REVIEW: Arctic Awakening's blend of narrative walking sim and survival game mostly works

If Arctic Awakening proves any one thing it's this: men will literally do anything other than go to therapy. Even when you crash land on an island with your (robot) therapist and there's nothing to do but scavenge for supplies and talk about your feelings.

But what happens in the meantime is an interesting blend of traditional narrative walking sims and survival games in GoldFire Studio's biggest game to date.

​Just the Facts

Developer: GoldFire Studios

Publisher: GoldFire Studios

​Platform(s): PC*, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S and X *denotes platform reviewed

​Price: $24.99

Release Date: September 18, 2025

Review key provided by Mooncat Games.

Until Arctic Awakening, Oklahoma City-founded GoldFire Studios had previously only worked on multiplayer experiences that look and feel more like the kind of thing you see in the mobile gaming space. Then, after six years with their heads down on their latest project, the team releases a narrative adventure more akin to the likes of Firewatch or something out of Telltale Games than a game you'd find on a .io website that kids sneak onto school computers. They're going big, and it's always exciting to see indie studios make a jump like this.

Arctic Awakening tells the story of Kai Akana, an ex-military pilot on a supply run for an Alaskan town in the near future. Kai's accompanied on this flight by his copilot Donovan, an old military... frenemy is about the best way to put it for their relationship, and Alfie, a court-mandated therapy bot who has been assigned to Kai for reasons that aren't quite clear from the start.

Halfway through the autopilot, easy-breezy run, a storm hits. The tail is chopped off. Donovan parachutes out, but Kai stays with the plane and ends up stranded in the middle of nowhere in the Arctic north. With only the bot by his side and Donovan injured and alone somewhere out in the forest, Kai has to keep himself alive, find a way out of this situation, and maybe even face the darkness of his past in the process.

As he begins to explore, he uncovers strange scientific facilities, stray unmanned drones that roam the land, and maybe even signs that others have crashed here before. Kai's focus is on escape, but a mystery starts to unravel in front of him as he works toward that goal.

Arctic Awakening is ultimately about what makes a person a person and learning how to accept your faults — even when cast into extreme circumstances. It's interesting enough, with its mystery drawing on the likes of LOST, Firewatch, and Castaway — but it keeps thing a bit too close to the vest, to the point that I'm still only kind of sure about some of the biggest revelations. Even as a LOST fan, I was shocked by how few answers the game provides across its five episodic chapters, and how frequently it layered on new twists and turns.

The main character, Kai, is kind of unlikable for a large chunk of the game, despite your choices driving his actions. His reasons for being that way are part of the reason he has a court mandated therapist robot and all, but even when you push him toward growth, he often rejects it moments later. It's frustrating to see a moment of genuine character development followed shortly after by dialogue that contradicts the decisions you helped shape.

It's one of those issues that plagues many choice-driven experiences, as they attempt to make a throughline that works for all players, regardless of choice — but in a game so focused on Kai's emotional journey, it was a shame to see most of his growth reserved for the very end.

Kai's main counterpart throughout the experience, Alfie, is the direct opposite. He's bubbly, always asking questions and looking to help. But there's no ridding your mind of the underlying tension of his presence and what it means for him to be analyzing Kai's every action.

The slow-burning relationship between bot and man does make for some sweet moments, and you do really start to feel connected with Alfie as the game goes on. One particularly joyful moment involved a bit of a song in a dire situation, showcasing the sweetness of this partnership and the potential vulnerability Kai possessed. Of course it's squashed moments later when he jokes about Alfie's uselessness again, but it's sweet nonetheless. All said, it's easy to find your affections latching onto Alfie more than any of the human cast.

You do really feel like the game considers even the smallest dialogue choice — even if it doesn't always shift Kai's personality in a meaningful way, it manifests in the story's throughline via callbacks to your previous statements. And there are some choices that make me wonder just how wildly different the game could end up if I had, for example, chosen to abandon the bot early on. It might not be the most exciting thing, but it's impressive considering the breadth of dialogue choices you'll make across a playthrough.

In a game so focused on Kai's emotional journey, it was a shame to see most of his growth reserved for the very end.

