What is your perception of the Chinese videogaming market? Difficult to think is positive, since as soon as you bring your mind to China the first images to appear are those of shameless clones justified by almost non-existent copyright regulations.

Yet the Chinese developers are not simply drones without skills and creativity that emulate what comes from the West to readjust to their audience: there is a mysterious underwood of independent teams and skilled programmers that for us European players is completely alien, from which they can exit products far more remarkable than it is reasonable to expect.

On the other hand, if you spend years studying the evolution of other people’s market and absorbing the knowledge of teams from all over the globe, something good will have to come out sooner or later, especially if you are part of a population that counts billions of people and boasts unparalleled adaptability.

With the absurdity of the situation described above, however, the amazement to see such projects arrive on our shores remains, and in fact there are few jaws fallen after playing Icey, a curious action game by the Shanghai Fantablade Network.

But do not think for a moment that game is a classic 2D action game: if it has left us speechless is because – despite referring to other products already known – dare completely overturn the classic narrative of this kind of titles and experiment with find brilliant of various kinds.  icey ps4  is, in short, the demonstration that independent Chinese developers are closer to ours than we thought. Indeed, perhaps they have already overcome them.

Icey game review, a Chinese indie that is not what it seems

ICEY Gameplay

IN THE NARRATOR’S MIND

Icey initially seems the most trivial of the action. It starts with a skin and bone plot that, after a short tutorial, sees the robotics protagonist in search of a certain Judas, inevitable final boss to be destroyed to save the world. However, when we talked about “already known products” to which the title of the Fantablade is inspired, we did not intend other actions, but a very distant game from this genre … or The Stanley Parable.

No, wait, we have not gone out of my mind: Icey really has a lot to do with The Stanley Parable, because it uses very similar foundations, its campaign is almost entirely built on the narrative, and boasts a non-omniscient narrator whose commands the player is free to disobey in almost every moment, creating absurd situations.

Whereas The Stanley Parable, however, often veered toward the absurd or hilarious representation of modern videogame development, Icey tries to take on more obscure, unreadable and unpredictable paths.

Of course, hilarious moments and breaks of the fourth wall are not lacking, but reached some “blocks” you realize that to reassemble the real history of the game it is necessary to explore in detail all the secrets, and there things get complicated.

In fact, Icey has a checkpoint system that lets the narrator start again when used,Believe us, however, if we tell you that you really want to discover all the secrets of the game , because some really give great satisfaction, while others will surely tear you a loud laugh.

For heaven’s sake, when the storyline detaches itself from the humorous metanarrative to beat the most unfathomable roads, it sometimes exceeds, but the final result remains very commendable. Beyond the narrative element, then, let’s talk about a more than solid game also at the mechanical level, because at the base it is still an action.