The apocalypse has always been a brutal concept from its first iterations. Early works describe it as a time without mercy and abound with cruelty. Modern renditions have strayed away from these roots with zombie apocalypses and asteroids and other ways of cheaply achieving dramatic setting change.
However Frostpunk embraces this idea of a world wrought with cruelty in its frosty dystopia. Similar to its predecessor this is a strategy survival game focused on city building and resource management set in a post global cooling event—think Mad Max but reversed.
What makes this game stand out however, is that there is never a time where you have room for error. Most times you will be short on one resource, and fixing that shortage will lead to another. The game does an excellent job of making you choose what to be short on. So much so that I would go so far as to say that this game is about managing your shortages more than your surpluses.
In contrast to the first game however, this one is on a much larger scale. Set after the story of the original, you take on a developing city rather than a small community. The minutiae of the previous game has been dispensed in favor of a larger, civilization-crafting approach to Frostpunk 2.
This is not a story focused game, so anyone coming in expecting that will be disappointed. There are some narrative elements and it feels cool when you defy the odds and secure a utopia but there are few characters that come back repeatedly. If you liked Frostpunk gameplay then you will love this game.
The systems in use have only gone farther in depth and have been made more intense by the upscaling of Frostpunk’s skeleton. I did not like how some of the new systems were unclear and somewhat unintuitive, in contrast to the predecessor. However, once learned, these mechanics feel really good to master.
Similar to CIV 6 in planning out your future, this game lends itself beautifully to replayability. That being said, it is hard to know how to plan your first playthrough. Players new to the genre and Frostpunk in general will have a hard time adapting quickly.
At $40 this game is a mid ticket item, and it definitely punches within that weight class. However this is due to the complexity and detail of the game, which can be daunting to casual gamers. Most players will not get $40 worth of fun out of this game and should wait until it goes on sale for cheaper.
