The setting and landscapes of video game worlds add to the overall gaming experience, particularly free roaming games. Called a "sandbox" in the gaming community, the mission-less free to roam game allows the player to wander throughout the virtual world. Without a plot or mission to accomplish, gamers are allowed to do everything and nothing in the game It's Winter. Left with very little to dictate gameplay, the immersive gaming experience created by developer Alexander Ignatov and poet Ilia Mazo immerses players into a mundane suburban Russian tower block. 

According to the developer the "post-Soviet and sad 3D game" has nothing awaiting the player. "There is no chance to get out, no room for adventures, nor a breathtaking plot.” All you have to do is experience the precisely detailed, pixelated mundanity of the world around you." The only thing players are left with, however, are the detailed building interiors and exteriors. The fully furnished empty flat has all the trappings of livable space. However, there is no one around but the snow and more empty buildings which reflect a post-soviet landscape of emptiness and traces of communist driven architecture of the 60s and 70s. 

Despite its rather bleak game description, the game has already received mostly positive reviews on Steam, an online digital gaming distribution platform. One reviewer states, "This is a beautiful little game. As many other reviewers have said, its less a game than an art piece, which should be kept in mind -- this is an aesthetic experience; the quiet musings of a walk in the snow between crumbling apartments made writ in simulation." Another review stated, "If you're familiar with post-soviet type of cities, from eastern Europe/Russia - this is a must-buy. I've been far away from home for quite a while, and this game was capable of reminding me to not come back."

Perhaps this is the future of gaming, using architectural landscapes as the main characters to drive the narrative.  Will games of the future merely rely on structural landscapes and slightly interactive spaces to convey a different type of gaming experience? After observing It's Winter's gameplay and images stills it is clear that the game uses the structural ideologies of Eastern Europe to convey an eerie level of emptiness and forgotten hopes to match the game's goal.