REVIEW / Frostpunk 2 (PS5)

The year is 20XX and an apocalyptic blizzard has ravaged the Earth. No one has been spared as this calamity has touched every corner of the planet. While most people have succumbed to the extreme cold temperatures or by the hands of other remnants of the old world that are also trying to survive this global catastrophe, there are a few pockets of small communities that are banding together to build new encampments where by they can work together to solve the problems that they are currently faced with. 11 Bit Studios has crafted a second outing into their ice riddled game world with Frostpunk 2. In this intricately crafted society survival game, you face not only the trials and tribulations of never-ending winter, but also the powerful factions within the disparate communities that are plotting your downfall inside the hallowed walls of the Council Hall.

If you are new to this genre then a short explanation is in order. In a society survival game, you are tasked with sustaining your followers using the games survival mechanics along with community or leadership management. In these games, the player is not just surviving as an individual in a hostile environment, but also managing and sustaining a group, settlement, or society under unusually difficult situations and conditions. The core elements in this genre include, but are not limited to, a focus on survival, societal management, resource scarcity and hard choices, exploration and expansion, and narrative and morality. If this sounds interesting to you, then Frostpunk 2 is a good place to jump in and try it out.

In Frostpunk 2, the game immediately thrusts you smack-dab into the action from the start. After a short introduction to the story, just to give you the gist of what is going on, you will be expected to do whatever you need to get your first encampment up and running like a well oiled machine. This first level is a tutorial and it explains how to navigate the onscreen menus; basically just pointing out how to find the places in the menus where you will need to go to control the processes you will need to master in order to be a good leader. In addition, you will learn how to interpret the information that the game will be presenting to you as you progress further into the story.

Getting a good understanding of how the games systems operate will build the foundation that you will need to be successful, so take your time here. There is a lot to get used to initially but with a little persistence, and some trial and error, it wasn’t very difficult to figure out how to navigate the games controls. The amount of control that 11 Bit Games has added in this second outing of the Frostpunk franchise is astounding and I found myself just looking through the menus to marvel at how they have given the player such freedom to play this game in any way that they see fit. It might feel a little overwhelming at first, but you quickly learn what controls are important, what they do, and when exactly is the best time to use them.

Gameplay in Frostpunk 2, as you have probably already surmised, is not of the fast and frenetic variety. In stead, you need to be thoughtful and methodical if you want to be successful. You don’t have all the time in the world to solve the problems that you will be faced with but the game gives you enough time to make informed decisions as well as the ability to reverse, slow or stop time to make needed adjustments to personnel, certain resources, etc., so you don’t constantly feel like you are under the gun. There are some occasions where you will have to make a quick decision with limited information but that is what makes for some really memorable moments.

The game opens up with someone asking for you to restore heat to the encampment. There is a furnace but you have to build the facilities necessary to extract oil from certain spots on the map in order to fuel the furnace and get heat to everyone. While you are doing this, someone may confront you about housing for the settlers or getting more heat to certain areas in the encampment. Your job is to figure out what is the more important task to tackle first while keeping in mind that you can’t please everyone at the same time so you need to consider all outcomes of your decisions. Making too many bad decisions will cause the denizens of the encampment to turn against you and the Council will then have no choice but to find someone else who can get the job done.

11 Bit Studios did a masterful job of creating an experience where the players decisions will impact the game in some really meaningful ways. The decisions you make can be irreversible and could potentially be damning to the entire colony. The game gives you more than enough information on any specific situation that may arise, however, you need to take that information and make decisions for the community that will have the biggest benefit for as many people as possible. Know now that you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Some folks will be negatively impacted by the decrees that you send down but you need to be able to balance that to the extent that displeasure with your actions doesn’t get so large that you are “voted” out of your leadership role.

The visuals in Frostpunk 2 are quite impressive and really draws you into the experience of trying to survive in the middle of a world spanning event. Being that the world was cast into a sort of forever winter, the terrain is covered in snow and ice. As you transform the landscape to build housing, research facilities and oil refineries, to name a few, those areas will change in realtime as you watch the buildings being erected from the ground up. The visual fidelity here on the PS5 was spot on and allows you to see very fine details in pretty much everything on screen. You view the game area from a top down perspective so you can zoom in to different areas to inspect your handiwork close up.

The visuals, along with the sound design, combine to make this game an experience that will keep you coming back for more. The howl of the sub-zero temperature winds, the groan of the blast furnace as you crank it on for the first time after being dormant for who knows how long, the cheers of the crowds as you make your case as to why you should continue to be the lead of the colony. These audio enhancements to the game bring you into the world of Frostpunk 2 like not many games have been able to do these days. I don’t know about you, but a games ability to completely immersed me in its world is paramount to if I will stick with said game or bounce off into something else. To my surprise, I found myself thinking about playing this game in many of the moments that I wasn’t, if you know what I mean.

I have played other different types of strategy games over the years but Frostpunk 2 is my first experience with the society survival genre. What surprised me was how quickly I was invested in making sure that I was able to build the infrastructure necessary to sustain the community as well as learning how important being able to navigate the games politics was in order to maintain my job as their leader. Playing this game introduced me to a different way of thinking about how I proceed forward than what I am normally used to. The original Frostpunk is legendary to those who follow 11 Bit Studios and their other games. This new addition to the franchise is not just content that could be considered just another piece of DLC. On the contrary, this is a full out, brand new experience that builds on its predecessors achievements yet blazes its own path to present a little of the old while including many new features as well.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.