Frostpunk’s 2018 release brought a unique twist to the city-builder genre, putting you in control of a group of humans trying to survive the new ice age. Players took on the role of Captain as they built their small worker colony into a thriving city in the post-apocalypse. Along the way, players had to make difficult decisions, like restricting food, enforcing strict authoritarian laws, putting children to work, or worse. Frostpunk 2 picks up the story 30 years later and, in doing so, seeks to improve on almost every aspect of the much-loved simulator.
Three decades have passed since the events of Frostpunk. The group has been traveling the frozen wasteland for years, but faced with another whiteout, they return to the old machine, hoping to use its warmth to survive. This is where my gaming session begins. The old battleship is in pieces under the ice, so I have my work cut out for me in the weeks leading up to the whiteout. I must first break through the ice to reach an oil tank car, build an extraction district to collect its oil, then use it to ignite the furnace.
Frostpunk 2’s city runs on production – the resources you produce through districts, buildings, and workers – and demand – the food, housing, goods, materials, and heat your people need. To meet the needs for shelter and warmth, I build living quarters next to the oven. Then I break the frost on an area with fertile soil and grow food on the plots. We’ll need a lot of food to survive the whiteout, so I’m building a food warehouse.
Unfortunately, 6 of my 1,350 people are falling ill and unable to work, hampering our ability to produce food. Diseases wax and wane depending on factors such as food supply, heating, and the availability of shelter. People can also get injured, preventing them from working. Yet at this point there is nothing to worry about, as the vast majority of my population is still able to work. As the weeks pass, it seems like I won’t be able to reach my goal, so Finan, a 42-year-old gardener in my group, speaks up, suggesting that we work as an emergency team or tighten our belts by restricting rations to catch up with our forecasts.
I don’t want to restrict rations yet, but I allow emergency shifts. However, the oven is in difficulty and I am starting to run out of fuel, which means that 30 of my colleagues die of cold. Morale and confidence in my leadership plummet. I start working on extracting another oil reservoir, but it becomes more and more obvious that I won’t store enough food in time, so I end up limiting the rations. I’m also behind on building materials, so I start working to extract the building materials from under the ice, but I run into a problem: I don’t have enough workers.
This constant dance of prioritizing and keeping multiple plates spinning is where Frostpunk and, by extension, Frostpunk 2 truly shine. The feeling of sand slipping through your fingers, not knowing whether to loosen or tighten your grip, but you know you have to decide quickly or risk losing everything. This is what Frostpunk and its sequel deliver in spades.
Here’s how I know things are going wrong: another citizen approaches me – a 62-year-old seamstress – and suggests that the seniors sacrifice themselves so that the young people in the group can continue to live. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but luckily I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. I build additional food districts and warehouses and immediately order emergency teams. It will come down the wire and I feel the tension building in my body.
Then the moment arrives: the decision point. The group fears that we won’t have enough food to survive the coming storm. So they present two options: we can let our seniors leave the group and go into the desert, thereby reducing the number of mouths to feed without sacrificing our workforce or the future of our city, or we can massacre a colony seals nearby. I don’t want to do either, so I continue on the same path, crossing my fingers that I’m doing the right thing. That might as well be Frostpunk 2’s mantra: I hope you’re doing the right thing.
Diseases spread, limiting the workforce, and whiteout approaches. With less than a week to go, we have reached our food goal, but at what cost? Confidence has fallen dramatically and disease is rampant after months of emergency changes. This tense sequence was little more than a tutorial, but it appropriately captures the essence of Frostpunk 2.
I’m then directed to Frostpunk 2’s main setting, New London. The old captain is dead and the city is weak. Overpopulation is rampant, food is scarce, and coal is running out. You play the steward responsible for bringing New London back to prosperity. Luckily, this first year is warmer than expected (but it’s Frostpunk, so it’s still a freezing mess). I need to use this to get the city back on track.
As the captain weakened, the city became more and more divided, bringing maintenance to a screeching halt. I have my work already prepared for me. With an urban population of over 4,200, I strive to meet basic needs like food, shelter and heating. In New London, three factions emerged, each with their own agendas, desires and plans. Among them is The Stalwarts, a band that resulted in a binary choice I made during the tutorial. Membership in these groups will fluctuate and you will need to balance your allegiances to them, playing the game of politics while working to improve daily life.
That’s right. It’s not just about building a city and assigning workers: Frostpunk 2 requires you to get enough votes to not only stay in power, but also pass the laws you propose using the game’s complex system. For example, at some point I am short of money, so I propose an economic law that citizens must donate their free time unless they purchase an exemption, which raises funds for the city, thus allowing me to finance more projects. It’s not the most popular option, but I’ve gotten enough support to implement it. If your projections seem less confident before the vote, you can try negotiating with the various groups in New London to try to appease them and encourage them to vote in favor of your proposal.
City builders can be extremely hit or miss for me, but when they hit, they hit hard. With so many systems stacked on top of each other, including what appears to be an incredible law system, Frostpunk 2 not only has me circling July 25 on my calendar, but it also has me eagerly re-downloading the original Frostpunk to satisfy little tastes. my practical session provided me. Frostpunk 2 comes to PC on July 25, then to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S at a later date.