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Like Frozen Synapse before it, Frozen Endzone is a predict-'em-up - a primarily multiplayer strategy game of deliberately limited scope where players take their turns simultaneously, attempting to outwit, deceive and second-guess their opponent. Whereas Synapse themed its tactical trickery around squads of tooled-up door-kickers trying to gun each other down, however, Endzone brings us a glossy future sport played by hulking robots.Endzone's virtual ball game takes its cues from that most American of footballs. Teams score points by getting the ball into their opponent's endzone through a combination of passes, runs and defensive blocking, with smaller batches of points available for either catching or running with the ball through highlighted sections of the playfield. Each game has a limited number of turns and achieving a touchdown resets the playfield with teams swapping ends. The team with the most points by the concluding turn wins the match.
It's a far more structured premise than Synapse's 'outgun your opponent's guns with your guns' approach, but there's still a lot to take in, especially if you're new to Mode 7's games. There's the simultaneous turns mechanic, of course, but also the obscure rules of the robo-sport itself. The ball carrier cannot run or pass backward, for instance, and cannot make any passes if he decides to run from the point of receiving the ball. It all means there's a substantial amount to learn before embarking upon a match, something which Endzone can't fully mitigate even with a playable tutorial and an explanatory video.
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