Frostpunk 2 review: A post-apocalyptic simulator that’s as beautiful as it is brutal

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Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
Release date: September 21, 2024

A few hours into my first campaign in city-building survival game Frostpunk 2, I was asked whether I thought parents should be able to accompany their kids into quarantine. A mother had been waiting outside, desperate to sit with their unwell child. Relaxing the law could help my trust with the locals; however, it was a risk nonetheless. Ultimately, I thought it was fair to let them in. Within moments of this decision, I was notified the mother had died of the same disease with a second popup letting me hear the thoughts of their bereaved husband, who ‘wasn’t sure how they could manage without them.’

It was painful, and depressing, a fitting ambiance for the broader context of the world. In Frostpunk 2, empathy can often feel inessential, frequently undermined by the brutal but engaging task at hand. However, despite the overwhelming urge to check that feeling at the door, this complex and moreish city builder wants you to learn from your mistakes, consider the alternatives, and often fail dramatically anyway. But regardless of how it goes, you’ll never be left without a story to tell.

For those unfamiliar with the series, Frostpunk 2 takes place thirty years after the original game, in an alternative history where a volcanic winter has left society in an eternal state of ice. With limited technological resources and a city of vulnerable souls, your job is to steward the remaining civilization to utopia through excavation and exploration in frosty outer wilds - simple, right? But of course, no. The journey is naturally plagued with problems like disease and trust issues. However, if you brave the many (many) storms, your nurtured society can thrive and live on in this eternal freeze.

My first run at Frostpunk 2 was a chaotic balancing act as I acquainted myself with the cohesive medley of systems needed to survive in the icy post-apocalypse. Thankfully, suppose you are a little rusty like myself or a newcomer to the series. In that case, developer 11 Bit Studios softens the landing with variant difficulty settings and a short but sweet tutorial that wraps up the basics of how to play. Through this opening act, you’ll learn to break the ice (literally) to explore, find, and excavate your resources and manage your society through laws and research upgrades. While the bulk of Frostpunk 2’s mechanics come later - and through harsh lessons - this introductory level was the perfect amuse-bouche to the feast that is the rest of the game.

Best Bit

When a law passes, or something (probably damning) happens in your society, a tannoy plays overhead, that's delivered by a warm but sarcastic British voice actor who doesn't hold back with their sass. While almost every statement made me giggle guiltily, a standout came after I passed a law forcing children into apprenticeships where they said, “Don't shield your apprentice from the dangerous aspects of your job; this is how they learn.” It’s a harsh world, and not one aspect of Frostpunk 2 lets you forget it.

Through this introduction, you’ll also get acquainted with Frostpunk 2’s striking visual style, which makes the most of its late-1800s-style setting with burnt orange and copper mechanized industrial buildings and parchment paper script. After spending hours staring into the quiet blue-toned abyss, I found myself leaning towards the warmer parts of my screen almost instinctively to stay snug despite the 26-degree forecast outside. It’s clear that considerable care has been taken with each detail, and I was always pleased to find and inspect the finer notes, like the graffiti details on the drawings that accompany pop-up choices or unique features on character designs.

Get resources or die trying

Frostpunk 2’s story mode is broken into sections that unlock as you achieve specific parameters, like finding alternate fuel sources, to keep the city of New London afloat. Success leads to another goal, and failure, well, that ends in exile. Despite my best efforts, my attention span was constantly drawn away from my pressing larger goals by the more minor but equally urgent issues like food management and rising crime rates due to youth delinquency. That is, in essence, Frostpunk 2’s central ethos, though - holistically managing and considering your ever-present and ever-changing parameters and goals that come with the cost of keeping thousands of people alive.

As such, there is no easy answer, and I’d often have to sacrifice the quality of life of my workers to maintain the incoming supply of goods to satisfy the consequent demand. It was often a rough decision, especially when my mismanagement got them here in the first place. Soon enough, that would lead to societal discord, which meant appeasement and new regulations to keep them on side.

