Skip to main content PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES Search PC Gamer View Profile Movies & TV Gaming Industry PC Gaming Show Newsletter Signup Community Guidelines Affiliate Links Meet the team About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine Subscription Why subscribe? Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag Try a single issue or save on a subscription Issues delivered straight to your door or device From£35.99View Monster Hunter Wilds Nvidia RTX 5090 Marvel Rivals I’m not sure what’s weirder: that someone made a sequel to a completely forgettable 37-year-old game I played as a kid, or that it was actually worth the wait By Kerry Brunskill published 10 March 2025 Better late than never. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: PQube) I do love it when a retro game makes an unexpected comeback, and games don't get much more retro than Beyond the Ice Palace. It's been decades since the game—so old one version of it was sold on tape—made its debut, and now a sequel's appeared, boldly calling itself Beyond the Ice Palace 2 as if anyone outside of the development team or people who think 64KB is plenty of RAM still remember the first one ever existed. I'd be lying if I said the original was some beloved lost wonder of the '80s. It's not. Not even close. The most generous reviews from the time could politely be called "middling" (imagine how rough a game had to be if it scored that badly back when some of us still thought pushing up to jump was a perfectly reasonable idea). It didn't light up the charts. It wasn't some obtuse masterpiece that only became appreciated and understood years later either, the sort of thing gamers with extremely good taste might name drop to prove their impeccable credentials. Image 1 of 3 (Image credit: PQube) (Image credit: PQube) (Image credit: PQube) The truth is it was a game where a nameless barbarian-like hero wearing a stunning pair of lime green boots climbed a lot of ladders somewhere disappointingly ice-free, dropped dead the instant anything sneezed in his general direction, and after too much hardship the only reward was an ending that did nothing more than print (spoilers incoming) "WELL DONE YOU HAVE VANQUISHED EVIL FROM THE LAND" in a simple box. You may like Blade Chimera ditches the usual metroidvania progression in favour of a radical idea: skipping straight to the good stuff I was skeptical of Supergiant making a sequel, but Hades 2 has more than earned its place in the roguelike pantheon, and it's not even finished yet But even with all that against it, I could still tell, even way back then, that there was something about it, a glimmer of a good idea lurking under the surface. It was there in the enchanting promise of fantasy adventure scribed on the scroll shown on the back of its box. It was there in the unusual landscapes and bizarre monsters. Just sometimes, when I was in the right frame of mind, I could imagine the various dead-ends and patience-testing enemy spawns were something more than irritating, that I was bravely fighting my way through dangerous territory to right some magical wrong, hounded by a relentless stream of enemies as I went. This sequel is the game I used to pretend the first one was all those years ago. It's not quite a metroidvania—there's no labyrinthine mess of connected hallways to deal with, and certainly no map with an endless supply of doors and other points of interest to refer to—but, like the original, it's much more expansive than a linear left-to-right adventure. There are secret treasures buried in hidden alcoves and tucked away in shadowy corners or behind timed switches. I might pass by some huge area I need to come back to later (made easy thanks to the teleporters scattered around), and there are plenty of smaller side rooms I may never find at all unless I choose to go exploring. Image 1 of 3 (Image credit: PQube) (Image credit: PQube) (Image credit: PQube) The old memories of a game where death was swift, merciless, and frequent, have been repurposed into something more interesting that another disheartening trip back to the title screen. The environment now looks as harsh as it used to feel, old struggles now manifesting as piles of skulls, casual conversations with people who aren't quite as dead as they should be, and rotting bodies swinging from long abandoned nooses. Stiff platforming segments have been reborn as true tests of skill, expecting me to swing across gaps, avoid floors covered in spikes below and chandeliers crashing down from above, and nimbly dash through the air. The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. There's a brutal but balanced physicality to all of my interactions with this intimidating landscape. Many doors are pulled off their hinges rather than politely opened. Skeletons and crawling zombies must be quickly crushed underfoot if I want to truly finish them off. An enemy shield is something to shatter or rip out of its owner's hands, and a protective mask can be torn off a monster's face, leaving it vulnerable to attack. Combat feels familiar. Like in the original, enemies can and do swoop in from all sides with little warning, and thoughtless leaps into the unknown are a great way to get into a lot of very painful trouble, but now I have the tools to deal with anything that comes my way. The hero's chains are a versatile weapon, able to viciously tug at a boss' weak points, attack from any angle, and even defensively whirl around to destroy incoming projectiles. Ledges can be grabbed and hooks latched on to, even while I'm in mid-air. I feel confident and capable—just the way I wanted Beyond the Ice Palace to make me feel the first time around. (Image credit: PQube) This isn't just the game my younger self imagined I was playing as I waggled a Quickshot joystick (suction cupped to the table, as the gods intended) in front of a CRT monitor that