Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
Analog Adventures in the Alps
Despite a long workday, I’m always down to play some games. However, it can sometimes be a chore to set something up and/or learn something new. Backstories: Alone Under the Ice offers a narrative experience with practically no setup or rules overhead.
What would you do if you lost your brother in the icy mountains?
The landscape of “choose your adventure/murder mystery” games is quite busy, ranging from Suspects: Claire Harper, Eternal Investigator, Alibi: 3 Intricate Mysteries, and Cold Case: End of the Line, to the popular Exit and Unlock! series. Backstories, from game designers Jules Messaud and Anthony Perone, takes a different spin, as players are resolving a mystery rather than solving a murder.
The art—by Cyrille Bertin, also known for the Unlock! titles—is instantly recognizable. Without spoiling the plot, the initial task is to search for a missing brother in the French Alps. Players start in a ski lodge refuge with multiple options to kick off the story.
Throughout the game, players can take on status effects (ranging from frozen to injured to mistrusted) and accumulate objects that could become useful at the right moment. The “panorama” is a set of up to six cards that lay out the landscape, where players can search, observe, or take other actions—think of it like a physical point-and-click interface.
Action cards have varying cutouts that can be matched to the backs of other cards. If there’s a match, players will be instructed to resolve new cards, advancing the narrative. The game features multiple endings and can drastically change based on the timing and consequences of players’ choices.
What Secrets Lie Beneath the Ice?
I love branching storylines and choice-driven consequences. As a big video gamer, Baldur’s Gate 3 stands out as a perfect example of how no two playthroughs can be the same. Backstories: Alone Under the Ice is a solid analog translation of that kind of system. It gave me the feeling of old-school “point and click” PC adventures, where you can try nearly every object in any situation. Some attempts lead to funny prompts, while others result in immersion-breaking roadblocks (the game scolds you for trying to light someone on fire!).
I really enjoyed the sense of freedom as I navigated through the story. Since there’s no “natural” timer in the game, you can take your time matching objects to different people or situations and see if there’s something you missed. The game sparked a few “a-ha” moments when my wife suggested some obscure combination that resulted in an unexpected boon.
However, there is a bit of a push-your-luck mechanic: trying one specific action will often close off other options for that location.
As much as I enjoyed the creative system, there were a few setbacks with this particular story. While I know it’s meant to be a short game (around 60 minutes), some character choices felt unnatural, and you’ll need to engage your suspension of disbelief in certain scenarios. That said, I appreciated how we could logically deduce that some actions would harm our characters, which added a nice layer of puzzle-solving.
Another possible drawback is a timed segment in the plot. You’re instructed to set a timer on your phone and complete certain tasks within a set timeframe—or face consequences. This added pressure led me to skim through the card text just to cover more ground. While it’s an interesting mechanic to keep things moving, it won’t appeal to everyone—especially if real-time gaming adds stress.
Though we didn’t get the “best” ending, we still ended on a happy note. The game encourages you to reset and explore a different path, as a single playthrough only reveals about a third of the deck. It was also fun to skim through the unused cards afterward and see what opportunities we missed or what crises we avoided.
With its small box size and creative card-matching mechanics, I’m excited to explore more titles in the Backstories series. It’s not perfect, but for fans of tactile mystery and meaningful choices, it’s a chilly little gem worth digging into.
Backstories: Alone Under the Ice details
- Designer: Anthony Perone, Jules Messaud
- Artists: Cyrille Bertin
- Publishers: Gém Klub Kft., La Boite de Jeu, Tranjis Games
- Release Date: 2024
- Player count : 1 - 6
- Age range : 10+
- Time range : 50 - 70 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Cooperative Game, Move Through Deck, Narrative Choice / Paragraph, Storytelling
- BGG Geek Rating: 7.14098 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 3.5.
- More articles about Backstories: Alone Under the Ice.
Add Comment