24.9 hours played
Written 22 days ago
Okay, here goes:
Let me first address the elephant in the room (and subsequently give people their TL;DR), how is the game? The game is great. It's worth every penny. However it's important to keep in mind that just like the original Frostpunk, Frostpunk 2 is not for everyone. But if you liked the original or challenging city-builders, I recommend it. Keep in mind that Frostpunk 2 is a separate experience to Frostpunk and should be treated as such. (Basically, don't compare it to the original like I will do.)
Alright, now let's get technical:
Frostpunk 2 is a continuation taking place 30 years later after the events of it's predecessor. You play as the Steward (a prime minister, if you will), and have to ensure public order by both supplying people with heat, resources and goods, and keeping your communities and factions in check, lest you want them to start fighting each other.
(This summary is a pretty watered down version of the game and lacks most of the nuances present.)
In my opinion, Frostpunk has always kind of pride itself on it's "easy-to-learn, difficult-to-master" mechanics, and that philosophy is definitely noticeable here, too. The Laws mechanic is still here, and there's a bunch of laws that are now voted on by a Council who seems to act against you if you don't pull a few strings.
Along with this is the new "cornerstone" and "Zeitgeist" system. It's like the paths from the original, but instead being influenced by the laws you pass and the things you research, along with the added benefit of being able to reverse course at any time. Well, unless you choose to embrace a cornerstone, which gives you powerful benefits, and angers every community and faction that isn't in support of it at the same time!
Speaking of research, there's a few more categories, and a whole lot more things to research in every one of them. There's an added caveat to this too: the things you can researched are proposed by the factions and communities in your city, and researching a proposal from a faction or community raises your standing with them. However, should you, say, banish a faction from your city, their proposals (and ultimately, some of their research) are gone with them.
"Raises your standing"? Oh yes. The factions and communities now have an opinion of you. if it's low enough, they'll start protesting and, maybe, just maybe, start a civil war. This is probably one of the most important mechanics in the game (aside from a few others I'll be speaking about in a bit) if you favor one side too much, the others will feel ignored and start demanding things from you. Often, this is just a law they want passed or a research they want done. But we warned: their demands can always escalate.
Heating (and by extension, housing) by far the most important mechanic in the game. But in my opinion, it's a bit iffy. Basically, you allocate heat to districts, and depending on how much you allocate, you consume more fuel. You can kind of "spare" heat by insulating districts, building them next to heating hubs or building them next to each other, but the last part is always tricky to pull of because it's never explained how or why it works. it just does.
Of course, a city builder like Frostpunk 2 isn't complete without it's resources. You've got a few life sustaining ones (like food, housing and fuel/heat), but you've also got a currency; heatstamps, goods, materials, and the old bread and butter: steam cores.
A deficit in any of these resources (with the exception being steam cores) will cause problems to arise and worsen in your city, which in turn will worsen other problems. For example: a lack of materials will worsen the Squalor situation within your city, which in turn will worsen Disease.
A way to ensure the supply of these resources would be to scout the Frostland. Unlike Frostpunk, you now scout whole areas instead of a point of interest. This happens with Frostland Teams, who can scout, man outposts, or build trails to supply resources from said outposts to the City.
That's not to say there's no resources within the immediate area of your city, and a growing city needs to expand. You can collect these nearby resources using "districts" (notably, the Extraction District), and ultimately build buildings to increase their output.
However, these resources sit on unbroken (and unstable) ice, which is completely unsuitable for building. And this is where Frostbreaking comes in. You pay a few heatstamps and some workforce and soon enough the ground can be built on. It's that simple.
Now, these districts require Workforce, which is pretty simple in and of itself. Periodically, your city will experience a "population growth" which adds new citizens (and importantly, more workforce), and ultimately a bigger strain on your economy.
Yeesh, that was a rant and a half, so here's what I like about Frostpunk 2:
- The graphics are stunning! (Be warned, your PC *can* turn into a pocket heater if not sufficiently cooled enough.) There's enough things to be in awe at; and the style perfectly encapsulates the whole "Frostpunk but 30 years later" vibe.
- The gameplay has you acting (im)moral at times. Frostpunk 2 can perfectly drag you into it's world and has you asking: "Is this the right thing to do?" and ultimately has you approach it with a cold and calculating mindset that's present in the first game.
- Endless is still worth a shot. The addition of the new Tall Tales adds some replayability, and the different each have their challenges. Unfortunately it does still suffer from the whole boring end game situation, but for what it's worth, it's great and fun!
- The philosophy and themes behind both games has always been something I swooned over. It's fun, it's thoughtful, and it's definitely something you'll be thinking about for a few days afterward.
- The soundtrack made by the legendary Piotr Musial is still as amazing as ever.
Here's what I don't feel strongly about about:
- The story was meh, and played more like a glorified tutorial than an actual story. (For clarification, I'm referring to the in-game story mode)
- The POI's text was small and easy to just glance over, instead of grabbing your attention like in Frostpunk.
- I think there's still too little laws. The council felt a bit useless near the mid-game due to the lack of things to propose.
- The heating system could use a little improvement, as people still freeze to death despite full insulation and generator upgrades.
Here's what I dislike:
- The city is not really responsive to events. In the original Frostpunk, it was easy to see how high your discontent was by the sounds of a jeering crowd, or how far you were in a path depending on the buildings you constructed. In Frostpunk 2, sure? The "fireflies" (the streaks of light you see racing acrosss highways as if captured by a long exposure camera) change to red when you're in a civil war, and a district's lights turn red when there's a protest or a fight ongoing but.... I kind of hoped to see the fireflies be responsive to tension? Or something that makes it visually clear what's going on in the City. But this is really a nitpick, anyway.
OVERALL:
Frostpunk 2 is a great successor to Frostpunk. It's themes are right, it's core gameplay loop is just right, and the graphics are just perfect. While it is a polished (and Polish) game worth every material possession you own, it still is lacking in some areas. But if you can overlook some nitpicks, this game is heavily recommended and worth it.