As you traverse Arctic Awakening's environment, it peels back in layers and feels interconnected in a way that feels not like a game's artificial spaces connected by loading zones, but more like a real natural space. However, I wished they'd cut the fat here and there, because GoldFire's dedication to a more grounded and deliberate story gets in the way of its pacing in a very real way. Some story beats grind to a halt simply because the game's asking you to haul rocks from one point to another or take long hikes through the hills.

Speaking of pacing, Arctic Awakening's episodic format is wielded well, so that I was really able to appreciate the ebb and flow of GoldFire's storytelling. Cliffhangers abound at each episode's end, always punctuating story beats with exciting moments. And by providing these clear "episodes," complete with credit rolls at the end of each chapter, it also allowed for clear breaks and pauses, with each episode taking just about two hours to complete. It's digestible and built for you to play at your own pace.

The narrative is brought to life by a voice cast that helps elevate the experience in much the same way the walking sim genre classics of yesteryear did. Relative gaming newcomer Jason Maniccia brings Kai to life with the kind of laissez-faire hand-waving of Alfie's attempts at connection you'd expect from a gruff military vet. Alejandro Saab, best known for his Hoyoverse contributions and various anime roles, brings Alfie's plucky robo-assistant vibes to life with an appropriate amount of aloof nerdy charm. And industry veterans Dave B. Mitchell (Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog!), Cia Court, and Mara Junot round out the cast nicely. But the less said about their roles the better.

Narrative is key here, so that naturally took a lot of my focus in reviewing Arctic Awakening, but its approach to gameplay is certainly worth unpacking.

Arctic Awakening is a choice-driven walking simulator, but it's got these odd survival management mechanics tacked on, so that you have to kept Kai fed and periodically regulate his mental health by meditating at a cairn with a timing-based minigame. Outside of that, gameplay mostly revolves around making narrative choices, walking through the environment and doing some light climbing and clunky hopping during some of the more intense hikes.

The combination offers the player a touch more influence over where the narrative goes than something like Firewatch, but far less to worry about in terms of survival management than just about any other game with a hunger meter.

The survival mechanics aren't unwelcome, but they never became an actual issue with stakes — there was food aplenty to find in the environment — meaning it felt like an errand designed to create more interactivity more than something truly engaging.

That really becomes apparent with the mental health meter, because it is so out of your control: You have to find specific cairns to sit at to do your breathing exercises, and that's the only way to replenish the mindfulness meter and get rid of the vision distortion that accompanies it. I would imagine if you truly needed to take a break and breathe, you could do it just about anywhere, but there were long stretches where I had to persevere through blurry eyes just to finally find a cairn at the end of a long path. It was also hard to tell what caused mental degradation, if anything. Choices didn't seem to factor in, nor dynamic events in the world as Kai and Alfie explored, so the system felt like a matter of a timer ticking down, not exactly a genuine reflection on how mental health manifests for Kai.

One major issue I had in my playtime sadly had to do with my dear robot pal, Alfie. With the UI kept minimal, he and your trusty compass are your only guide through the woods at times. When it works, it works. He mostly does a good job at keeping locked on your position. But there were instances when Alfie's pathing would go haywire, sending him up the wall of a cliff or into the middle of a tower you're climbing, never to be seen again.

One mission had me tracking down a specific tree to burn, only for Alfie to go trekking in the opposite direction of it, leaving me all turned around until I retraced my steps and found it. Then I had to wait for him to hover back to acknowledge the event, which was another common issue: Alfie would lose his way in the world yet needed to be present for the narrative to advance.

I also ran into a few glitches in my review process, including one, now patched, that completely halted my progress. Even after that patch, it was still a bit tricky to navigate triggering the next scene. And there was some technical creaking: My play experience had me averaging around 40 FPS despite meeting the recommended requirements, for example. But the team was releasing near daily patches, sometimes more, during my review window, so the work is being done and they are definitely aware.

Arctic Awakening is a stumper of a game, one that has a clear vision for what it wants to be but stumbles in its execution. I want to believe this game will reach its potential with time, and that this small team will keep making ambitious games. While Arctic Awakening sometimes left me feeling frosty, there's a definite spark that shines through.

Video Games Are Good and Arctic Awakening is . . . GOOD. (6.5/10)

+ interesting blend of survival gameplay and walking sim concepts, strong voice cast anchors the experience, kai and alfie's relationship shines

- execution falls short, technical issues can hurt or halt the experience, kai's character doesn't feel like it matches your choices at times

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