"A great and unique trap-based spin on the tower-defense genre" is the best way I can sum up Sang-Froid with.

What does it have going for it?
- Two characters to choose from.
- Character development, both in terms of equipment and skills.
- Good enemy variety, which will force you to adapt and evolve your strategies.
- An interesting story.
- A compelling artstyle.
- Catchy "folk" soundtrack.


What could be better?
- The fighting system variety, which could be better.
- Performance, which weren't great on my system, but still good enough to beat the game two times.
- The English voice acting for some of the characters (the best voice is definitely the Devil's, though!)
- The experience system, which is pretty basic in what it does while it could be much more.
- The weapons system, which could use less straightforward upgrades and more sidegrades to choose from (similarly to the trinkets, where you only have 3 slots but have multiple useful things to choose in between).


Overall, aside these minor issues, Sang-Froid is an absolutely entertaining game, deserving to be played at least once per character to experience both difficulties provided... and to prepare yourself for Tome II.

Overall rating:
9.5/10
Highly recommended. Among the best games that I have ever played. Must play!
"Atmospherically brilliant. Sometimes brutally unforgiving."


About the game (minimal spoilers):
You play as either 'Jos' or 'Jacky': Two brothers, fighting to survive the night at their father's old wooden hut on the outskirts of a tiny snow-covered Canadian town. They are drawn together following the unexplained and sudden illness of their sister. She is far too unwell to be moved, and a broken bridge blocks safe travel to medical help and supplies. However, this soon becomes the least of your worries as strange packs of wolves begin appearing every night. You must face the reality that you and a handful of simple traps are all that stand between your sister and the evil that comes every time the moon rises. Plan well, fight bravely, and aim true, as the threat grows with every passing night...

Will you survive the night, or will you be ripped apart by tooth and claw and malice?

Helpful hints:

• DON'T save up all your gold.
  
• Buy the double barreled musket; buy the ~3.5g axe.
  
• Holy weapon bless your melee weapon asap!
  
• Save your fiery hits for engaging enemies with a higher fear factor than yours, then keep smacking them while they are still getting up.
  
• Don't put points into ranged skills. Avoid ranged, it's crap.
  
• Stay away from walls when attacking.

(P.s. Using healing potions ruins the challenge.
Jacky (big guy) is way too easy)

Pro's and con's: [/u]
-- Pro's:

• The setting was so, so enjoyable. This includes the main map layout and design, and the geographical setting as well.
  
• The story is great, breaking away slightly from the norm.
  
• Loved the survival element. No save-loading!! You either had what it took to live or you got ripped apart.
  
• Steep learning curb.
  
• Great selection of traps. Each had their own unique function.
  
• The melee combat style was difficult but rewarding. You had to learn when to hit, when to dodge, when to use your enraged hits. Don't think that just because you are swinging your axe you're not gonna get a claw to the face >:D

Thoroughly enjoyed the crunching of snow beneath your feet, and wolves holwing, and ravenous eating noises when consuming baits, and the whole forrest of evil creatures joining in a chorus of howling when you died. It was beautifully atmospheric, but never annoying.

The sound of children singing or people moving around, out of view, during cutscenes or when visiting the village was some nice production quality.

The tutorials were informative and effective.

The gradual availability of traps as you progressed through the game was useful in not overwhelming the player, and also avoided the use of instant-win tactics, such using mass Fire Walls to funnel enemies towards your swining axe from lvl 1.

Some of the voice actors were quite good. Particularly the Mayor, who, also played the voice of the Hermit, too.

[/list]

-- Con's: In order of emphasis
Almost a 10/10. Everything not mentioned was perfect!

• Those f*****g walls!!!Avoid touching walls during combat, because it glitches the swing timer, making attacking enemies hit twice as fast.
  
• Needs more weapon variants, and trinkets!!! Please, for the love of loot!
  
• The MONEY!!! There is a steam achievement for having 15 gold saved up. By the end of the game I had 50gold!!! In 1858 50gold was a huge amount of money. If you play efficiently (for me efficiency is the driving force of my gameplay) you soon amass a ridiculous amount of gold.
  
• There was NOTHING TO BUY by HALF-WAY through the game. The developers need to add some meaningful item upgrades so that players don't waste their time planning long and hard to efficiently fight the darkness.
  
• Why?? are there so many empty slots in the vendors' inventories? That's just deceiving to players, whom think that they should save up.Either fill those up with new items, or REMOVE the empty slots.
  
• Why?? Do the Mayor's House and the Church never become accessible? Please add more content.
  
