Frozen Synapse

Frozen Synapse is a tactical combat simulation game, played as asynchronous turns by each player. Each player controls a small number of soldiers armed with various weapons.

The objective in most single-player missions is to eliminate the other squad, but there are also hostage protection and escort missions. Multi-player game modes include last-man-standing deathmatch, area protection, and hostage extraction.

Frozen Synapse is set in the futuristic metropolis of Markov Geist, which has become heavily intertwined with a virtual reality called the Shape, populated by virtual beings called shapeforms, as well as humans using virtual reality technology. The city is under the control of the corporation Enyo:Nomad, which rose to power and usurped the city government under the direction of CEO Nimitz Shand, with the aid of a powerful shapeform named Charon's Palm. The player character is Tactics, a master tactician employed by the underground group Petrov's Shard, founded by Shand's former friend Graham Nix, with the goal of opposing the grasp of the company on the city; the organisation also employs the shapeform Belacqua, in charge of hacking, and Kate Soulsby, a former military which became a double agent within Enyo:Nomad.

Throughout the game, the player controls soldiers within the Shape on the account of Petrov's Shard during skirmishes against Enyo:Nomad. The different missions are meant to improve Petrov's Shard position by performing sabotage acts, allying other factions, seizing facilities controlled by the company and ultimately confronting Shand and Charon's Palm at the Glass Tower located at the heart of the city.

Frozen Synapse has one versus one multiplayer. Free-for-all, four-player, and two versus two were planned but were never implemented. According to the developer blog, the two-player co-op for the entire campaign was beta tested.

The game was released for Windows and Mac OS X on 26 May 2011, for Linux on 28 September 2011, for iPadOS on 16 May 2013, and for Android on 18 June 2013. A version for iOS distinct from the iPadOS version was released on 8 January 2014.

The game has received generally favourable reviews, holding a score of 85/100 on Metacritic, with particular praise for its "newly composed, evocative" soundtrack. It won the 'Audience Award' at the 2012 Independent Games Festival and was held to be the 2011 Strategy Game of the Year by PC Gamer US. It has also received praise for its soundtrack, which gaming commentator John "TotalBiscuit" Bain has dubbed "The best soundtrack since Deus Ex".