Talvisota: Icy Hell

Talvisota: Icy Hell (Russian "Talvisota: Ледяной ад") is a real-time tactics and educational computer game, developed by the international developer group Blitzfront Game Studio and is based on the events of the Winter War (Finnish: talvisota) conflict of 1939–1940 between Finland and the Soviet Union. The game is built-up upon Nival Interactive's Enigma Engine that was used in the Blitzkrieg game and is a fully stand-alone product.

"Icy Hell" redirects here. For the album, see Jack Frost (musician).
Developer(s)Blitzfront Game Studio
Publisher(s)
EngineEnigma engine
Platform(s)Windows
Release
  • CIS: November 16, 2007
  • FIN: October 2, 2008
Genre(s)Real-time tactics, Educational game
Mode(s)Single-player

The Finnish Board of Film Classification determined that Talvisota: Icy Hell is both a Real-time Strategy and an Educational game.

Game features
  • Two long campaigns for Soviet and Finnish sides.[1]
  • Historically accurate.[2]
  • Based on real political and historical events before and during the Winter War.
  • Historical encyclopedia and archives videos.
  • Molotov cocktails, soldiers speaking Russian and Finnish, authentic battle-front reports, airplanes, skiing troops, satchel charges, flamethrower tanks, and experimental units.[3]

Development history

The game's development was started by the Russian language online community, which consisted of people from different countries that were interested in military history and historical games. In 2004 they started wondering why nobody had made a game about the Winter War, a highly interesting war conflict, although somewhat unknown to the public. They decided to make the game themselves.[4]

Because of various publishing problems, the game wasn't released for a long time despite development being completely finished.[5] At the end of 2007 the game was finally released in CIS countries in Russian. A year later, at the end of 2008, the game was released in Finland in English.

Critical reception

The game received generally positive reviews from game critics.[6][7][8] Finland's main website for historians reviewed the game from historical and cultural perspectives, and their opinion was generally positive.[9]

There were some negative opinions as well. For example, Finnish Captain Olli Ovaska said that the game claimed that the Finnish military attacked the USSR on the first day of the war. But according to the game developers, Olli Ovaska misunderstood something as they never claimed such a thing.[10]

References
  1. "Pelitehtävien (karttojen) lista" (in Finnish). Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  2. "Pelin historiallisesta tarkkuudesta" [The historical accuracy of the game] (in Finnish). Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  3. "Talvisota: Icy Hell pelin ominaisuudet" (in Finnish). Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  4. "Pelintekijät ja pelin synty" [Authors of the game and the game's evolution] (in Finnish). Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  5. 06.12.2008. Itsenäisyyspäivän yövieraana Talvisota: Icy Hell tietokonepelin tuottaja Mikko Vedru, Radio Suomi.
  6. "Talvisota: Icy Hell". Archived from the original on 23 January 2009. Retrieved 16 April 2010.
  7. "Talvisota" (in Finnish). Archived from the original on 29 April 2010. Retrieved 16 April 2010.
  8. "Talvisota – Ледяной ад (обзор)" (in Russian). Live Journal. 26 November 2007. Retrieved 16 April 2010.
  9. "Peliharrastajat talvisodan taistelukentillä" (in Finnish). Retrieved 16 April 2010.
  10. "Kirjoitus pelistä (Reserviläinen lehti)" (in Finnish). Retrieved 16 April 2010.
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