• The starting axe (with a holy blessing endowed upon it) will last you until about 16th December. (Keep in mind i was playing the NON-melee guy) That is pretty ridiculous if you ask me. You even get a FREE axe which is effective against all enemy resistance types on 20th December, I think so there's no point upgrading if you know what you're doing.
  
• Ranged was completely unviable - too few weapon variants - targetting was slow - auto-aim hindered headshots - couldn't shoot enemies already beneath towers.
  
• Melee too powerful, even as Jacques WITHOUT melee-oriented skills, and the level 1 axe.

[/u]

There are a few 'invisible walls' on the map, which you eventually become familar with and learn to avioid, but which cause a lot of frustration when you get stuck. Eg trying to run over a small mound or between trees.

Cannot snipe from an overhead path - can only shoot enemies while they are on the same path as you.

Few minor bugs, such as the Spike Trap (which requires 3 enemies standing on it in order to trigger) only hitting 2 enemies.

That f******g spike trap!! Got me so many times as I ran hordes of enemies over it, DESPITE me being an easy 5 metres outside of it's boundary. Please fix this bug.

Every now and then an enemy will drop aggro while you are running away (despite his friends keeping aggro).

Sometimes the Will-O-the-Wisps will appear on the other side of the map if you move from where they were when they went underground.

Occassionally, an enemy will hit you while they are still on the ground.

Jacques (the trap-oriented guy) is usually forced to rely too heavily on melee in order to be money-efficient.

Felt that the traps weren't really as useful or permanent as they could have been. For example, the spike trap (pretty expensive really) might have remained after being initially triggered, doing a further 10 damage to the first two enemies to run over it. Maybe an option to reset wolf trap. (I chose Trap Guy, but prefered melee due to traps being less viable).

There are some common fantasy themes of good vs evil, as well as some pretty standard tropes such as the helpless female, and the evil guy in power - ie. the Mayor . These are a little overdone, particularly the way the writers make it very obvious whether someone is 'good' or 'bad.' Also, everything is black-or-white in the sense that someone is either a 'good guy' or a 'bad guy.' The writers could have brought in some shades of grey by looking at the human element of the decisions they make ( beyond the ridiculous reasons for the priest doing what he did, which seemed unrealistic and nonsensical ). Yet, you can't ask for too much from an Indie title.

The character modelling was a little poor in places. Particularly Jacques.. and the Mayor's chin :P

The was this blurry white glow on the ground surrounding the player, which looked visually unpleasant.

The blanket over Josephine would always jerk suddenly a few inches over her body for a few seconds before her rising off the bed a few seconds afterwards. This was obviously an animation issue, to avoid showing her lower half, but it was low production quality and could have been a more fluid motion.

Needed a 'don't show me this message again' feature to initiating a game with unspent skill points, and when you're low on ammo. Clicking it gets really old when you are saving skill points up for reaching level 14.

Needed to have a 'save current twilight layout' option, so that if you had to stop playing you didn't have to redo your whole setup.

Needed a 'refund skill points' button. Even if one-use only, or costly.

[/list]

Really enjoying this unique spin on the tower defense genre.

The voice acting and writing is not very good, and the melee combat is unrefined but everything else (visuals, sound, overall story and controls) comes together wonderfully.

Spend the daylight deciding what supplies you need, bullets (normal, blessed or silver) buying new weapons or armor or charms or just a lot of beer and whiskey.

Lay out tons of traps and zip line towers to foil all the things that howl in the night. Will your preperations and timing be perfectly planned or will you be scrambling to save everyone from the wolves with your quick wits and blessed axe.

I've never played anything quite like Sang-Froid before and I'm sure you haven't either. If you took lumberjacks and werewolves and threw them in a blender with Rainbow Six's careful planning (and executing of said plans), the frenetic and intense last stand dynamics and overwhelming sense of impending doom of the movie Zulu, and a hearty glug of Canadian folklore, you'd be getting close to what Sang-Froid is all about. It's unique, refreshing, clever, thrilling, gorgeous and has a fantastic folk soundtrack to boot. One of my games of the year without a doubt.

Update: Game is now free for some reason, you owe it to yourself to try this out for a few hours. Its a unique experience and only costs you some of your time.


Where to begin with this one? It's a very unique game that takes things from several different genres.

