Surviving Frostpunk 2’s frozen hellscape

Image source: Gamesplanet

As a leader of humanity confronted with a snow apocalypse, I was tasked with ensuring my city outlasted an endless winter. This forced me to make many ugly decisions, including whether to let my elderly citizens voluntarily march to their deaths in the cold so that food supplies would last longer for kids and able-bodied adults, or go hunt a herd of (very likely) endangered seals. There was a third option, commit neither sin, but I didn’t realize that at the time. So, because the elderly were volunteering, I took them up on their offer in an effort to spare the seals. Shortly thereafter, one of my citizens, a child, told me that her grandma said she’d be going away for a long, long time and that they’d see each other again someday. Realistically, I knew that day would be when my leadership got the kid frozen to death just like her grandmother; they’d meet again in the afterlife.

That’s Frostpunk 2.

Image source: Gamesplanet

11 bit studios radically overhauled its Frostpunk experience for its much-anticipated follow-up. In the first game, I was encouraged to beat back a new ice age and revel in humanity’s survival. In Frostpunk 2, I had to survive humanity and suffer its incessant need for “more.” So, regardless of how you go into Frostpunk 2, let me warn you: you’ll be weathering a city’s worth of demands and impossibly hot tempers just as often as you’ll face blizzards that threaten to freeze the whole place over.

The sequel’s gameplay diverges wildly from its predecessor by focusing on macroscopic city governance rather than microscopic city planning, but thematically it’s the other side of the first game’s coin and a natural closure of the series’ overarching narrative loop. Complete with incredible visual and audio design, as well as a soundtrack that kept my heart racing, Frostpunk 2 is an experience that leaves a strong impression.

Like most city-building sims, I spent much of my time looking down at an ever-growing metropolis, carefully managing resources and the layout of my districts. But unlike other city sims, a mistake didn't just earn me simple citizen complaints or minor logistical complications — if I ran out of shelters or food or couldn't cobble together enough fuel for my city's generator, I was threatened with humanity's extinction. My brain worked overtime to micromanage as many tasks as possible in a perpetually desperate balancing act of choosing between lesser evils. Do I let one population freeze to heat another? Do I starve my people now so I have enough reserves for the coming storm?

Image source: Gamesplanet

Managing people’s resource needs was hard enough, but Frostpunk 2’s citizens worsened matters, constantly making demands and forming factions that butted heads over trivial matters. Factions would squabble and, in extreme cases, riot, destroy districts, and even sabotage my building efforts all because they didn’t get their way. But therein lies the intrigue of Frostpunk 2. While the first game allowed me to channel my animosity toward its world’s climate, Frostpunk 2 forced me to realize that when humans aren’t working together to build a better tomorrow, they’ll infight and make a worse today.

Every mechanic, from the law-passing tools to the negotiating options with different political parties, served the question: Are my own people my enemy? Why must a faction demand ridiculous policymaking promises in exchange for accepting my proposal that will help everyone? Are they spiteful toward the city culture I’m fostering? Do they just want to make life harder for a rival political faction? (Yes, yes they do.) These gameplay elements are realistic and infuriating, yet somehow compelling. They did an outstanding job forcing me to reflect on whether my gameplay choices treated civilians as living people or simply as obstacles to be overcome.

Image source: Gamesplanet

All the while, the core loop itself was engaging and busy enough to keep me enraptured. Sending scouts to explore the vast, frozen Frostland, balancing resources back at my home city, and running a legal system was a lot for the game’s UI to handle, but it was up to the task, creating a setup that I found relatively easy to navigate. And, speaking of navigation, it’s worth noting the game is touchpad friendly; perfect for when you’re taking the ROG Zephyrus G14 laptop on the go with no extra accessories. Though, if you want the added comfort of a proper gaming mouse, there’s plenty of utility to plugging in an ROG Harpe Ace.

Frostpunk 2’s heavy themes and gameplay stresses were masterfully enlivened by the game’s soundscape. Piotr Musial, the compositional wizard responsible for the first game’s soundtrack, returned with another incredible score that got me amped right from the main menu theme. Howling wind, falling snow, the specter of death and essence of hope — all these sounds and abstractions were blended in the game’s striking visual and sound design as well as its music, producing a sensorily rich experience that stressed me out and impressed me in equal measure. When my citizens rioted and the game’s main theme collapsed in on itself, inverting to become angry rather than triumphant, or when the cold threatened to overwhelm my people and every sound resembled the crackling of ice entombing civilization, complete with on-screen frost effects — these were the moments I was playing for.

You can grab Frostpunk 2 on Gamesplanet, the Microsoft Store, or try it out via PC Game Pass. If you opt to buy the deluxe edition, you’ll get future in-game content as well as Frostpunk 2’s incredible soundtrack, a digital artbook, and even a digital novella, providing a little more Frostpunk to savor once you’ve survived the sequel’s numerous challenges.