Frostpunk 2 Review: Boy, It’s Cold Outside!

Frostpunk 2 Review

Learning from history, or not

Frostpunk was set in an alternate 19th century where two volcanic eruptions engulfed the earth in debris, triggering a new ice age. The game focused on small groups of survivors establishing outposts and mechanisms to stave off the deadly cold. As an authoritarian (or more benign) captain, the player had to contend with the forces of religion and secular concerns, child labor, and dwindling resources. Gameplay time was clocked in at hours and days.

Set 30 years after the first game, Frostpunk 2 focuses on a single outpost, New London. Broadly speaking, it’s about a society that has found an uneasy balance with apocalyptic survival, now primed for expansion. Powered by oil, New London isn’t limited to a collection of buildings huddled around a coal furnace. Instead, the city is under pressure to expand, locate new resources further afield, and grow the population to thousands of people.

Of course, resource scarcity makes unfettered growth impossible. Plus, new technologies bring with them new problems, new diseases, and new conflicting ideologies. In Frostpunk 2, the player creates sprawling cities made up of districts, rather than individual buildings. Most notably, Frostpunk 2 introduces the idea of ​​multiple factions and the politics of appeasing disparate (and desperate) groups, each with a different goal for themselves and for New London. Instead of being the captain, you're the manager. It's a very different role, less dictator and more mayor.

The weather outside is awful

Frostpunk 2 consists of two interconnected layers, though the game doesn't describe it that way. The first layer consists of the building mechanic, which involves placing a series of districts, each with specific functions. In Frostpunk 2, the ice must be broken before it can be built upon. After it is prepared, the different districts (such as food, housing, industrial, mining, etc.) can be placed, provided there are enough resources to build on. Of course, even in the building layer, things aren't simple. The relationship of districts to each other, such as housing next to an industrial district that causes disease, is an important factor to consider.

At some point, the local area will run out. At that point, the player will begin building satellite colonies, provided they have climbed the tech tree. Colonies can be dependent on specific resources or grow into much larger settlements. As New London transitions from coal to oil, the need to pile everything up next to the main generator disappears.

In itself, Frostpunk 2’s building mechanics are addictive and interesting. Placing each new district is a challenging puzzle, a balancing act between cause and effect. While Frostpunk’s camera zoomed in close enough to see individuals and follow their suffering, Frostpunk 2’s view is less intimate even when zoomed in as close as possible. Instead, it’s a beautiful panoramic view, with energy moving and citizens represented by colorful lines of moving energy, like busy highways seen from the air.

Clash of cultures

In real life, as we all sadly know, various groups with conflicting economic or social interests can either hinder or help a society. A skilled leader is needed to manage conflicting ideas and facilitate progress. This is the second layer of Frostpunk 2. As a manager, your goal is to gain the trust of six factions: Gatherers, Machinists, Workers, Traders, Thinkers, and Lords. In the first game, as a captain, you passed laws or edicts that affected your small society. In Frostpunk 2, you can't just climb the idea tree on your own. You must be politically astute and somehow convince everyone that the Thinkers' progressive, economic, and technological vision is best for the Machinists. You have to convince the Workers that the Lords' vision will help their quality of life.

If you fail on the political/economic side, the building mechanics can slow down or stagnate. On almost every turn you need support from the factions. If your trust level drops to the point of disdain, you lose. The interrelationship between faction clashes, their management, and the city building process is complex and adds a deep strategic element to Frostpunk 2. It also means that players eager to relax (pun intended) into the city building game will be chilled out by Frostpunk 2. The game requires serious thought, patience, and strategic planning. The first few minutes of relaxed building give way to hours of tension in no time as things start to fall apart.

Bigger and better

Frostpunk 2, like the original, has a campaign and a sandbox mode called Utopia Builder. The campaign is engaging on its own, but its main function is to slowly introduce the game’s mechanics, factions, and complications. It’s possible to dive right into a standalone setting thanks to the game’s excellent codex, but playing through the campaign (perhaps multiple times) is well worth the effort. Utopia Builder will likely be the final home for most players, though. In addition to choosing the difficulty, victory conditions, and starting environment, players select which three factions to include or allow the game to randomize them. Even on the lowest difficulty, “citizen,” Frostpunk 2 is a challenge.

The original Frostpunk was a strikingly beautiful game in a cold, desolate, desperate style. Now, with Unreal Engine 5, Frostpunk 2 is equally stunning, with crisp, detailed graphics, striking weather effects, and desolate environments. The complex web of growing communities and their colorful bands of flowing energy look fantastic. Some intimacy with individual survivors is lost, but that’s not what Frostpunk 2 is all about. Polish composer Piotr returns for Frostpunk 2’s soundtrack, and it’s just as moody and inspired as the original. It also has moments of orchestral energy, befitting the game’s more expansive nature.

It's worth the wait

Frostpunk 2 trades the intimacy and plight of individual survivors for the challenges of growth and sustainability. The threat of extinction is mixed with economic challenges and the vague promise of long-term survival. Frostpunk 2 expands the scope and deepens the mechanics of the first game, adding even greater complexity to the puzzle-style city-building that remains addictive and unique to the genre.