Review: Frostpunk 2 Makes for a More Complex Sequel

The original Frostpunk surprisingly appealed to me, despite my usual disdain for city builder and strategy-style games. I adored the gritty, dark, and often disturbing post-apocalyptic setting of trying to survive amidst a never-ending winter. Frostpunk 2 is finally here and as you’ll see in our review, it is a much larger and more complicated sequel that gains and loses a lot in the process.

Frostpunk 2 picks up 30 years after the original title, with the same locale of New London and a much broader focus. Players take on the role of the Steward, a person in charge of keeping the city and everyone alive and well. This is similar enough to the base game, as players build out the city further, customize roads, and manage the ever-dwindling resources.

However, nearly every aspect of the original survival city builder is expanded upon here, for better and for worse. The scope is honestly impressive. Instead of focusing on a creating and customizing a single building in New London, you now deal with entire districts. The city is also much larger than ever possible before, with many more citizens and workers.

The sheer amount to deal with is somehow overwhelming in an enjoyable way. You have to constantly make choices that affect the entire city and everyone in it. Do you send kids off to work, instead of school, to improve your petroleum output or keep them educated for their futures? Do you put your workers at risk by blasting further into the mines or play it safer but risk not having enough for your city?

There are countless choices and they aren’t the easiest ones to make. Fortunately, this is where the story mode comes into play. This 12-15-hour experience is essentially one huge tutorial. I do wish there was a bit more to the plot, but it provides the occasional little cutscene to give an idea of what’s happening. The story mode eases the player into all of the new mechanics and acts as a nice refresher, too. That said, the whole point of the story mode is to prepare the player for the real meat and potatoes of the experience: Utopia Builder. This is the other mode available in Frostpunk 2 at its launch. It is essentially an endless city builder where you are free to do whatever you want.

This means crafting the New London you desire and even beyond that. One of the intriguing new focuses of this sequel is on the colonies. You can create a colony and ship out other citizens to live there. Then you can connect your cities together in one massive network to feed resources from one place to another. This all creates such an intricate and complex system. This complexity only furthers when you have moments where the encroaching cold gets wild. During these special storms, people aren’t able to work. Instead, you have to rely on the resources and food you’ve saved over the months to survive. These moments are a bit too frequent in my experience and annoying, but they add an intriguing layer.

However, the real standout part about Frostpunk 2 is the new Council Hall. Here, the several factions in the city come into play. Each faction has its own desires for the future of the city and they often conflict with one another. One may care about the people more, while others prefer improving the city at any cost. You as the Steward have to manage these factions and essentially negotiate with them to pass legislations. This often plays out in buttering up one faction or even bribing them to side with you. It is a delicate and fascinating duel of politics that I quite enjoyed as my favorite new part of this sequel.

In fact, the Council Hall helped to alleviate my core issue with Frostpunk 2, which is actually the scope. Something about the original Frostpunk that captivated me was its emphasis on the people. It physically hurt to see children and even workers die. After all, you could clearly see them all as little people running around the city. This sequel expands so much that it loses that personal feel. This sequel feels much more like a numbers game rather than the emotional and often morally challenging survival experience it was before.

Even still, Frostpunk 2 is a worthy enough survival city builder sequel. Like the original, it is absolutely stunning to play, though I do recommend against Steam Deck. It just doesn’t run as well and the input controls aren’t the best here. If you have a beefy PC or modern console, this is a real looker to play. With the complicated decisions, larger scope, and new Council Hall decisions, Frostpunk 2 is one of the most elaborate and complex sim games available.

Frostpunk 2 releases for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on September 20, 2024. Early access begins for Digital Deluxe players on September 17, 2024.

8

Frostpunk 2

Develop, expand, and advance your city in a society survival game set 30 years after an apocalyptic blizzard ravaged Earth. In Frostpunk 2, you face not only the perils of never-ending winter, but also the powerful factions that watch your every step inside the Council Hall.

Frostpunk 2 carries the aesthetic of the original but expands upon it with new political systems and gameplay styles. The scope is so much grander. While it loses some of the survival charm in the process, the new political arena in the Council Hall makes up for that.

Food for Thought

• Controller players should stick to PS5 or Xbox Series X/S
• Steam Deck isn’t the best place to play this game
• Story Mode acts mainly as a tutorial for the Utopia Builder mode

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review. Reviewed on PC.