Frostpunk 1 was one of my most-played titles in 2018 now I can dig into Frontpunk 2. I also played the subsequent DLCs, namely, The Rifts, The Last Autumn and On The Edge and I see myself as sort of a Frostpunk veteran at this point. The base game alone was super challenging and the DLCs really spiced things up a bit and brought their own set of problems to the table. So when Frostpunk 2 was announced, my hype meter was off the charts! Will I get to enjoy more frozen goodness once again? What crazy new challenges lie ahead?
Fast forward to September 2024 and here we are. Frostpunk 2 is out and after having sunk hours and hours into it, this is quite a different gameplay experience to its predecessor that’s for sure.
Frostpunk 2
In Frostpunk 1, players would have access to their generator right in the middle of their city/base of operations. You’d have to build around it and micromanage numerous aspects of your city to keep everyone from freezing to death. The latter DLCs changed some of the base game’s formula and introduced the beginnings of what Frostpunk 2 seems to have as its new core premise.
Gone is the confined locale with a singular generator. Frostpunk 2 features multiple locations and a larger emphasis on district management instead of singular building management. If you prefer more confined, tightly knit city-builders with a focus on the nitty gritty of things, Frostpunk 1 would have scratched that itch. Frostpunk 2 however is a larger beast. In the first game, death and illness and the lack of food would cause one or two people to die in the cold.
In the sequel, hundreds will suffer and fall prey to the ice. It’s a tad bit overwhelming at first and chances are, you will be met with a game over screen within the first 30 minutes of playing the game on normal difficulty settings.
Even if you opt for the lowest difficulty settings available, the learning curve in Frostpunk 2 is quite severe. You’ll have to really pay attention to things and you can’t just let the clock run willy nilly. There’s a lot of aspects to consider when building. Firstly, the core of New London features a generator as per usual. However, you are now surrounded by ice that needs to be broken. Dispatching “Frostbreaking” teams to do this is necessary before you can expand your settlement.
Once you’ve broken the frost and discovered a resource deposit, you can switch over to the build mode and place down tiles of a specific type to ensure a specific type of district is built. For example, if you found a coal deposit, you’ll place an extraction district on top of this and all the required facilities will be constructed for extracting coal. Found fertile soil? Place a food district on top of this and you’re good to go. You need to do the exact same thing with housing and industrial production too.
Later on in the game you’ll gain access to logistics districts which are placed near the outskirts of your settlement. These allow you to send forth expedition teams much like in the first game although this is vastly expanded on in Frostpunk 2. Now you can discover entire new regions based on their threat level to exploration. What you discover can also be quite intriguing and there’s multiple options available as to what you can do. An early example is finding an abandoned mine and warehouse. You can choose to dismantle the warehouse and leave the mine or you can rebuild the mine and use it as an outpost for coal production.
Players will also be able to build trails of skyways to connect their outposts to their main city and this enhances the output of resources obtained. Similarly, back at your main city, you can choose to expand districts which provides you with the option to build an additional building in a district which can perform a specific task.
Gaining access to new buildings is done via the research tech tree. Researching new buildings falls in line with the various ideologies that are spreading in your settlement. And this plays right into another key aspect of Frostpunk 2. Governance.
In Frostpunk 1, as the Captain, you would make decisions which people in your city would not like. Frostpunk 2 expands on this concept even further with the establishment of political groups. Frostlanders, Pilgrims, New Londoners… These groups each have a monolithic approach to their way of life and will do everything in their power to keep things going their way. Pass a law one group doesn’t like and you’ll end up earning the praise of another. Carefully balancing the way each particular group views you also assists with the passing of more important laws that can ensure your survival as the Steward and of the entire population in general.
Frostpunk 2 therefore boils down to a very complex web of intricate decision making. The city-building aspects have been toned down and simplified somewhat to make way for more micro-management and intense decision making. This also falls perfectly in line with the game’s incredibly dark, dystopian tone. If you’re a fan of games that are upbeat and happy, Frostpunk 2 is going to annoy you. There’s some very hard hitting moral and ethical questions that this game poses to you.
Its predecessor did the exact same thing but was a bit more hard hitting since you were at the forefront of things in a zoomed in view. The more zoomed out view in Frostpunk 2 oddly makes the game feel a lot less personal and more strategic instead.
Frostpunk 2’s dark, depressing atmosphere is complimented with a soundtrack that features music that is perfectly suited for apocalyptic frozen city-building and micro-managing. Graphically, the game is flat out gorgeous. Unreal Engine 5 powers the game’s visuals and when you do zoom in, seeing the animations play out in districts looks great. Again though, it’s a lot less personal than in the first game and there’s going to be a lot of mixed opinions on this aspect of the game.
The game features a mode where you can choose from one of seven different maps and can endlessly try to survive. However, you should definitely play the campaign first in order to get the best possible experience because the campaign teaches you how to play the game with tutorials and other information. It’s also very enjoyable fulfilling set objectives in the game’s story.
One minor gripe I have with Frostpunk 2 lies with the fact that the UI could use a little bit of work when it comes to the tutorial explanations. Some of the information presented to you is quite wordy and if you don’t actually sit and read through everything, you won’t understand what’s going on immediately. It also takes some getting used to the various icons and symbols at first and the learning curve might put some impatient people off.
While playing the game, I experienced one crash but after a few patches since release, the game seems to be running quite smoothly. The developers are still actively working on fixes and balancing the various interacting mechanics of the game and it can only get better from here based on player feedback. Given how complex the game is and how steep of a learning curve there is to get things going, it’s quite remarkable that the game even runs as great as it currently does.
Ultimately, Frostpunk 2 is a game that’s going to cause division among its fanbase. It’s more Frostpunk but it isn’t exactly more of the first game. It’s a larger, less personal, more strategic micro-management simulation this time around and you really do have to pay attention to numerous things while juggling the political machinations from above as the Steward. If you dislike games with a dark, almost disturbing tone and if you don’t want to think, Frostpunk 2 is not a game you should play.
If however you love micro-management, making tough decisions and you have a thing for survival strategy city-building, this game will definitely appeal to you.
This is a sequel worthy of its name and it expands on the first game’s content and world-building immensely with its own plot twists and deeper lore while sacrificing some of the closer, more personal aspects of building and maintaining a small settlement. I do suggest giving it a try though. It’s a fantastic game and once you’ve sunk a few hours into it and learn the ins and outs of things, it’s deeply satisfying and rewarding. Highly recommended survival strategy gaming here!
FrostPunk 2 Trailer
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