Frostpunk 2 Review: A Chilling Strategy Gem

Frostpunk 2 at a Glance

Frostpunk was a tense city-builder where a single decision could send you back to your last save file. Dressed in a gritty frost-laden Victorian aesthetic, it kept you from taking a breath as you sent children into factories and kept the heater off to save power at subzero temperatures. This tightrope premise applied to how you treat your ragged band of survivors, too.

I feared that Frostpunk 2’s adoption of political factions and expanded scope would hamper its constant sense of danger. I’m pleased to report that this isn’t the case. While your decisions are grander in scope, they’re just as harrowing in 11 Bit Studios’ latest city-builder.

Think of it like zooming out from the remains of a city to worrying about multiple settlements at once. Its campaign does a good job of drip-feeding new mechanics with difficult choices thrown in. It’s easily one of the best city builders you can play in 2024.

The organic growth of your cities’ districts as they break through the snow is stunning to witness. Paired with a rich orchestral score, the howling weather, and the constant bickering of your subjects, Our Frostpunk 2 review goes over what makes this sequel so special.

Purpose-Built Districts and the Throes of Politics

Instead of placing one structure at a time in Frostpunk 2 gameplay, you drop down entire districts responsible for tasks like extracting prefabs and generating food. Allocating your sizable workforce is done in percentages instead of placing workers one by one.

That gives you more time to tackle Frostpunk 2’s biggest addition: political tension. While maintaining the trust of your people was a core mechanic in the original Frostpunk, parties like the Pilgrims, New Londoners, and Frostlanders shake things up in the sequel. With different worldviews and hopes of your stewardship, you’ll have to juggle their expectations with promises and the occasional half-truth.

While you can’t keep all factions happy, ignoring one can drastically affect crime rates, trust, and getting laws passed by the Council. Getting a majority vote to create laws almost always requires a compromise, especially if the law in question pits the Frostlanders’ adaptation against the Stalwarts’ focus on automation, for instance.

While the clear UI and detailed menus make it simple to understand these issues, every promise you make adds tiny cracks to the thin ice you walk on as New London’s steward. Even if you grease the wheels of your economy by shaking hands that align with your values, you’ll eventually run into situations that demand compromise.

There’s no safe respite here, no moment of comfort. And it keeps you going until you become a totalitarian maniac who doesn’t stir as hundreds die from frostbite or causes of your own making.

Grand in Scope, Grander in Ambition

While some of Frostpunk’s magic is owed to its small scope, the sequel’s event system manages to strike the same chords. Once, a mine collapse trapped dozens of miners. Rescuing them would involve destroying the coal mine, and with a harsh winter ahead of us, I forfeit their lives to fuel the settlement’s generator.

Weeks later, one of the miners’ sons joined the same mine and, in a story snippet, asserted that their deaths were not in vain. This tension between cause and effect plays out in unexpected ways. And it’s this pressure that leads to some of the game’s best moments.

While this can be written off as a commentary on the nature of survival, the game’s growth spurt isn’t without its growing pains. A good portion of Frostpunk 2 is spent outside the confines of a single settlement.

This means scout expeditions are just as essential, if not more important, than parleying with factions at home. While zooming out to create minor settlements is a streamlined process, juggling thousands of workers across a sprawling map comes at the cost of the original game’s tight-knit feel.

Fortunately, being able to transfer resources via supply lines means you’ll only be staving off political turmoil in your main settlement. Over time, you grow numb to the cruelty of giving minor settlements the bare minimum as New London gets the best luxuries you can spare.

This change in scope serves as a subtle evolution of the previous game’s ambitions. As you hear squabbling council members pass another law, the nuances and compromises of your settlements stack up in ways far more engrossing than the original. At times, the factions’ disagreements proved a bigger threat than the storm. Sit on that thought for a while.

The Bottom Line

Frostpunk 2 builds on the original’s frostbitten grasp on survival with layers of settlements to manage, topped with an icing of political tension. Your survivors attempt to tame the frozen desert with supply routes, new power sources, and civilized legislation.

True, disease, starvation, and tension can still sink your settlement into the snow. But the glowing red lines of tension that connect your settlements raise survival on a pedestal in ways the “the city must not fall” motto of the original never could.

The Frostpunk 2 price is $45 on PC via Steam and the Xbox Marketplace, with its availability confirmed for PS5 later in the year. It’s well worth your time, even beyond its campaign, thanks to its Utopia Builder challenges. Frostpunk 2’s release date is September 20, 2024. The game is also available for Xbox Game Pass members.

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