I've never liked summers – it is the only season that I really dislike, and I often struggle a lot with my mood during summer, and with depression due to it being so brightly sunny and warm.
It makes me long for snow and winter, and I hope that playing some video games with beautiful snowy landscapes might give me some solace. I'm looking for games that take place entirely, or mostly, in snowy landscapes – not games that have a winter level or a snowy biome mixed in amongst many others.
I have Steam as my main gaming platform, and play narrative games, strategy games, roleplaying games, stealth games, and management games, as well as dabbling in a lot of other genres, with the exception of multi-player games and online games.
Some examples of games that I believe fit my yearning for snowy landscapes:
- Skyrim (sort of – large parts of it are not snowy at all – but the area around Dawnstar and Winterhold is very lovely)
- Frostpunk
- The Long Dark
- Never Alone
- Snowrunner
- The Red Lantern
- Kona and Kona II: Brume
(Please correct me if these games aren't as snowy as I think – I haven't played all of them.)
Any other suggestions for good games full of beautiful snowy landscapes?
Wasteland 3 is a fairly sprawling Isometric and strategy based RPG that is set in a wintery wasteland.
God of War 2018 and God of War Ragnarok both have large sections is snowy landscapes. GOW18 is on steam now and Ragnarok will be on steam in September.
Off the top of my head:
– Rise of the Tomb Raider
– Horizon Zero Dawn’s Frozen Wilds DLC
– The first Division game takes place around Black Friday/Christmas but I’m not sure of it’s player count nowadays
– Assassin’s Creed III, but the rest of the game isn’t worth it for the snowy landscapes
– Spider-Man Miles Morales, unsure if the Spider-Gwen mod works for this game too though
– Monster Hunter World’s Iceborne, but it’ll take you forever to get there and even when you do you’ll still be going back to prior locations as well
– Lake has a Season’s Greetings DLC that looks Christmas themed, but I haven’t played the game yet
– Batman Arkham City and Origins both have snow, with the latter taking place during Christmas. No playable women outside of DLCs and challenge modes, though
– SSX Tricky/SSX 3
We are opposites in that regard, my depression gets much worse in the winter months.
I don’t play winter games much myself, but to search on Steam, you don’t need necessary a title, you can use tags and there is a snow tag on steam. Hope that helps!
– [Röki](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1067540/_/)
– [Hidden Paws](https://store.steampowered.com/app/816490/Hidden_Paws/)
– [Steep](https://store.steampowered.com/app/460920/Steep/)
Forza Horizon 4 becomes absolutely covered in snow, with some amazing landscapes in a huge map, for 1 week out of each real-life month. It is very very snowy, but it’s also not snowy 100% of the time. It is getting delisted from Steam very soon, so I would recommend getting it now if you’re going to
It definitely isn’t 100% snowy, but Death Stranding has parts in snow and other parts in beautiful Icelandic landscapes (which definitely do not look at all like summer)
Someone mentioned it once already but the Frozen Wilds expansion for Horizon Zero Dawn has the best snow I have ever seen in a video game.
There are some snowy areas in the base game as well, but the DLC area is a whole other thing, the snow is super deep and it plies up around you as you walk through it, when you roll dodge in this area you come up covered in snow. You do have to play through at least part of the base game to reach it, but as I say, some of it is snowy also, just not nearly as cool, and not as much snow.
(I loathe summer also, I am so ready for the hot weather and long days to be over with)
Far cry 4
I Am Setsuna is a JRPG with an entirely snowy setting (and the soundtrack is almost all melancholic piano.)
Omfg I thought I was the only one whose mental health just TANKS in the summer! Gonna look through these snowy recs mysel (because just Skyrim isn’t cutting it lmao) since I have none to give. But know that I stand united with you against summer lol 😀
If you can dig up a Nintendo DS, you can give Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games a try, loved it as a child!!!
I loved Kona and Kona II, I felt so cold playing it. Also Still Wakes The Deep is set on an oil rig in the North Atlantic, so lots of cold weather, though no snow. Starfield also has some beautiful snowy planets to explore.
Plus there is a game on Gamepass I can’t remember the title but you play as a fox exploring a snowy landscape.
Subnautica below zero is apparently nice, I played the base game and loved it, the dlc is based in the artic so it might be what your after
Have you played Lake? The DLC, Season’s Greetings, is entirely based in winter. Lots of snow 🌨️
Metal Gear Solid 1 is quite snowy for outdoors bits. Shadow Moses Island is in the Alaskan Aleutian Island chain.
Oh and then there’s the appropriately named Icewind Dale for some classic DnD.
The long dark!