniture the way you’d like, or not being able to properly see what you’ve planted in your mushroom garden can get a little frustrating, especially if you’re someone who likes to focus heavily on decoration when you play games like this.
And even with these minor grievances, I couldn’t put Winter Burrow down. Not only did I enjoy the survival elements of the game, but I loved meeting new characters, many of which you’ll find by exploring the map, and uncovering more of the story and lore of this unique and interesting world. Players looking for a cozy and enjoyable experience will be sure to find it nestled in this toasty burrow.
Breakdown
Game Name: Winter Burrow
Developer: Pine Creek Games
Publisher: Noodlecake
Game Length: 15+ hours
Availability: PC, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One
Reviewed on PC
Final Thoughts
Despite a very few minor kinks, Winter Burrow is pretty darn brilliant. The first time I sat down with it, I played for five hours straight. I’m a huge fan of games like Don’t Starve and this feels like a brilliantly cozy version of it with so many secrets to discover, a map that keeps growing and much more. With a heart breaking but also heart warming story of friendship and family, this is one players won’t want to miss.