weighed as much as a baby elephant. No, this is the game I want everyone else to think of first when they see the words "Beyond the Ice Palace". This unbelievably late sequel offers so much more than another dose of vapid nostalgia or a slightly patronising tour of Comfortably Familiar Things I'm Supposed To Remember: The Game. It's never "retro" by design. It never deliberately does something weird and abrasive just because that's how the '80s did it, and it never shies away from being fun or fair for fear of being too modern either. The developers took a rare and precious chance to really analyse all the ways the original almost worked and then finally made them a reality. It's a great sequel that fits perfectly into what little lore the original had, but it's also more than capable of standing on its own merits too, as deserving of anyone's time, attention, and funds in an increasingly overwhelmed space as any other. I just hope I don't have to wait another 37 years before Beyond the Ice Palace becomes a trilogy. Kerry Brunskill Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer When baby Kerry was brought home from the hospital her hand was placed on the space bar of the family Atari 400, a small act of parental nerdery that has snowballed into a lifelong passion for gaming and the sort of freelance job her school careers advisor told her she couldn't do. She's now PC Gamer's word game expert, taking on the daily Wordle puzzle to give readers a hint each and every day. Her Wordle streak is truly mighty. Somehow Kerry managed to get away with writing regular features on old Japanese PC games, telling today's PC gamers about some of the most fascinating and influential games of the '80s and '90s. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. Blade Chimera ditches the usual metroidvania progression in favour of a radical idea: skipping straight to the good stuff I was skeptical of Supergiant making a sequel, but Hades 2 has more than earned its place in the roguelike pantheon, and it's not even finished yet This '90s PC game's one-of-a-kind combination of puzzles and RPG heroics was the perfect way to jumpstart my brain for the new year After a decade of delays, Defenders Quest 2 is finally out, bringing with it wild character designs and nostalgic tower defense shenanigans I played at least one retro game every week in 2024: Here are 10 I'd still recommend to everyone Shiren the Wanderer's simple graphics disguise a systems-dense roguelike full of the emergent stories I love the genre for Latest in Action Split Fiction sells 1 million copies over 2 days More than 5 years after launch, Control gets a surprise patch that lets everyone play the Hideo Kojima mission Hideo Kojima really just went 'screw it' and made Metal Gear Stranding I’m not sure what’s weirder: that someone made a sequel to a completely forgettable 37-year-old game I played as a kid, or that it was actually worth the wait The next Monster Hunter Wilds update is set to launch on March 10 and will ensure that when you chop off monster parts, the right monster parts get chopped off Capcom cooked up some extremely cursed Palico outfits in Monster Hunter Wilds Latest in Features I never thought a handheld PC bloated with Windows could replace my Steam Deck, but after gaming on an old OneXPlayer 2 Pro I can see now I judged it too harshly I’m not sure what’s weirder: that someone made a sequel to a completely forgettable 37-year-old game I played as a kid, or that it was actually worth the wait Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 10, 2025) Silent Hill gets a soccer league in FEAR FA 98, and you can play the demo now The best part of The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies expansion is just coming up with fun small business ideas This brutalist life sim gave me a free tenement block to renovate, but my mushroom addiction kept getting in the way More about action Split Fiction sells 1 million copies over 2 days More than 5 years after launch, Control gets a surprise patch that lets everyone play the Hideo Kojima mission Split Fiction sells 1 million copies over 2 days See more latest Most Popular I never thought a handheld PC bloated with Windows could replace my Steam Deck, but after gaming on an old OneXPlayer 2 Pro I can see now I judged it too harshly Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 10, 2025) Silent Hill gets a soccer league in FEAR FA 98, and you can play the demo now This brutalist life sim gave me a free tenement block to renovate, but my mushroom addiction kept getting in the way Blood Typers is a budget-priced fusion of Typing of the Dead and co-op survival horror The best part of The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies expansion is just coming up with fun small business ideas We all deserve better than this Hearthstone card reveal: If it's wrong to love a magic blue owl, I don't want to be right REPO is my new favourite co-op horror game, which combines Lethal Company's looting loop with Content Warning's zany monsters Capcom cooked up some extremely cursed Palico outfits in Monster Hunter Wilds HARDWARE BUYING GUIDES LATEST GAME REVIEWS Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads Best graphics card for laptops in 2025: the mobile GPUs I'd want in my next gaming laptop Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most Best 14-inch gaming laptop in 2025: The top compact gaming laptops I've held in these hands Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I've tested Asus ROG Swift PG27UCDM gaming monitor review Wanderstop review: A therapeutic adventure in a mystical tea shop Razer Handheld Dock Chroma review AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT review Suikoden 1&2 HD Remaster review: Fantastic RPGs wrapped up in a middling remaster PC Gamer is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 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