Frostpunk 2 Review: A Cold, Compelling Triumph of Strategy and Storytelling

The world you know is gone. Memory of a time before is fleeting, and all anyone knows is cold. Bitter, unending cold. The only thing that hasn’t disappeared entirely - is the human persistence to survive. 

This is the backdrop for Frostpunk 2, and like its predecessor it turns the city-builder genre on its head. It’s a vehicle to deliver a poignant yet bleak story of human conflict and morality. It forces you to draw the line you will not cross - and then pushes you past it. 

But you’re not leading a band of would-be survivors, huddled around a generator. No, you’ve crossed that bridge. You aren’t enduring the present, but building a future. Unlike the first game, your word is not absolute - and standing in the way of your vision are factions and communities - each with their own ambitions for the road ahead. 

Do you try to appease everyone, compromise and negotiate - or do you persecute those who speak out against you?

Those under your charge require careful management. Fuel to fight the cold. Food. Liberties. Amenities. You’ll spread out into the frostland, set up supply lines, and create colonies in opportune areas. Always funnelling resources back to feed your hungry main city. 

You’ve an impossible task, and the odds are stacked against you. Rolling storms can snuff out your city if you’re unprepared. Starvation and disease can ravage your people. Dissenters can rise up, and plunge your enclave into civil war. You’ve got one simple goal. 

The city must not fall. This is Frostpunk 2.

Building Your City

It’ll take a lot to keep your city ticking. Food and goods for the citizens. Materials and prefabs to expand - and fuel to fight back the frost. You aren’t working with the resources directly, it’s a supply and demand metric - which I think is an improvement on the old system. You’re also not assigning workers directly - but balancing the workforce. When you’re building a city for tens of thousands of people, you don’t want to allocate workers one by one. 

There are a few key districts to fill varying functions. These can be expanded, and specialised buildings can be researched and built within them. Everything you place has a knock on effect. Increased output at the cost of extra pollution, for instance. You’ll have to maintain balance to keep your city healthy. 

Initially the district system felt a bit impersonal - but after adjusting to it I began really appreciating it. As you expand, your city will start to sprawl across the map. There’s this really great automated generation that fills in all the blanks, causing a really organic - albeit quite dystopian - city to emerge.

Planning ahead is crucial. You can’t build directly on the frost, you have to send teams out first to carve out suitable areas. Then there’s adjacency bonuses. Districts can share warmth, and special buildings can reduce the workforce needed or increase productivity of surrounding regions.

All the while, there’s a looming threat. Periodically, a powerful storm will descend upon your city - a whiteout as per the game. You’re better equipped to deal with it compared to the original game, and life will mostly carry on as normal as temperatures drop to 100 below. Though you’ll still need to make sure you’ve plenty of food and fuel stocked - ‘cos if those supplies run out there will be hell to pay. 

You’ll be able to fill those stocks to a degree with the resources around you, but those will only go so far. Eventually you’ll have to venture out into the frostlands to secure the materials you need. 

The Frostlands 

The frozen wastes beyond your city are vast - but they are not barren. Surrounding your city are several regions - and you can send explorers out to chart them. Here you’ll find resources, survivors, and steam cores - important for upgrading vital infrastructure. In some cases, you can task expeditions with setting up a minor settlement, funnelling resources back to your city. In particularly resource rich spots, you can build a colony. 

Now this is a unique new spin. At first, I thought this was going to be overwhelming - building one city is a tough enough task as it is. However, these colonies only have a primary function. Say, pump oil. They’ll still need food and manpower and all that, but they don’t need to be self-sufficient. As they funnel fuel back to your capital, you can set up supply lines to give them the base materials they need to keep ticking. You’re not putting out fires constantly. You’re setting it up, and letting it do its thing - coming back to upgrade and expand the operation here and there.

I know this can be an off putting mechanic for some - but they’ve struck the balance here very well. The colonies are vital enough to require your attention, but once they’re up and running, they don’t require constant management. 

As you expand through the Frostlands, you’ll etch out a network of trails and skyways, bringing resources home to stock up your cities and colonies. Providing the means to advance, and prepare for the upcoming whiteout. 

So your task is monumental. Charting and taming the wilderness. Setting up colonies. Keeping an ever growing capital fed, fuelled and functional. But there’s something that makes this even harder. Your decision making power is not absolute. Within your people, factions rise and jostle to bring their own vision into fruition. In the original game, the storm was your greatest enemy, but here, it’s your own people.

Factions 

The game is all about making decisions - most of them quite difficult ones. When you take your first steps, a faction will emerge that supports your approach. However, not everyone will agree with you - and opposing that loyal band of supporters will be another faction - going against everything you’re proposing. 

