I struggle to learn board game rules, but this RPG tactics Steam Next Fest demo has shown me the power of digital versions to teach

Frosthaven, the board game, weighs over 35 lbs, hundreds of tokens and cards jam-packed inside a beautiful box. Frosthaven, the video game, which I got my mouse-cradling mitts on for its Steam Next Fest demo, weighs nothing at all. Because it's digital. As satisfying as hefting around 35 lbs of gaming is, feeling the cards, listening to the noise it makes as you shake it about it's, erm, more than a little intimidating to behold in person, and will take some serious learning until you get comfortable moving all the bits around.

What really sticks out to me is how much quicker it is to get to grips with Frosthaven as a video game – which is excellent as our impressions of Frosthaven's tabletop version have been glowing, so the more people who get to experience it, the better. The board game comes from designer Isaac Childres, just as its predecessor Gloomhaven (which we also loved in our Gloomhaven review). Frosthaven, like Gloomhaven, revolves around hex-based co-op RPG combat across multiple scenarios, throughout which you build up your central titular town. Our Steam Next Fest guide will show you how to find more demos, too!

Frost bites

Where it can take a while to get to grips with some of Frosthaven's more unique twists on the simple premise with the tabletop board game, the nature of the Steam Next Fest demo ensures you have adequate tooltips and information to view at any time, all while you click and drag pieces and the camera around the small-yet-intricate maps. While all the complexity of Frosthaven's rules have been accurately replicated, it's just simpler to get up to speed with the basics here on PC.

It also helps that Frosthaven's UI is clearly inspired by some of the best RPG games, information like turn order at the top and for your party along the side of the screen making Frosthaven feel like not too far of a departure from the likes of Baldur's Gate 3. At the same time, its tabletop roots are clear, with the small maps and hex-based grid clearly coming right from the board game. Even so, there's a lot of animation – this isn't an adaptation that feels stiffly combined to replicating the exact feeling of a board game even though the rules are intact.

Controlling up to four-party members at a time – it's up to you how you want to split them with other players – your characters have their own customizable deck of cards (and equipment which can add extra abilities or effects). Each card has both a top and bottom effect, as well as an initiative ranking. Every turn, players select two cards to play, picking both a top and bottom effect from across both cards, but only one from each (or can substitute a basic attack or movement option instead). Buffing, moving, attacking, even manoeuvring to the right hex to scoop up loot – it's all in the cards.

It sounds simple at first, but cards can carry quite complex effects that can take a little bit of time to learn. Do you want to take up a whole turn to activate buffs across both cards' top or bottom effects? Combine an enemy debuff effect with dishing out damage? Lay down a useful buff banner that'll power up a nearby ally's attacks to finish up a foe next turn? Choosing the best pair to play in a situation requires some serious brain power.

There's a lot of synergies not just between a character's own deck of cards, but how to combine those powers cross-party. Frosthaven, as a video game, makes the learning experience way faster by making sure you can visualize all these effects before using, and can't get things wrong (even though you may wish your plays went a bit better – there's always next turn!).

Further complicating your card management is a ticking clock dictated by the deck itself. As you play and discard, your card pool gets smaller – able to be refreshed tabletop RPG-style with either a short or long rest. But doing so means 'burning' cards for the encounter, permanently putting them off limits (likewise, cards can be burned to negate damage in a pinch). What do you hold close, or what do you let yourself lose?

Frosthaven does, however, have some easier modes allowing you to negate the harshness of this rule or even give yourself more health – it's a neat way to incorporate house rules into a digital version of the board game. So far, as someone who likes a layer of strategy in my RPG encounters, Frosthaven certainly has me intrigued, and this demo has proved far easier for introducing me to the system than its exceedingly heavy boxed board game version.

Frosthaven is aiming to enter early access later this year on PC, after which the developers will spend about a year releasing more content from the original board game, aiming to be feature complete by the time it has a full release.

Want more tabletop fun? Check out our best board games ranking!