During the day - You place traps in an overhead view of the surrounding buildings you're meant to protect. You can go to town and shop for a new gun/axe, buy some potions (beer), and buy ammo. There's also a church that can bless some bullets or your axe for a fee. You may also upgrade your character with skillpoints gained from levels. They range from using your gun better, having more stamina/health to upgrading your traps so they last longer/do more damage. The trap upgrades are generally visual upgrades too.
The enemies come in waves and each have their own path and target to the building shown. It even shows you the route they are planning to take to get there. Most damaging traps do not go off on their own. They are not place and forget for the most part. The automated ones generally are meant to slow down the beasts instead of kill outright. Placing a hanging net for instance (with which rocks are on top of) can only be deployed by shooting at it from a distance. To get the enemies to stand under it, however, you can place bait beforehand. They'll stay there and eat it until done...or die from your trap. There's also a spike trap that DOES go off automatically but only if 3 or more creatures are standing on it at the same time. Grouping the monsters together and making sure a lot of them go toward 1 bait/trap can be achieved by using a "fire wall" that blocks whatever path you so desire. The enemies that were going to head that way will now go a different route (the path will update as well) to their target building.

During the night - You run around in 3rd person with your axe and musket. Before each new wave begins you have about 10 seconds to get into a better positon for the oncoming attack. Later levels this is important because the next area you might have to defend could possibly take you over 30 seconds to get there even if sprinting. Using your axe in melee combat is fairly basic and you can build up "rage points" that let you do special attacks. Using the gun, however, is difficult because this is the early 19th century. These guns are slow and take quite a while to reload....and you have 1 shot. The only way you'll be able to reload in combat is if the enemies are very far away or you have a greater fear factor than they do. Enemies grouped together (even weak ones) will not fear you (despite how manly you look). Alone, however, they will hesitate to attack you and the game shows you how long before the next attack. They also are afraid of bonfires (which you can place during the day) that you can light to give you a boost in fear temporarily. Then you fight through each wave until you're finished and it begins again the next in-game day. Failing a night will happen if some monsters end up destorying a building. It might sound simple, but in actual practice a fair amount of thought will go into your planning stage each day and then everything must work out as you hoped during the night...

Beyond that, the story and the music's alright, nothing to write home about. Certainly could have been improved but it did the trick. Voice acting is okay too. Not great, but it's decent enough. The graphics fit the bill as well, but no more. The art style and UI was great and stylized though. The only other complaints I have about the game is that it's just not as polished as I would have liked. It's an indie game and they did great work, but preformance was just...all over the place for me. It never ran very well. That and sometimes the steam achievements didn't work. This is a known issue, but no fix for it. People are still talking about in the community hub forums.



To wrap this up - Amazing game with great premise and I really hope they're going to make a 2nd game. This is supposedly "Tome 1" so I hope there's more....especially with that ending. If they can learn from this game and improve upon it in the slightest I will be right there waiting to give them my money.

A very canadian game about two lumberjack brothers who must protect their fevered sister from hordes of wolves send by the devil.

And then things get weird...

This game could be called a "Strategic Trap Defense Game" in spite of "Orcs Must Die!", only much more slow-paced. The gameplay is split in two parts:

1. The Strategy part: This is where you place your traps on a strategic map of the in-game location and take preperations for the night to come. The map shows you what enemies will appear, where they appear and which route they take. There's a variety of different weapons, items and accessoires you can buy in the shops that will help you to survive and you can change your loadout as you like. There are, of course, limitations in form of Action Points and Money. Every trap costs a different amount of Money and AP and once you run out of one (or both), you have to get along with what you prepared. There's also a Skill-Tree. Each time you level up you gain a skill point which can be used to further advance your traps or abilities in combat.

2. The Combat part: Where you fight enemies in a sort-of hack and slash manner and see how well your traps work. Lure the enemies in your traps and kill or weaken them and finish 'em off in close-combat. Your weapons of choice here are a axe and a musket, which has tremendous reloading time so you should reload it whenever you can catch a breath (you can speed it up by mashing the RMB but it still takes time). Naturally not all enemies will be killed by traps, especially since every trap only works once a night and the latter chapters have much stronger and more enemies, so get ready for some unfriendly close encouters. However, the game is never unfair and you can pretty much deal with anything as long as you're well prepared.

The graphics are done in a well-mannered and eye-pleasing cartoony style way. The sound works prefectly (no glitches or anything) and fits the aesthetics and the music is catchy as hell, especially the title tune is really addicting.

There are, however, some technical shortcomings I have to point out:
1. You can't change the settings in-game. You have to go back to the main menu, basically ending your game, to get to the options menu, which is a really poor developer decision even for a indie-game.
2. This is mostly a personal problem: Performance-wise it runs really unstable as long as V-Sync isn't active. Heavy frame-rate drops made the game run like a slideshow for me. Worst part is this really messed up my controls, I literally had to mash the mouse buttons so my character wouldn't just stand there like an idiot and letting himself get killed. Only after I enabled V-Sync the game would run acceptable for me.
3. No Window-Mode, but thats no real issue for me. Just pointing out in case someone wants to know.