These factions will vie for support in your city, and their ranks and influence will ebb and flow depending on your actions. You can try and appease everyone - but chances are when you agree with one side, you’ll anger the other. Go too far in one direction, and you can radicalise the opposition. One side can sing your praises, while the other riots in the street.

You can negotiate through a sticky situation - or meet them in force, weaponising your supporters. If things get too dire, tensions can hit boiling point and civil war can break out. I don’t think I need to explain that that is obviously not a good thing. 

In these times, desperate measures are required, leading you down a route with some very uncomfortable decisions. This is the defining mechanic of Frostpunk 2 - and it creates such a powerful and interesting dynamic within the game.

Naturally, you’re looking at one faction as being ‘the opposition’ - but with a few different decisions, they could be your most fervent supporters. You might have one city plunged into chaos by one group, only for them to have your back time and again in the next playthrough. It’s such an impactful mechanic - as at different times you’re seeing these factions in new lights. You're oppressing them one hour, and being sympathetic the next. 

Every choice in the game has a side effect. An unwanted outcome. You can never make everyone happy, and this faction mechanic is the game’s way of representing the turmoil in human nature. I think this was really well implemented. It’s thought provoking and powerful - and it lends itself to the game world perfectly.

Research & Laws 

Despite the conflict and infighting and hostility - you always need to be moving forward. Ideas & laws are the two systems of progression in the game - both bound tightly to the faction system.

Laws are how you mould life in your city - but as I said earlier, your decision making isn’t absolute. Every proposal you put forth has to be voted on. And if it isn’t already clear - these lot can’t agree on anything. Different groups will try and bend your ear to enact this or that - and to push it through, you’ve got to garner support from the opposition. Usually by promising them something. And to fulfil that promise, you have to go back across the fence, and make deals with… - you see how this is turning into a vicious cycle, right? 

There’s a constant back and forth, and folks are always wanting you to repeal laws they don’t agree with, which causes yet more conflict. But the issues don’t end there.

Different people have different ideas for things. Some might want a nice, efficient coal mine that doesn’t pollute the city nor endanger workers. Others want to smash through the ice and reap the rewards - no matter the consequences. Every advancement poses a decision - and every decision affects a faction.

Every node you can research has multiple outcomes. Do you pick the variation that works best for you, or the one that makes you look good to the most people? Moreover, every single one of these decisions affects the zeitgeist of your city. Are you a place of tradition, equality and order? Do you want to adapt to this new world, or placate and conquer it? The further you follow a path, the more you divide your people. As you go further in a certain direction, radical new ideas open up - and many of them are hugely impactful, albeit polarising. Maybe some of them will go too far. Who am I kidding, this is Frostpunk. Everything you do will go too far.

The Campaign

So there’s a lot to the game. Every decision has kickbacks, and there’s conflict in every choice. The game does a very good job of onboarding you through the process with its campaign. 

This picks up after the first game, and you’ll get to pick whether the original New London took the path of faith or order. This decision will shape the campaign, and new factions will spring up to carry on their legacy. 

Across the campaign, you’ll have to balance all the things I’ve talked about so far, with mechanics drip fed bit by bit so as not to overwhelm you. You’ll come across locations familiar to fans - and have to make plenty of very difficult choices. Some of which will send the campaign veering into a different direction.

Though, there’s never a right decision. There isn’t ‘the good path and the bad path’. Everything is about the lesser of two evils. A moral grey area which the factions will claim is right and wrong. The decision making has an impact. It leads you to stop and think - am I going too far? Can I switch directions, or am I in too deep?

It all feels much less linear compared to the original game. You’ll set up colonies. Explore the wasteland. Deter or dismantle protests and revolutions. It takes you out of your comfort zone, and makes you realise ‘okay, this is the line I absolutely will not cross’ - and an hour later, it's in the distance. 

There’s an overarching narrative with little microstories springing up. And at the end of it all, you’ll be given a summary of the actions you took, and left with that empty feeling as you realise the terrible consequences of your radical ideas. Uplifting, right? No one plays Frostpunk to feel good about themselves. 

The campaign is very good. Subjectively, I don’t think it had the same level of climax, nor sets the scene as well as the first game - but the actual meat of the gameplay is much more engaging. On the other hand - it won’t take you that long to finish. 6 to 8 hours is reasonable. Now you can always go back and try things a different way - or undertake a harder difficulty - but this side of the game does have an end point. 

When you’re sated with the campaign, it's time to turn your sights to Utopia mode.

Utopia mode

Frostpunk 2’s alternate mode is where the longevity of the game comes from. There are several maps to choose from - each of them providing the possibilities of the campaign but on a blank slate. Some maps offer a randomly generated frostland, adding a layer of replayability. 

