You know, if you ignore all the murdering, razing, and defiling, vikings weren't so bad. In fact, they were downright cuddly, or at least they looked that way in Frozen Islands as they rescued their crew from frost giants across the sea. In Deqaf Studios' action-centric strategy-lite game Frozen Islands: New Horizons, however, just because they all escaped certain death doesn't mean they'll be resting on their laurels, as they sail around the ocean in search of treasure, conquering islands along the way. As before, you create your army before each island siege by selecting the appropriate types of warriors for whatever you'll be facing. Though your army fights automatically, you can trigger special-attacks to help them out. If they win, the island is under your control, allowing you to tax it for gold to spend on upgrading your forces, while every two islands claimed allows you to increase the maximum size of the army you can take into battle. Like the original game, Frozen Islands: New Horizons is both simple and addictive, thanks to its eye-catching, cute and colourful style, though you may find yourself cringing at the dark-skinned, mask-wearing, spear-throwing tribesmen often accompanied by monkey soldiers. (Yikes.) The biggest new addition to the game, apart from all soldier types being available from the get-go, is being able to sail manually around the map, which occasionally leads to random encounters... you have to defend your ship from attack, but unlike island sieges, you don't get a chance to shuffle your army around beforehand, so it's a good idea to make sure your formation is always tweaked. If you enjoyed the original game, Frozen Islands: New Horizons is more of the same with minor tweaks, with tons of islands to battle on, and upgrades to be had.

Play Frozen Islands: New Horizons