Snow has started falling around many areas of the northern hemisphere, the holidays are fast approaching, and with that comes a massive desire for video games that reflect this.
Winter and icy levels are common settings for games, signaling a harsh environment full of hazards while also being gorgeous and full of fantastical potential. Some games make huge deals about the cold, have entire areas surrounding it, or even focus heavily on surviving it.
10 Skyrim Is Known For Being Snowy & Cold
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is almost always one of the first games to come to mind when thinking about games with heavy snow, cold themes, and ice everywhere. It takes place in the northernmost part of Tamriel where it is cold, remote, and full of high mountains.
The southern parts of Skyrim are greener and more hospitable, but even base game populations dwindle and get more surly as the Dragonborn moves farther north. It gets cold and harsh up there, with little more than saber cats, mammoths, giants, and dragons to keep the Dragonborn busy.
9 Jotun Has A Massive Frost Giant Encounter
Jotun is an amazing game focusing on old Norse mythology. In Jotun, the protagonist fights their way through various challenges to collect runes and square up against the different gigantic elements.
There's a painful fight in a gorgeous icy region where the player gets to go toe-to-toe with a massive frost giant who loves to take up the majority of the screen while weather effects make it hard to function.
8 The Long Dark Is About Surviving In The Cold
Not all survival games have to be horror-laden, dark, and gloomy disasters. The Long Dark doesn't hold the player's hand by starting them out comfortably in an easy setting and building up to the harshness of winter.
Instead, the game drops the player right down into it and forces them to try and survive in a rough, nearly hopeless scenario where they have to battle their needs in the frigid world.
7 Red Dead Redemption II Has Amazing Snow
Red Dead Redemption II has such gorgeous snow and amazing effects with it that it's easy to get lost just looking around the map. There's even secret areas covered in snow, from gorgeous lakes to an entire secret glacier.
It looks so realistic and brings around a genuine sense of cold. It's a tough area to deal with, but it really shines overall, setting it apart from its predecessor by a landslide.
6 Yonder: Cloud Catcher Chronicles As A Large Northern Region
Yonder: Cloud Catcher Chronicles is a cute little Open World simulator where the player has to go around collecting sprites, skills, and clues about a murky plague infesting the region. Up north, there is a huge snow-covered mountain with a whole community living in a candle-lit cave.
If players keep going past that, the northern shore is a wide tundra with special mint and animals that they can befriend, a city hidden in the glacier, and a whole secret cave full of giant vegetables.
5 Final Fantasy VII Has An Important Plot Arc In One
The Final Fantasy series almost always has some form of ice-related magic or abilities, areas, or other snowy themes, and Final Fantasy VII makes a major plot point out of the glacier region.
This is one of the major turning points in Cloud's character. In the cold region, the group is chasing after Sephiroth, and Cloud is really struggling with his memories, autonomy, and recent events. It takes some time to get through, but it is a pivotal point in the game. Hopefully, when it appears in the Final Fantasy VII sequel, it's just as powerful as it was the first time around.
4 Breath Of The Wild Gets An Awesome Dragon Encounter
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a huge Open World game full of various different areas to explore and things to do. There are frozen deserts and mountains, one of which has a very important encounter with the dragon Naydra.
As with most of the game, these areas are stunning and expansive. It's worth exploring around and seeing what little areas Link can get into and what trouble he can cause, even if it looks a little empty at first.
3 God of War Has An Unforgettable Mountain
One of the most memorable parts of God of War is that massive, gorgeous mountain where players spend so much time. Kratos has to climb parts of it while carrying his son on his back, fighting, exploring, and drudging through deep snow for so long it's a wonder he doesn't freeze.
There are some awesome battles on the mountain and enough eye candy to really get players to slow down and take a look around. It's so pretty with so many realistic textures that it's not uncommon to get so distracted by the landscape that significant damage gets taken by a sudden encounter.
2 Assassin's Creed: Valhalla Starts Out Snowy
It would definitely have been an unusual choice had a game with such a strong focus on Norse mythos and the Vikings to not have a heavy snowy focus, which is exactly what Assassin's Creed: Valhalla has.
Significant portions of the game take place in a snowy landscape that drives home just how far the franchise is getting from its stealth-based roots. It's nearly impossible to sneak up with all of that crunchy snow and footprints, so Eivor might as well just run in screaming.
1 Icewind Dale Takes Place In A Beloved Forgotten Realms Setting
Icewind Dale is a conglomerate of various Forgotten Realms and Dungeons and Dragons influences, from writers of long fantasy novels to AD&D. It takes place in Forgotten Realms' Icewind Dale and can involve many beloved characters from beloved fantasy writers such as R.A. Salvatore and Ed Greenwood.
It lets players explore the cold north of Faerûn, meet up with, and potentially even befriend iconic characters, and essentially play a session of Dungeons and Dragons on the computer. It has even been recently remastered to showcase even more beautiful pixel art than it had before.