In 2018, Indie developer 11 Bit Studios releasedFrostpunk, a PC city-builder with a dark twist. While mostcity-buildersallow players to forge the town of their dreams at a leisurely pace,Frostpunkforces players to make lightning-quick moral decisions that always mean the difference between life and death. It’s this brutal and bleak approach that setFrostpunkapart from its competition back in 2018, and now,Frostpunk 2is carrying forward that same approach.
Set 30 years after the first game,Frostpunk 2’s world is still a snow-covered nightmare, and it’s up to the player once again to herd the last dregs of humanity through the everlasting winter. But while seasonedFrostpunkfans might think they already know all the strategies and tricks to survive,Frostpunk 2quickly shows them just how mistaken they are.
Frostpunk 2 Wants Fans to Forget Everything They Think They Know
Frostpunk 2 Carries Forward Many of The First Game’s Mechanics
The general gameplay loop of the originalFrostpunkremains very much intact in the sequel. From the moment players startFrostpunk 2’s campaign or Utopia Builder mode, they’ll be thrown immediately into a never-ending state of emergency. Just like the first game,Frostpunk 2’s gameplay loop has players fueling their city’s heat-producing generator with vital but scarce resources, ensuring they have enough food to keep starvation at bay, and researching technology that keeps these processes running as efficiently as possible in the Frostlands' ever-changing landscape.
Frostpunk’s moral choice systemalso returns in full force in the sequel. Throughout the game, players will be approached by a member of their unstable society, frequently asking them to make some kind of difficult decision. These decisions often determine which faction the player sides with, which in turn determines the type of society they end up creating. The player needs to carefully balance each faction’s trust with the needs of the wider community, and those decisions aren’t light.
Every Old Mechanic Has a New Twist in Frostpunk 2
But whilelong-timeFrostpunkfanswill recognize this gameplay loop well,Frostpunk 2is quick to pull the rug out from underneath them, twisting each familiar gameplay mechanic in a subtle but significant way. For instance, in the firstFrostpunk, players could simply place buildings around their central generator if there was enough space to do so. InFrostpunk 2, players now need to first construct a District, expand that District to ensure there’s enough space for a building, and then build their desired structure.
Another key example of these changes isFrostpunk 2’s resources. In the 2018 original, players needed to collect coal, wood, and steel to fuel the generator and build structures.Frosptunk 2trades these in for oil, materials, prefabs, and goods, with the latter being a new resource required to satisfy the needs of the colony’s survivors.
These mechanical changes aren’t too drastic, but they do require even the most seasonedFrostpunkveterans to relearn everything they thought they knew about the game. And while some fans will find this challenge new and exciting, others might find all of the changes a bit overwhelming, and possibly even unnecessary given how complex the original game’s systems already were.
