Expedition to the Frozen Lake

YOU become a retired archaeologist enjoying a quiet evening in. Then you receive a visit from a tall and handsome bigfoot, who asks your help in protecting the Frozen Lake just outside of Billings. It seems that Cobbler Industries (those devils!) wants to drill for chocolate milk at Frozen Lake, but if you could find any historical/cultural artifacts there, then Cobbler would be blocked from drilling this precious natural area.

Wouldn’t you rather enjoy a nice evening in? Too bad, because you’re now in the sights of Void cultists and Cobbler saboteurs, and one way or another you’re headed for an adventure at the Frozen Lake.

Will you find ancient cultural artifacts from prehistoric Montanans?

Will you open a timeline tear and kill yourself in an alternate universe?

Will you meet world’s greatest author name of Chuck?

That depends on how you select your own timeline.

Review and Opinion

Expedition to the Frozen Lake is another enjoyable romp in the Tingleverse, a fun universe where dinosaurs and bigfoots and humans and unicorns and other diverse creatures all share the world. Unlike Chuck Tingle’s more famous works, the SYOT series have no pounding so are safe for the general public, even if a bit silly.

On my several playthroughs with other people making the choices, they kept choosing the exact same path, which was really weird. Of course we’ll accept the offer; of course we’ll tow the fallen tree, of course we know which milk to choose and how to finish the slogan. So in five plays, they all got the exact same ending.

But once you quit meta-gaming and start really choosing, there’s a surprising amount of content here (though not quite as much as Trouble in Tinglewood). You can be abducted by Void cultists. You can be eaten by a wolf or an angry apple or a Void leviathan (there are so many ways to get eaten in here). You can go meta and meet Chuck Tingle himself. You can go even more meta and be sent to another book and bring back items from it. You can even embrace the Void and become one with the infinite nothingness.

And even at the successful ending, you’re at the museum exhibiting your latest artifact, which is…? So there are 9 different endings, each with their own degrees of awesome, and none of them clearly The Best Ending that you’re supposed to get.