Surprisingly, with such harrowing situations and heady topics, I never wanted to disengage from the nightmare, and instead, I fell deeper into the systems, hoping to tunnel my way to success. Where the general ambiance kept me engaged, Frostpunk 2’s off-kilter humor also worked well to lighten the emotional load. Sarcastic tannoys and schadenfreude-filled situations occur often enough that those bitter failures don’t feel so bad, and equally, triumph isn’t to be celebrated too quickly either.

You can improve your citizens' lives, though, and that’s through innovation. The Idea Tree plays a significant part in your survival throughout Frostpunk 2, and you’ll need to choose avenues to research at a cost of currency and time. There are political factions to consider when bettering your society, too, and no group will agree wholeheartedly. Still, you can invest in projects like Asbestos lining to help keep heating costs down… if you dare.

It’s not the end of the world

Speaking of factions, city management inevitably includes politics, and you’ll have to manage the needs of these various groups to keep things running smoothly. This is done through the lawmaking process, where you broker deals in backrooms with certain factions to get enough votes on your side to get laws passed. As with The Idea Tree, not all factions will agree on the best course forward, and it’s your job to decide which direction will do the least harm.

As much as it pained me to do so, I often sided with religious zealots because their ideals felt a little less harsh than the other factions and because their numbers, thanks to my tinkering, remained so strong. You can easily negotiate too close to the sun here, too, though, as on more than one occasion, I made too many promises and got myself stuck, humbled, and unable to pass any meaningful laws without compromising my vision.

An ominous soundtrack accompanies your endeavors, blending the world's ferocious howling winds with symphonic sounds. As with the visual flourishes, the score feels appropriately solemn, offering fleeting moments of optimism through its clever orchestration. The intricacy of the music speaks to the detail that extends across Frostpunk 2’s vast pool of systems that I’m barely scratching the surface on, - if you haven’t yet got this impression, it’s definitely a game that is best explored for yourself.

Despite having so much fun with Frostpunk 2, some recurring issues with inconsistent frame rates did rear their head, muddling my otherwise smooth playthrough. Thankfully, due to the game’s slower nature, none of those issues directly impacted my playthroughs by too much, and I’m optimistic that 11 Bit can solve said issues before launch.

Once you've tried your hand at the main story aspects of the game, you can also jump over to the Utopia Builder mode, which offers a more sandbox approach to the gameplay, allowing you to pick certain parameters of a playthrough before you dive in. Equally as difficult and just as enjoyable, this mode was a great way to throw caution to the wind and test out some of my theories without feeling too heartbroken when I’d inevitably fail.

Accessibility

In Frostpunk 2, you can access the settings menu from the main title page as well as in-game, and you can toggle most features whilst in-game or before starting a session. Here, you can find a slider to toggle the UI text size, as well as an option to slow down game time when messages appear on the screen. For audio, you can set sliders for SFX and Music. Plus, if you have a specific keyboard setup, you can rebind the keys to your preference.  Requested more here.

Should I play Frostpunk 2?

Play it if...

You want a city builder with a harsh edge
Managing a city is no small task, and when the post-apocalyptic winds and resource scarcity rear their heads, you won’t always come out on top.

You think you could be a politician
A significant aspect of success in Frostpunk 2 is managing factions and, subsequently, your council's needs and wants. Making backdoor deals and condemning the unruly is part of the challenge, and it takes some clever maneuvers to stay in favor of your citizens.

Don't play it if...

You want a cozy game to relax with
From child labor to frostbite and disease, Frostpunk 2’s solemn world is full of terror that isn’t for the faint of heart.

How I reviewed Frostpunk 2

I played Frostpunk 2 on PC in both the Story and Utopia Builder Modes for around 25 hours. During this time, I experimented with various difficulty options, researched different skills in The Idea Tree, and supported a variety of the factions we were presented with.

I played Frostpunk 2 on an AOC 27-inch QHD VA 144Hz gaming monitor with a Logitech MX Master 3S mouse and a Logitech G915 TKL keyboard. For sound, I used my external Creative Pebble V2 computer speakers and my Audio Technica ATH-MX50X headphones, which were plugged into a Scarlett 2i2 interface. My gaming PC has an RTX 3080, and an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X.