Apart from those few problems it's a real fun game and if you like games like "Orcs Must Die!" or are looking for a different kind of strategy game, this one might be for you.

This is not a tower defence game! It is a Hero defence game.

It is a strategic action RPG game with linear story line where you play as one of the two playable character to defend the buildings primarily your own home from enemies such as wolves and werewolves. It has a very good tutorial and guide system that slowly implement new stuffs on each day and video guides that shows how the stuffs are used.

Game will get tougher and tougher each day as more and stronger enemies will be introduced each night. More traps and buildings will be introduced as days pass by to help mitigate the stronger enemies. Game can be frustrating to play if you are a perfectionist trying to clear each night with as little points and $ as possible as it is not easy to fight a pack of wolves that swarm over you. Patience and tolerance will be needed as retries and restarts will be needed to re-plan, set more traps and fight again and again.

You start everyday in a stategic/tactical phase where you can plan and set up traps, buy stuffs and equip the items and upgrade skills.( remember to upgrade income from woodcutting before cutting wood on that day)

After planning, setting up and prepared, the action part of the defend will start at night/evening. Attack is pretty simple and standard with only 2 types of weapons available, axes and rifle. Melee attacks are mostly left clicks that auto aim at nearest target and a special 'rage' attack with a right click. Mastering when to attack, rest, dodge is important as each attack, dodge and run require stamina which run dry quickly. Rifle is a shoot and load system like musket which is very easy to use with its aiming system.

The bad part of this game is most traps needs to be activated by the player and thus good planning is needed to clear the enemies all over the area. The melee attack is not very smooth to me and will take time to master as I keep failing to land blows especially the rage attack. This game lacks multiplayer co-op play which will be more fun to play.

I have cleared half of this game in hard difficulty and it is getting more and more difficult to play. My last game day took me 8 retries. Overall it is a fulfilling game to play after completing each day without trying to spend more.

Update: completed hard. Awesome finale. Just realise that this game is just tome 1 and there might be a sequel incoming. Will be interesting if more stuffs and coop play introduced.

again a ♥♥♥♥ game with many BUGS

35/100

A refreshing take on tower defense strategy with with a supernatural theme. Nice musical scoring, sound effects and a decent albeit simplistic storyline makes it more believable and immersive. It's quite addictive once you get into it. It's kinda short but I think has some decent replay value as the game's many traps, weapon types, magical artifacts and terrain based tactics provide for alot of flexibility and different approaches to progressing through the levels. There is also of course a fairly typical multi-branch skill tree that lets you develop your style however you want.

You basically plan your strategy and setup your traps during the day and then execute it at night, the object being to survive and make it to the next night, which progressively gets more difficult. There are many areas of the map that need defending, so careful planning, timing and execution are essential. And the devs of course left the ending wide open for a sequel which I can say I'm looking forward to. Definitely worth picking up on sale.

I have to admit this game took me by surprise. I got it in a bundle and while it looked interesting, I put off playing it for several months. In fact the only reason I started playing in June was because of a promotion to earn credit on GMG for getting achievements, but I got drawn into the game and played the campaign to completion. And just about every aspect of it was great.

The game has a very unique setting, in fact as far as I know it is the only video game ever made that takes place in 1858 French Canada. As someone with an interest in history, this was really cool to me. Considering how many games these days reuse the same tired settings over and over (genric scifi/fantasy, generic urban setting, modern war, WWII, etc.) it’s nice to see more games like this that finally start to tap the vaults of history for unique settings that have never been done before.

Some people might consider the story a bit simplistic, but it’s still really good and somewhat unique. It centers around two lumberjack brothers, and their struggle to defend their sister, their home, and the surrounding area and people from creatures controlled by the Devil and other malicious forces. The story is told through cinematics and in-game cutscenes. The cinematics appear somewhat sparsely throughout the game, but they feature nice high quality artwork. Some may be disappointed that these cinematics are pretty low on actual animation, but considering this is an Indie game I can forgive that, and they still get the job done. The in-game cinematics, which feature the character models from the game, are also decent. I cringed a little bit at the voice acting at first, but as I kept playing I got used to it. It varies between the characters, some aren't that great and some are really quite good and fit the game very well. It's an Indie game so don’t expect AAA voice acting. In terms of dialogue, Jos can be a bit cringe-worthy at times with his simple meat-headed approach to everything, but most of the dialogue isn't bad once you get into the game. Obviously the story is a bit silly with the werewolves and magic and everything, so you have to have the right mindset coming into the game. At the same time, though, I think it is a good story that can be taken seriously with the right approach.

