ICEY is a hack-and-slash with a twist

ICEY is a hack-and-slash with a twist: if you don't like the story, you can simply disobey

Starting up ICEY reveals very little beyond introducing how combat works. You're given no explanation for why you're in the middle of the woods, why you're fighting robots, and why you are Another Anime Girl With A Sword. You are just expected to travel towards the right edge of the screen. For about five minutes, ICEY feels like a tech demo for a university assignment.

Everything changes in the space of a few minutes. Without spoiling too much, you're suddenly retracing your steps, but this time with a Chinese-speaking narrator who is very eager to tell the story of why you need to kill this guy called Judas, not deigning to elaborate on why you need to do this. The narrator litters your path with helpful arrows and suggestions to progress with the story. If you're not that bothered, you can go off and do your own thing, to the chagrin of your storyteller.

People who have played The Stanley Parable will know what to expect, and the game feels very close to the immersion-breaking tropes that the former shows off. Choose not to follow what the narrator does and you will be met with confusion. If, for some reason, you decide that staying in a ventilation shaft for ten minutes is an apt use of your time, you can expect your guide to grow impatient, eventually turning into derision and outright hostility. It's an indirectly accurate metaphor for an average experience with the British rail transport system.

In short, the plot is what players choose to do with their experience of the game.

You can grab the game on steam and now on the PS4, so get going and let us know what you think.