Frostpunk 2 is a very cool city builder

At Frostpunk 2’s main menu, I was immediately treated to an awesome mix of strings and brass. Thanks to this orchestra, I could already feel the cold wind blowing through the mountains. The tone was set immediately, so I jumped into this RTS with trepidation. Developer 11 bit Studios convinced me more or less (or not?) right away with the following statement: “Remember: it’s not about how many times we fall. It’s about how many times we get up.

Why well?

30 years later and a race against time

Frostpunk 2 takes place 30 years after the original game. Mother Earth is still in the grip of extreme weather events and the “Great Storm”, as the Wanderers call it, is still raging across our planet. Freezing temperatures and blizzards have become a daily apocalyptic reality, and The Wanderers must seek warmth through exploitation and creativity. Fortunately, the town has a giant emergency generator (The Dreadnought Wreck). This provides warmth in a harsh world. So humanity’s hope is one of the few they can cling to.

Bitter reality is thrown in your face more often than the number of snowballs in a snowball fight. The game mentally punished me every time I got the message “29 people froze to death” or “38 people got sick” in the lower right corner. Gradually, I was able to reduce this amount tactically by placing my circuits. I will cover this in more detail later in this review. The game takes you by the hand at first, but as an RTS layman, I still went through each menu to get to know and, above all, to understand Frostpunk 2 better. The Wanderers were racing against time and as a player I had to provide them with warmth, food and a roof over their heads. You get (at least in story/citizen mode) 88 weeks to fix everything and keep your people happy and alive.

Circles as hope

The various messages I read from people in my community really felt like a personal letter addressed to me. The developer’s 11-bit studios made a good move with these texts and further created the cold depressing atmosphere that was already very palpable. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like Santa after reading mostly pleas and cries for help. On the contrary, I was more than once faced with a moral decision that I had to make for myself, but especially for The Wanderers.

Districts came in no time to limit these messages somewhat. It was as if the sun had suddenly started to shine. If only it were true in my town called Pragapunk. If you want to do your own thing and ignore the story for a while, then Utopia Builder is the better way to go. This is a sandbox mode in Frostpunk 2. Also an ideal way to get to know the game and above all at your own pace.

In the beginning I could rely on three districts, housing, mining and food. Industry and logistics will also be added later. Industry mainly ensures an even greater production of raw materials and acts more as a bonus. Logistics, on the other hand, focuses mainly on relations with settlements, outposts, and transporting raw materials to and from the city. The latter are (almost) always placed on the edge of the map. It is best to place a residential area near a central generator so that people can get heat. This is also reflected in the bars so you can really get the most out of it and take advantage of your bonuses. Before you can build anywhere, I first had to clear the surface of the ice. You can do this with a frost break. This costs a certain number of workers (temporarily), but also heat stamps. Heat stamps are given to you every game week and grow as your city, population and surrounding districts grow.

It’s all about following the correct order. The first frost break for a certain area, place the right area and keep a good balance between all resources. Aesthetically, the game looks great. Steampunk in a frozen environment is a huge added value to experience the atmosphere of Frostpunk 2.

Follow the law

Disease and death are unfortunately the result of the conditions people must live in in Frostpunk 2. To add employees, you have several options. Building hospitals so that there are fewer sick people, or people are transferred from one district to work in another. These measures improved the city’s standard of living and led to population growth. Finding a good balance between refining (luxury) products or raw materials is really key to keeping your population happy. At the top of the screen, you can see if there is a shortage of material or not. I struggled at first with constant management, but once I figured this out, I left. A puzzle that fits together with some tweaks here and there. What makes Frostpunk 2 a fun game for me is that you’re constantly busy checking everything. Just against the time of that race. If I was lost, I could press T on any menu or tab to read the tutorial. It’s about refreshing yourself every now and then.

Council Chamber

The placement of the “council hall” is also extremely important. By proposing certain laws, the chaos and tensions of your people will disappear. There are 3 parties in your parliament: workers, merchants and machinists. In these factions, people can break away and create a new party. Everyone has their own demands, needs and requirements. Once again I tried to keep the church in the middle and do something good for everyone. You can propose laws in four categories: Survival, City, Society and Rule. Some yielded serious benefits, but sometimes you have to compromise in other areas.

Example: I was able to add light chemicals to food to speed up production. The downside to this is that the risk of disease is higher in your community. And in the four categories, there are several options where my moral judgments were tested again. A nice feature that allows you to go in many directions as a player. At the bottom of the screen I could hear about my relationships with different factions and their attitude towards my laws. Every ten weeks I could send a new invoice so everyone could be on the same page again. Difficult choices, but sometimes good consequences.

Hubs for even more hope

To give myself a bit of a breather and to make managing everything a little more bearable, I built focus. I placed these in specific areas to create an inventory of raw materials. Of course I had to check this every so often to see if I should continue or increase production. When you install these hubs, workers are freed up, who can then be employed elsewhere. If I thought we were staying within the boundaries of our Map, I was wrong. After about 7 hours of playing, I suddenly had the opportunity to go on an expedition.

Humans are hunters by nature and want to do everything they can to survive even in these conditions. You can go to the “Frostlands” area to collect a lot of resources in one go. For these expeditions, I had to put together Frostland Teams. Passing laws, building logistics areas and above all a lot of research will help you explore far beyond the walls of your city. Colonies can be placed in “Frostland”, making it even more expansive.

Finally, I have one more feather to put in the cap of 11-bit studios. Frostpunk has beautiful visuals and is a joy to watch. Everything fits the picture and looks insanely good. When you zoom in on your city or a certain neighborhood, life is going on and you see everyone walking up and down warmly dressed. Personal messages, menus and cut scenes are also great. A nice detail I noticed: the routes from the neighborhoods to my city are marked with a kind of glow. Feeling warm in Frostpunk 2, finally!

Why not?

Study and stay sane

If you haven’t played the original Frostpunk or are new to the RTS genre, you’re in for a treat. I had to read a lot and look things up before I understood anything about how the game worked. I recommend everyone to read everything carefully and press T a lot to read the tutorials. I think there is a bad balance in one issue. Building areas or other buildings is far too slow compared to the passage of time. You can fast forward time, but it’s the same thing. The result is that (certainly in the beginning) I had the feeling that I wasn’t collecting raw materials very much. The camera sometimes stuttered and it felt like I stopped. Moving around the map also felt quite clumsy at times. Also when pointing to areas I didn’t immediately see the menu and it was frustrating at times because the camera is quite slow.

Trailer

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