Now, for the gameplay. Basically, at the start of the game, you choose which brother you want to play as. One acts as the “normal difficulty” mode, while the other acts as the “hard mode”. I only played through the campaign once so far, with the “normal” character. Basically, during the day you have a map of the woods around your cabin. Each day (the game takes place over a few weeks in December 1858 and each day is like a level) the map changes a bit, as new paths are revealed and there are new buildings you must defend. Looking at the map, you can see the paths the enemies will take in each wave (augured by the sister with mystical powers), and place a variety of different traps accordingly. Each trap takes a certain number of “action points” (which represent time for the characters) to set, and some also cost money. There are a variety of different cool traps that are unlocked as you progress, like wolf traps, exploding barrels, ballistae, and mortars, and other helpful things like watchtowers and bonfires. There is a lot of strategy involved in where you place your traps, and it’s awesome to see the plan you worked hard on play out perfectly during the night. During the day, you can also visit the nearby village, and later the Amerindian tribe, to stock up on supplies and buy new weapons. The game also features a pretty big skill tree, allowing you to upgrade a lot of different aspects of your character and traps. It’s simple to use and it really adds a lot of depth to the gamplay deciding which skills you want to upgrade and when for best strategy. During the night, the game becomes a third person action game. Many traps require some action on your part to be used, and most of the time you will also have to engage in fights against the enemies that the traps didn’t kill. You have an axe for a melee weapon and a musket or rifle for longer ranged attacks. The combat is a bit a basic, but it does have a really unique feature called “fear factor”. Basically there is a meter showing how frightened your enemies are of you. Over time they muster up for an attack as the meter reaches a certain point, and sometimes they become enraged and are no longer affected by the meter. You can do a number of things to bring the meter down before an enemy becomes enraged, such as shouting or standing near a bonfire. Keeping your enemies afraid of you offers more depth to the combat, and gives you time to reload your musket or regain some stamina. Overall it works well and makes the combat really great. Being surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves, watching as they slowly circle you, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, is a thrilling experience, and I’ve never seen anything quite like it in a video game before.

The music in the game is fantastic. Every track is great and fits the game well, and I never got tired of hearing it. I should mention that this game can be surprisingly immersive, and the music really helps with that. The game also features interesting descriptions of the items, characters, and their backstories, so there is a lot of lore outside the cutscenes. For example, each axe and musket and some other items have a description detailing things like the year it was made, and what it was used for, etc. History buffs will probably enjoy this. There is also a lot of lore surrounding the enemies which relates to diabolism/demonology and/or pagan mysticism, which will probably be cool if you’re into stuff like that. A lot of it actually turns the traditional Werewolf lore on its head, and it brings in some elements from Amerindian culture for certain other enemies, so there’s definitely a lot of unique and original ideas going on here. With the great music and the attention to detail in the sound, text, and visuals, I found myself getting very immersed in the setting, even while just visiting the different shops and buying supplies.

In terms of longevity, I got about 16 hours out of my first playthrough of the campaign, and enjoyed just about every minute of it. Of course your mileage may vary, but I’d say that’s pretty damn good for a campaign mode in this day and age. Of course it also has replayability, as you can play through the whole game again as the other brother, and have a slightly different experience.

The graphics are nothing to write home about. It’s got a nice cartoony style that works well, but it’s nothing particularly impressive. I don’t have any complaints about it, I’m just saying you shouldn’t expect AAA graphics. However, the artwork featured throughout the game is really nice for the most part.

There isn’t much to complain about. The game does lack a bit of polish in some places. The text is a bit sloppy sometimes, there’s a few noticeable bugs and glitches, and as I stated earlier the voice acting and dialogue isn't perfect. The game also seems to have some framerate issues for me sometimes, though it doesn’t detract from the game too much (I have a very capable desktop though so there’s no reason this game should have issues).

Overall, this game is absolutely fantastic. Sure there are a few small issues, but they barely detract from everything that is great about this game. I highly recommend this game at any price you find it at. I got it in a really cheap bundle, but I almost wish I paid more now. Considering how great this games is, I think the devs deserve some compensation. So don’t delay, if you are even remotely interested in action, strategy, or tower defense, or just want a unique and immersive game, you will probably love this. If you want a number rating I would give it a 9.5/10.