Frostpunk review and what I think about the second one
This game is amazing but I'm worried about the second one.
Frostpunk game is one of my absolute favourites, for those who don’t know it, it’s a city builder based in Victorian London when a new ice age comes and humans are fighting to stay alive against the snow and cold. You are the Captain, in charge of building a city, keeping people alive while sorting out supplies, keeping your people happy and to getting ready for a huge storm coming it’s way.
The story is basic but enough you want to know more about the world. The game has different modes with different kinds of challenges, but the main one is where the game shines. You don’t have long to get everything ready and while you try, you have to make your people work, have to keep them warm (in the - 20 degrees at the start) or they get sick, they get sick you need medical centres that only engineers can work in and you don’t have very many of them. There is so much to think about and as you do the weather is getting colder and colder. This is a game I had to actually ban myself playing in the week as I would play so much and miss work because I thought, well let me get some more wood then I will stop… 4 hours later I am still playing, I have played over 80 hours in this damn game and I don’t even like city builders yet I can’t put it down!
This game hooks me like nothing else before, I’ve played all the different modes as well as the DLC which I have yet to complete the building of the generator (the source of heat) because it’s just soooooo difficult. It’s a hard game but one you really have to experience yourself just to understand it.
Now, Frostpunk 2, they were meant to release this in the summer but changed the date to September 20th after the Beta run. In one way I was happy, where I live gaming in the summer is super hot and this game looks like I will need to sit down and really learn how to play it so doing that in a boiling room is not my cup of tea so September does work better for me. I didn’t play the Beta but watched reviews and people who did buy it, it looked… different.
I am not going to lie, I was disappointed at first, while I love the story; you have survived the storm and now you need to live in this frozen world, the game play seemed less personal. You don’t have small houses to put down or little medical centres but more a cluster of homes, a mining place for your supplies and the scouts can now take months to find more people and supplies as well as you don’t have just one city to look after but many. It makes sense with the story, you are now a city but it just felt… off, felt less personal is the only way I think of it.
In time and watching more videos it did start to grow on me, especially when it came to the new voting system. Before if you wanted children to work in -50 degrees you could just say so but now you have to have your people vote on it, they can say no or you can promise them something to make them say yes. There are also different factions inside your city, you have got to keep them all happy so they vote for what you want them to. That looks super fun just more a city simulator than a city builder though we all have to remember that was just the beta.
Something must have happened in the Beta for them change the date (could be story, gameplay or graphic problems), I did see a lot of people cancel their pre orders because it wasn’t like the first one which I understood. It took me some time but in the end I am now excited to play this game, as long as it works on my Steam Deck which hopefully it will - seems like the Beta worked on there so fingers crossed - I will be buying it. I didn’t think I would like the first game but I really really did and while I don’t think this game will be just as good I am ready to give it my all!
What do you all think of you? Looking forward to it or not?
Games mentioned:
Frostpunk - All consoles but Nintendo Switch
Frostpunk 2 - Out on PC 20th of September - All consoles but Nintendo Switch