You can select your starter communities - or have them picked randomly - and from these factions will spawn based on the choices you make. You still have all the threats and worries of the campaign, but you're allowed to experiment with all the game’s tools.

I spent most of my playtime in utopia mode, and I really enjoyed it. Each map posed new challenges, and each faction steered my decision making. There was never a correct path, and despite there being no campaign story beats - the tension and atmosphere was always there. 

The game handles impact from decisions well - though you will feel distant at times due to the grander setting. To counteract that, the game throws you to a character every now and then - and you get a little story snippet about how your decision impacted them - for better or for worse.

While I would have liked some more minor objectives in the utopia mode, these little snippets did help create a narrative for the city - albeit less dramatic than the campaign. I’d originally thought that a sandbox mode would be more laid back than the campaign - but the threats are all still there. An unprepared city can still be snuffed out by the storm - and your city can erupt into civil war at the drop of a pin.

Where Frostpunk 2 Excels 

Frostpunk 2 is a powerful game. Where the original was a bleak society simulator masquerading as a city building game - this goes further. Everything is scaled up, and its city building side is strong enough to stand on its own two legs. The mechanics and systems are unique, engaging, and rewards proper planning and smart decision making. 

The society side too has greater weight. You’ll see your decisions lead to riots. You’ll feel the kickback with every law and development. Having the factions front and centre and feeding into everything is great game design. It injects conflict into every recess of the game and makes every other mechanic turn.

It’s also a stunning game visually. The city spread and district generation creates a striking and organic city. There’s real attention to detail applied too. From the world map you can see your settlements from a great distance, and when tensions in your city run high, the people’s representatives will bicker and squabble and argue - rather than passing laws.

The little snippets of writing set the scene in your city, and it’s a great example of ‘show, don’t tell’. Shining a light and allowing the player to really dig deep into this unique world. 

And then there’s the music. The orchestral soundtrack was a driving force in the first game, and that has been matched - dare I say - surpassed. The emotionally charged music overlaying the mechanical grunts of your city and howling wind of the storm create a deeply atmospheric soundscape. 

Problems - comparing it to Frostpunk 1

There are - however - some factors that work against the game. The UI - while very stylish and thematic - did feel clumsy here and there. There’s sometimes a problem of readability - you can’t tell what areas you’ve cleared for building at a glance, because it’s still snow. It’s white on white. 

Performance wise, Frostpunk 2 is demanding. While I had no noticeable issues - the game was using all the resources my poor little GPU had to offer. I did test it on a Steam Deck to gauge the lower end performance, and I was sitting around 30 frames in a fairly dense city. Not conclusive - but if you’ve any worries about performance on your system, I’d urge you to check out a dedicated video on that.

Really though, most gripes I had with the game only really came into effect when comparing it to the original. The grander sense of scale does detach you from seeing the individual human impact of your decision making. The scene isn’t set as powerfully and instantaneously as it was the first time around - and a lot of the campaign impact initially came from me knowing the original. A reference point new players won’t have.

Ultimately, it’s unfair to knock the game because of its predecessor. In most ways, it is a far superior game - but a very different one. They have different focuses, require you to think in different ways - and the emotional takeaways are not the same. This is more expansive, more in depth, and more engaging. It may lose some of the original’s impact, but it makes up for it in so many other ways.

Polarising For The Better

At the end of the day - Frostpunk 2 is fantastic, and a very worthy sequel. It’s visually striking. Its sound design and art lay the backdrop for a provocative and thought provoking setting.

The game expands on the original in every way. The cities are heftier and more sprawling. Laws and technologies are more interesting, and have greater knock on effects. The core building system is more flexible and engaging. If you take away all the things that make this Frostpunk, and just look at it purely mechanically, it is a really good city builder. But then you add in that narrative, that atmosphere, and that sense of conflict - and you’ve got something very special. 

My issues with the game were small. I found the UI a bit overstylised at times which take away from function, and there is a readability issue that comes from 90% of the world being white. While I did feel that the impact and story climax didn’t reach the heights of the original game - in isolation it is still an incredibly powerful, heavy hitting and at times - a deeply troubling game to play.

The conflict between factions seeps into every part of the game and this constant back and forth keeps tension ever mounting. Not just in the campaign either - 11 bit games have managed to create a replayable and expansive scenario mode with all the heft and gravity of a story driven campaign, which is very impressive. 

This is not Frostpunk with a facelift. This feels and plays very different to the original. And I expect that will be quite polarasing, as it was for me when I started playing. But once I’d gotten over that hurdle, I grew a real appreciation for the direction the studio took the sequel in. Not without some minor flaws, but an excellent game nonetheless.