Frozen Synapse is one of the most wonderfully satisfying games I have played in a long time. At its core, it is a turn based strategy game where tactical play comes before anything else. This game does a lot of things right when it comes to both gameplay and accessibility.

There is a fairly expansive campaign mode with 55 missions and a decent story. The story puts you in the shoes of Tactics, a very aptly named "Commander" of sorts. You are recruited by a militia group that is going up against a much bigger corporation that has spun out of control. Missions are grouped together in batches of three, called "Operations," and in between these Operations there are tons of dossiers explaining the back story that you can opt to read if you'd like to really get into the world. There are some similarities to the Matrix as well, involving computer versions of life forms, called "vatforms." The story is nothing ground-breaking, but does a decent enough job of giving you a reason to complete the objectives within the campaign.

The gameplay, as previously mentioned, is very tactical and requires a ton of strategy and planning to successfully execute. The game is almost entirely played with only the mouse, with the exception being when you want to delete an order, which requires you to press either the Delete key (for specific orders) or Backspace (for the last given order). Your objective for any set mission, in single-player or multiplayer, is going to vary, but the gameplay remains the same in each. You are given a set number of squad members to whom you issue orders to complete your objective for the map. You can give them a plethora of actions to perform, including moving, ducking, ignoring/focusing on certain enemies, aiming in certain directions, and more. The tutorial does a great job of explaining all of these aspects individually so that you don't become overwhelmed once you jump into the real game.

There are a ton of aspects to consider for each and every move you make. Things like cover, stillness, and aiming are all big factors as to who wins a firefight. Luckily, you can simulate orders for the enemies on the screen, as well as your own squad members, and have the next turn play out with those orders. Doing this is crucial to your success: plan for anything. It's never guaranteed that the AI will do what you think they'll do, so it always helps to simulate different scenarios for each turn. You have unlimited time to plan your turn in both single-player and multiplayer. Once all of your plans are to your liking, you press the "Prime" button and hopefully watch everything go according to plan.

Multiplayer is the main focus of the game and is well fleshed out. In fact, they are really pushing multiplayer seeing as you get a free copy when you purchase the game. You can save and upload replays to YouTube with relative ease and even watch featured replays within the game client itself. Multiplayer matches do not require you to sit and play the entire game in one sitting. You can make your plans for one turn, while your enemy may make their moves days later. There are four types of multiplayer games, each with Light and Dark modes. In Light modes, you always know the position of your enemies whereas Dark modes require you to have a line of sight in order to know where they are. There is also an experience and leveling system in place to distinguish experienced players from new ones.

Accessibility Issues/Concerns

As mentioned, everything except deleting orders is done with the mouse. Deleting is done with either the Backspace or Delete key, depending on whether you want to delete the most recent order or the selected one, respectively. One-handed gamers should therefore have very little trouble playing the game. The controls are not, however, remappable. You have unlimited time to issue your orders and you can adjust them as much as you want before committing to a plan of attack. Once the Outcome phase begins, your units will automatically shoot at any enemies that they feasibly can, barring any orders you gave them not to, so precision isn't required during the game. There are also no quick reflexes required since you never have to do anything quickly.

The game's story is entirely told through text. None of the text will advance unless you click the "Next" button. There are no audio cues thrown into the game either, so gamers with hearing issues will be able to play the game just fine. Gigantic text that takes up the entire screen is displayed whenever the phase changes from Planning to Outcome and back again.

The default color for your units is green and the enemies are defaulted to red. However, you can change these and other colors in the Options menu to whatever you wish. You can input the RGB values for the following: your units, enemy units, ghosts (what shows when you lose sight of a unit in Dark modes), enemy civilians, and friendly civilians. Using custom colors will change the game from being near-unplayable for those who are red/green colorblind to being perfectly fine. Some missions require you to enter/protect a green square on the map, or infiltrate a red square. However, the game zooms in during the introduction of the mission in each of these areas, and the brightness of the red/green colors is contrasting enough to not pose a problem. You can also turn off the background in both the menus and the game itself.

At a Glance

Mobility: Everything except deleting orders is done with the mouse. Controls are not remappable. No mouse sensitivity settings.
Overall score: 9/10

Hearing: All dialogue from the story is displayed in text that won't advance until you tell it to. Also, there are no audio cues.
Overall score: 10/10

Vision: All of the unit colors are completely customizable using RGB values. The moving background can also be turned off to make everything easier to see.
Overall score: 10/10

Overall: Frozen Synapse is a wonderfully accessible game. The only difficulty in the game comes with you learning strategies and new tactics, something that really helps make this game even more unique. Seeing your best laid schemes actually come to fruition, instead of going askew, is absolutely magnificent.