Screenshots & trailers
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 58 | 17 |
| Creator reviews (1 tracked) | – | 97 | 1 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 64% | 63 | 57 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | – | 0 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 0% | 15 | 0 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 1 reviews sampled · 0 total reviews in window · weighted 0 up / 0.1 down · computed 17m ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (19)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 40
“A disappointing attempt to create an isometric version of Thief. Unfortunately, it won't be able to steal your heart.”
read full review ↗ - 50
“Winter Ember is a dark isometric stealth game inspired by the Thief series. You can roam a gloomy Victorian city, occasionally break into a house, kill enemies, or trade on the black market while searching for secret paths and hidden corners. Unfortunately, the game also has quite a few shortcomings. Setting aside technical bugs, the main issue is the complete lack of any deeper purpose for civilian NPCs. The stealth mechanics, the core of the game, are designed quite well, and the overall gameplay is solid. The upside is that the developers have faced the heavy criticism head-on and have already confirmed changes and fixes. As it stands, the game is truly on a fine line between being recommended and not, at its core, it’s not a bad game, but it still has many shortcomings.”
read full review ↗ - 75
“What on first glance I thought that Winter Ember can beat most indie stealth games out there, that thought evaporated soon because pretty quickly the game started to feel repetitive as it never introduces any new mechanics. Also while the levels themselves are cool they also have interesting design choices, where you just loop back to the same point like in metroidvania games. Normally this is okay if its an occurrence here or there, or if its essential to the mission, but after a while it feels off In other words, give it a pass.”
read full review ↗ - 75
“Winter Ember is an ambitious isometric stealth-action that pays strong homage to its genre roots while holding its own entertaining identity, but fails to stick the landing on telling their story.”
read full review ↗ - 78
“Winter Ember is a game that really stirs my nostalgia. Being a fan of classic stealth games, I feel that we have here a tribute to one of the great pioneers of the genre. It's a game that stumbles a few times along the way, but it's worth it for the classic experience it provides.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Winter Ember presents players with an engaging story and plenty of interesting levels to explore. While its combat can feel repetitive and the voice acting could be polished a lot further, overall the game offers some fun stealth mechanics that will be entertaining to fans of titles like Weird West, Desperados III, and Sherlock Holmes.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“It may have some technical issues that highlight the indie budget, but the good in Winter Ember outweighs the bad. It has all the stealth trappings; the frustration, the patience, as well as the stickiness of the combat, to harken back to the olden days. It may not be original, yet it doesn’t matter when it looks this nice and plays like the classics.”
read full review ↗ - 40
“The one thing that the game has going for it is its narrative, despite the main character being intolerable.”
read full review ↗ - 50
“What works about Winter Ember is almost entirely overshadowed by the frustrating moment-to-moment experience that never settles into a true, precise stealth game.”
read full review ↗ - 75
“"Deep down inside there are a couple of good systems attempting to sneak out, but they get backstabbed every time by a lack of any real polish"”
read full review ↗ - 60
“Winter Ember is a game I am heavily conflicted on. On one hand it’s an immersive Thief inspired game with tense stealth aspects. On the other hand it’s frustrating to play, thanks to its zoomed in camera and lack of consistency. There’s a lot of potential that was unfortunately wasted in here. If you really want to satiate your Thief hunger, it pains me to say this isn’t the solution. Just play the original and its sequel for the upteenth time…”
read full review ↗ - 60
“I found Winter Ember a game that is soo close to being one that you could sink hours into. With a few tweaks to the annoying controls/movement and menus/progression this would vastly improve the gameplay. Making it more optimised for the current generation of consoles would make it shine even more.”
read full review ↗
3DNews
Gaming Professors
Gameffine
Chalgyr's Game Room
Squared Potato
Checkpoint Gaming
FingerGuns
Garage Band Gamers
GamingBolt
ACG
WayTooManyGames
Thumb Culture…and 7 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- Patch Notes v1.5.7Jun 20, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- Community Beta Branch InfoJun 20, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- Winter Ember Dev Update - 10th June 2021Jun 9, 2021significant · resets scoring window