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I have spent many hours playing the first game in the Frostpunk series, experimenting a lot with the choices and potential ways to save New London from its imminent death. I used to have debates with my friends regarding what option would be better, religion or autocracy, and if there really is no way to be humane in the game and survive. This is what got me really excited to play the sequel and continue the story.
However, what I got was a very different game from the original. Frostpunk 1 was a city builder/survival game, where you knew each person in the town and tried to make each and every person survive.
Frostpunk 2 is closer to a grand strategy game made by Paradox Interactive, as your city now is just the heart of the frozen empire you’re building. The problems of the past are gone, no longer do you have to fear surviving every day. Now, your goal is conquering the icy wasteland and making humans the top dogs again.
If you were a dedicated fan of Frostpunk 1 and love the unique feel of the game, I’m sorry to say but that is gone. But, if you’re someone that loves grand strategy games and “conquering” the world, then Frostpunk 2 will offer you an interesting scenario to play around with the idea.
Not only will you expand New London into a giant, industrial “utopia,” but you’ll also build new colonies and expand farther into the wasteland than anyone would have thought possible in the previous installment of the game.
Let’s start of with the nice things. The game runs really well and looks very beautiful. The animations for your workers braking ice are striking and looking at your workers is still a thing in Frostpunk 2 (after a couple of updates). The devs have also done a great job in conveying the idea that it’s time to expand. Not one moment did I question the need to conquer the wasteland, as opposed to what some other reviewers might have said.
Personally, I feel the choice to go in this direction is good, as just a copy of the original Frostpunk with better graphics and new events wouldn’t have really been that interesting. I’d rather play a DLC for the old game than get that. Still, there are things that are a bit overwhelming with this new Frostpunk.
First of all, there are too many popups. I feel like every second I have to start looking in a different corner of the world to click a simple event that says nothing interesting. Sometimes nothing really happens, but the notification that appears on the map is really aggressive. So you leave your settlement, drag the screen to get there, and then read an event that doesn’t really say much. Events in general in Frostpunk 2 are a bit underwhelming. Which brings me to my second point.
Frostpunk 2 is very linear. In the original one, I at least felt tricked that I had some choice in the way my people would survive the apocalypse. This time around, most research feels the same, no matter what branch you take, the political aspect of the game is relatively straightforward, and the exploration of the world is done in a progressive, but boring way. You usually explore what is safe, as you evolve your settlement and then regions become more “safe” to explore.
Building is also very simplified, as you build “districts” which produce various resources. Either food, shelter, or materials. You can add unique buildings in these districts which provide more bonuses, but, in general, you won’t really see something very different from one playthrough to the other. You just chase the resources on your map for maximum efficiency and look at your beautifully lit up city with lines going to the hot spots around it.
And now, let’s get to the last thing I really dislike about Frostpunk 2: the factions. They really don’t feel useful in any way, it feels more like they’re just a mechanic I play around with for free resources. There are various factions that exist based on the way you ruled New London in the previous game: religion-based or autocracy-based. Then, you get extremist minorities that come out of those factions, which will fight for more radical solutions.
However, most of the time, it feels like the factions don’t really play a big role in the way you run the city. It’s relatively easy to manage and keep all of them happy, and, even when they’re upset with you, the effects of their “revolts” are disappointing. They can take over districts, but that just affects some of your productivity. All in all, the factions just don’t have a real effect on the way you run the “empire,” and they feel like they’re mostly there to give you an extra thing to worry about when choosing the new bonus from a law.
But, all of these things don’t make Frostpunk 2 a bad game, it just makes it a different one. Once you manage to finish the story, which is very interesting, you can start playing the Utopia mode, where you can actually experiment more with the sandbox version of the game. This is where I personally think the game shines, as it really allows you to play around more with the possibilities and build that unique country that you might want to make.
All in all, I think that Frostpunk 2 is a fun “grand strategy” game, but a weak city builder. Unfortunately, the city builder tag is still there, and I think that’s a mistake. There aren’t many choices and replayability isn’t really a thing for the story mode. Still, Frostpunk 2 is 100% worth it if you don’t mind getting the game during one of the many sales they do on Steam, at least to see how the story progresses from the initial game and into the new world.
It’s also important to note that the game has been getting constant updates from the devs after release, with 3 DLCs in the works and a large content update prepared to launch into 2025. So it’s very likely that many of my complaints will disappear as Frostpunk 2 keeps getting updates and improving, day after day.
Frostpunk 2
Bottom Line
Frostpunk 2 is a fun “grand strategy” game, but a weak city builder.
