Now Playing: Frostpunk 2

I’d planned to pick up Frostpunk 2 at release but I simply couldn’t find the time to play it. And with reports of various bugs and balancing issues – that have now been (mostly) ironed out through patches – waiting was probably for the best.

Because I’m now pleased to say that Frostpunk 2 is a worthy sequel, but one that unfortunately lacks the strong narrative hook of its predecessor. As a fan of Frostpunk, I was both wary and excited by the prospect of a sequel – I wasn’t entirely convinced it needed one, to be completely honest.

It was hard to see how they could offer something new, but familiar. Something that retained the spirit of Frostpunk, but wasn’t just a repeat of the previous experience. But having now played it, I think they pulled it off quite successfully, delivering a new experience that – at its core (no pun intended) – is both very similar to the original but also very different.

Like the original game, Frostpunk 2 is about building, expanding and supporting a growing city in a frosty wasteland. It’s about gathering and balancing various resources that your city and its citizens need or desire. It’s about researching new technology, passing various laws and sending courageous expedition teams out into the wasteland in search of vital supplies or fellow survivors.

What’s different in Frostpunk 2 is the scale. Frostpunk 1 was a game of hours and days, of building individual roads and houses. At most, your city might house 600 to 700 citizens, and the notification of even a single death felt like a serious blow and a mistake you should have avoided.

Frostpunk 2, on the other hand, is a game of days and weeks, where you don’t build a single house, but entire housing districts, with your city population growing into the tens of thousands. Where hundreds may freeze to death during an unexpected cold snap and a lack of heat but you don’t even blink because you have another 50,000 more citizens to worry about.

And I think that’s kind of the point. Frostpunk 2, as a sequel, makes sense. The scale had to increase; the population had to increase. This isn’t a game simply about surviving the wasteland, but reclaiming it. And that’s reflected in the new ‘colony’ system that lets you establish new settlements throughout the wasteland, transferring supplies and citizens as needed. Frostpunk 1 was a game of civilisation on the brink of extinction, Frostpunk 2 is civilisation – having survived the storms – pushing back.

And I think that’s why Frostpunk 2 received a somewhat mixed reception at release from fans of the series – because whilst at its core it’s essentially the same game as Frostpunk, the increased scale meant you lost the more intimate, cosy, personal connection that you shared with your city and its citizens in the original game. Frostpunk 2 is a colder (excuse the pun) detached, and less personal experience.

Personally, I think that was the correct approach to take with this sequel. Similar – but different. A new perspective, a new scale and a new challenge. That said, I do agree that Frostpunk 2 lacks the strong narrative hook of the original. Frostpunk was about surviving a coming storm. Everything you did in the game was about preparing for that single event. It was a looming, ticking clock that you couldn’t escape and that forced you to make hard choices or impose tough laws upon your citizens if you wanted to survive. Even once you’d beaten it, you’d want to try it again to see if you could do better. It was a puzzle you wanted to keep solving.

Frostpunk 2 doesn’t have such a strong hook on which to build its campaign. It’s split into five different chapters, each of which presents its own unique goal and choices to the player. There is a storm in an early chapter to overcome, but the ‘whiteouts’ are no longer the threat they once were. Frostpunk 2 is a game that shows society has moved beyond survival and is now looking to reclaim what was lost.

The big focus in Frostpunk 2 is the new political faction system and as your campaign progresses, two factions will rise and enter into conflict. The final challenge of the campaign is dealing with a civil war that threatens to tear your city apart. There are a few ways you can go about resolving this situation, but ultimately, as a hook, it’s no storm to end all storms.

The campaign, overall, is still really good. There’s more variety here than in the original thanks to the separate chapters and their own unique story threads and choices, and the frostland map has far more locations and events to explore in addition to the new colony system.

It does feel a little more scripted than the original and in some ways, more tutorial heavy – like the real point of it is to prepare you for the sandbox Utopia Builder mode. I do like the new additions to the game, but I can’t say I find the faction system all that interesting to play with – it just feels like another ‘resource’ you have to try and balance rather than something that has any meaningful impact upon your city development.

And whilst I do like the new colony system, it does result in a fair amount of bouncing back and forth across the map, adjusting supply quantities and making sure each colony is either self-sufficient, or appropriately supported by or capable of supporting others. With an increased scale comes increased management – perhaps a little too much?

And I can’t say I love the UI – it gets pretty messy once you’ve unlocked more building types and you have to scroll through and then make sure you pick the correct variation you want. The hex based nature of the map also bothered me – but only because I prefer a neat, organised city, and Frostpunk 2 with its expanding districts means your city always looks a little bit of a mess – but I suppose more like a real, massive city actually would.

Overall, Frostpunk 2 is a solid and very enjoyable sequel but it feels like it could use some more refinement and a few more tweaks to its UI and faction system. As a base experience, I’d recommend Frostpunk 2 to any fan of the original, providing they understand that it offers a different experience and focus. But I do feel there’s more work to do here, and perhaps with the upcoming DLC releases, Frostpunk 2 will improve and fulfil its potential.

7/10