Frostpunk 2 Review

There was not a game released yet that can challenge Anno in its propensity for balancing districts until the release of Frostpunk 2. Frostpunk 1 is about surviving, Frostpunk 2 is about thriving in the frozen wasteland. It’s a bit of a different take than the first game, which I’d compare to a more visual novel-esq experience. The entire city was contained within the original crater and, revisiting the city 30 years later, the original main character passes and you, the new main character as Steward, take over.

Your task is to expand the city outside of the crater, establish a city council and make a decision to embrace or conquer the cold. Before being thrown into the mix, you visit a failed generator where you survive the first whiteout at a Dreadnaught. This tutorial serves as a smaller, easier experience before jumping into the main game.

A Perfect City Building Experience

City building is usually more math than anything else. Residents want commercial, hates industry but needs jobs. Commercial needs industry and residential. Industry just creates pollution and no one wants it near them. Run roads, connect utilities, etc. That is until you get more into the Anno style city simulation experiences.

In Anno you construct various supply chains of buildings to provide for residents. More homes means more supplies and while still math based (2 buildings supply 1 building, etc.), it’s far more involved in what needs how much of what.

Frostpunk 2 takes the Anno formula and adds in the ability to fail faster than ever before in a city that’s constantly on the brink. Don’t monitor your workforce and you can’t break enough ice to build more shelter before your population starts freezing. A freezing population starts an uprising, reducing labor further, now resulting in food shortages. Food shortages turn factions against you and a vote of no confidence ends your reign.

The game is unapologetic in the no good decisions department. No one is the good person in their ideology, but they’re all willing to fight one another for it. The Stalwarts and the Pilgrims have be balanced (or exiled) while you choose which technology and which laws to pass. While managing the logistical movement of everything.

Once you expand into exploring the broader world, you’re faced with managing expeditions and a constant source of dwindling resources that is a race until you can deep melt and get infinite resources for a very few tiles.

Resources that, not supplied will again end your logistical network and your legacy.

Frostpunk 2 is Engrossing

It’s so engrossing because you’re effectively managing so many aspects of a city that need to be perfected for it to continue, so much so that failure never feels bad, but instead allows you to rethink how you approach design. Very early on you learn that hub placement becomes critical in ensuring lower workforce and more stockpiled supplies.

This iterative city design process, depending on difficulty, will have you building, failing and building again as you design a resilient city that can make it into the endgame. Which, since you’re likely to replay, has some excellent surprises for you when you reach that point.

The story itself is a medium to once again present difficult choices and arrangements. Do you build wide, do you build tall and what sacrifices will you make on that path.

Frostpunk 2’s Graphics

The graphics, sound design and freaky “Steward” people approaching you design is all good. It doesn’t move from the “Frostpunk” aesthetics of the original. The gui is good, although hotkeys can be a bit all over the place.

The only nitpick is the stuttering audio I got once my city got large. The game seemed a bit unoptimized to maintain larger cities. Which is fine, it might be a me thing, but I was able to get through and beat the game anyway.

Overall – Really Good

The game is really good, definitely an S tier game for the year. It’s like a fancy cake that has multiple different layers of flavor to make one really fantastic bite. You’ve got to manage resources, factions, security, exploration, cycles of warm and cold along with limited resources and so much more. The council and voting system is very neat as well.

If you liked the first one, 4x games, city builders or a challenging thought Frostpunk 2 is definitely for you.

Note, we received a key from the developer.