The original Frozen Synapse is a wonderfully readable turn-based strategy game that plays out a little like a fully top-down Rainbow Six. You have your deep blue background, of the sort I tend to use in word documents to be less harsh on the old eyes; you have your team in green, the baddies in red, and neutrals in yellow, making it very easy to tell what's going on at a glance. I mention this because a new version of the game, Frozen Synapse Prime, is coming to PC soon, which messes with the colour scheme in scary ways. Its procedurally generated environments now look a bit like stark, grey alien spaceships, while the more animated characters no longer resemble plastic army men.
Developers Double 11 originally adapted Mode 7's Frozen Synapse for the Playstation Vita, and now they're re-adapting it back to the PC. I'm not convinced by Prime's shiny, high-contrast art, but I'm happy that the game will now feature controller support. The other changes are detailed here, and include new commands, overhauled multiplayer, a reworked campaign, and a couple of additional tutorial missions. There are also a few new maps exclusive to this Steam version.
Frozen Synapse Prime is out on November 14th. The original version included two copies (one for a friend), and it would be neat if this new one did something similar. Here's a trailer.
