I played Winter Burrow at Xbox’s Gamescom LA event for a 10-20 minute session and loved the loop of being a cute mouse foraging my way to better survival odds in a beautiful woodland setting. Leaving the demo, my only concerns with Winter Burrow are whether it can remain interesting for the entire campaign and find its balance between its cozy game and survival game components (as my session favored the former). 

Winter Burrow’s hand-drawn art style feels like illustrations from a beloved children’s book come to life. Perhaps the Ralph S. Mouse fan in me just has a soft spot for a mouse on an adventure but it’s truly a delight to look at.

Narratively, the setup is refreshing. Winter Burrow is a homecoming story instead of the usual escapism or savior role most homesteading games put you in. Instead, you play as a mouse whose parents originally lived in this burrow but opted for the city life to avoid the stress of the wilderness. Unfortunately, city life wasn’t all it was thought to be and after a lot of hard work in the mines (the only job they could get) they died before they could afford to visit their true home again. Determined not to suffer the same fate, you return to your childhood burrow only to find the house in shambles. And you’re left wondering why your survival savvy Aunt Betulina didn’t maintain it. Setting out to find her is one of your big motivations.

The first thing I did in Winter Burrow was leave my house but since it was nighttime it was freezing cold and I died after taking a few steps. This was an immediate reminder that this is indeed a survival game with a stamina, hunger, and warmth meter to keep track of. In this case, you can easily avoid this punishment by sleeping through the night until you can make the necessary gear. Here, that means repairing your arm chair so you have a spot to knit a sweater for these frigid temperatures. Adorable.

On top of the aesthetics, coziness is supported by the lack of deadlines in Winter Burrow. You can take your time to get things done so meter monitoring creates structure instead of pressure.

Winter Burrow follows the simple structure of resource gathering leading to unlocks and those unlocks letting you gather more resources. Still, there’s always pleasure in crafting an axe to chop wood and slice grass. It’s a comforting loop but one that runs the risk of wearing thin over time. Similarly, the lack of minimap and constant back and forth to my house as I gathered resources could be a problem down the line but for now I attribute that monotony to this being the start of the game rather than a problem with the game itself. 

My demo ended as I got enough resources to repair the bridge. In addition to Winter Burrow’s inherent charm, I’m most excited about repairing different parts of my house (there seems to be an upstairs I can’t access yet) and tending the land to support comfort and exploration. I’m also looking forward to seeing how meeting characters will deepen the gameplay and narrative.

Slated for 2025, Winter Burrow is one to watch if you’re a fan of beautiful worlds and cozy crafting options that have practical use cases.