Games often spark joy. Sometimes they bring a chilling experience. Frostpunk 2 definitely lands in the second category. Imagine a world covered in ice and snow. No signs of humanity in sight, no lands with a pinch of opportunity and no hope for better days.
Welcome to Frostpunk 2. The sequel to the iconic first Frostpunk game also created by 11 Bit Studios. It’s a city-building simulator game where you are in charge of guiding a community through a new ice age. So far it seems similar to the first time we encountered this world. But, the second installment brings an entirely new – and larger – scale.
Choices
Choices. It’s all about making choices. The right choice? Not the most important. You are in charge of running a community facing an imminent and almost inescapable end. So if you have to choose between sending out all elderly people in your community to die.. your first instinct might be: But why!?
If the other option is having a chance nobody will make it past this storm, then your choice suddenly becomes very clear. Frostpunk 2 doesn’t make you a good guy. It doesn’t give you a happy feeling. After playing you feel morally empty. But if you’ve done well, your people (well, some of them) will still be alive. And that’s your goal.
Frostpunk 2 is packed with these kind of choices. Some of ’em will be easy as they’ll align with your personal beliefs. Some will be the exact opposite.
You’ll make decisions you don’t agree with. And you’ll take those decisions even if it’s not a life or death situation. You’ll do this because it will keep your community from rioting in the streets. In Frostpunk 2 there are multiple factions who will want things from you. Some aspire to accept this cold world and want to invest in technologies to embrace it. Some want to break free from this everlasting coldness. They’ll want to invest in new machines, exploration, and a dream of a warmer world. Maybe they’ll see grass growing again one day.
Gameplay
Keeping the different factions in your community happy is one aspect of the game, making decisions and proposing laws is a second one. But there’s more to it. Frostpunk 2 is a city-builder, which means you’ll create a settlement with different types of districts. You can add housing districts, extraction districts, food districts, and more to your settlements. But, you are also facing a scarcity of resources and a ticking clock. Let’s start with time as your enemy. Once every few years a freezing cold winter arrives. It will completely shut down your economy, and exploration and will require your heat generator to turn into overdrive. You will need to prepare for these moments. If your community doesn’t have enough food, coal or oil it will not make it through the freezing storm.
Besides time you’re also fighting the scarcity of resources. Coal, materials and food are there to be extracted. But the more hours you put into the game the harder it gets to extract all the resources you need. While the population of your settlement grows, the goods required to keep them going become more scarce.
In contrast to the first game, warmth isn’t your only enemy. This means the scale of Frostpunk 2 isn’t the only thing that has changed, but the challenges that are thrown your way are much more diverse.
Art direction
The sense of scale in Frostpunk 2 is greatly increased. The world is beautifully crafted and the hopelessness of it all is portrayed perfectly. Snow storms, icey plains and a lonely settlement in the midst of it all visualize the situation you and your community are in. The side-effect of increasing this sense of scale is that your attachment to the people you are making these decisions for is decreased. Inhabitants of your community walk by very fast and are barely visible. This means your choices (and there are a lot of them) have less of an impact.
The sound design and music are beautiful. With hard ‘clicks’ and ‘clacks’ the industrial setting is combined with beautiful chilling music. There could’ve been more variation in the recorded texts, but overall it complements the art direction perfectly.
The never-ending misery
There’s only so much misery and hopelessness someone can handle. And Frostpunk 2 keeps pushing those limits. It’s a depressing and sobering experience, with little regard for joy or hope. This means at some point you’ll stop caring about it all. When there are only lows, adding a few more doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve enabled child labor, have willingly sent out people to die in the cold, and have taken away children from their parents. I can keep on going. Frostpunk 2 rapidly and drastically alters your moral compass.
Luckily Frostpunk 2 is an amazing game that keeps you on your toes. It’s also quite difficult, so it’s perfect for the more experienced simulator and city-building connoisseurs.
To summarize
Frostpunk 2 is an excellent city-builder and simulation experience. The sound, art and graphic design are beautiful. It’s also an intense experience. This intensity can sometimes feel overwhelming, and a touch of humor might have provided a welcome contrast to the relentless bleakness.
The risk of too much-simulated suffering is that the most challenging decisions can leave you feeling emotionally detached, as the end often justifies the means. This dynamic makes Frostpunk 2 a unique experience where you can never truly be the ‘good guy,’ only ‘less bad.’ It’s better to play this in short bursts, as it will keep you from becoming emotionally numb to all the suffering in Frostpunk 2.
Frostpunk 2
Played on
PC (Steam)
PROS
- Engaging gameplay
- Beautifully crafted world
- Meaningful choices
CONS
- Complex & difficult for beginners
- Bleakness overload
8.5 out of 10
GREAT
XboxEra Scoring Policy
Available on
Windows PC
Developer
11 Bit Studios
Released on
September 20, 2024
Publisher
11 Bit Studios
Price
€44.99