Impressions from playing Frostpunk 2

When the strategy game Frostpunk from Polish studio 11 bit was released in 2018, it quickly became a huge hit. It managed to combine a unique setting of a new ice age at the end of an alternative 19th century, a complex but mechanically simple strategy, survival elements, a very strong atmosphere and story, great music and uncompromising difficulty. It was such an enticing mix that we saw several expansions, and the developers started working on a full-fledged sequel. Its full release will not take place until July, but players who pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition have already been able to try out the beta version, which includes a sandbox mode (so limited in the beta, but still quite extensive). I tried it myself and can share my first impressions with you.

Played on the following PC build:

• CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K
• FRAME: 32GB DDR5 6000MT/s
• Graphic card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 (16GB VRAM)
• Storage: Solidigm P44 Pro (2TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD)

And how did it go on?

Frostpunk 2 takes place 30 years after the events of the first game. The ice storm has ended and the weather is a little calmer, although still unpredictable at times. You are no longer a captain with absolute power, but a city manager who will take care of the proper management of the city, but must take into account the opinions of the residents. The greatest danger to the city will be the people themselves, given their different opinions on fundamental issues.

It should be said right away that Frostpunk 2 plays significantly differently than the first one, and this is the main reason why the reviews of the beta are somewhat mixed. The developers talked about it from the very beginning, but even I was a little surprised by the speed of drift at the end. I would compare it to, for example, Darkest Dungeons 2: the setting and aesthetics are the same, but the gameplay is very different. I was still excited about the game, but many people may be disappointed by this news. It has turned from an accessible survival strategy into a much more complex issue with an emphasis on politics and economics.

Basically, the sequel does more of everything. Time is measured in days and weeks instead of hours and minutes, instead of individual buildings you build mostly city districts, and storing as many resources as possible is replaced by a somewhat flexible economy based on supply and demand. However, the biggest changes are on the social level, and this is where I would like to focus first.

Political chess

Ultimately, politics is what I was most looking forward to in Frostpunk 2, and the result probably exceeded my expectations. People are divided into two factions, here specifically the Foragers, who want to adapt to the new conditions as much as possible, and the Machinists, who want the greatest possible technological progress. By the way, this is not the only combination, in the full game there will be more factions.

The first two groups are manageable, but things get worse as they become radicalized. Two very different currents gradually form: the Technocrats, who advocate progress, equality, and emphasize reason, and a faction called the Icebloods, who, on the contrary, promote adaptation to the conditions, want the highest possible profit, and emphasize tradition. Satisfying both camps is almost impossible due to such sharp differences, but you have to try, otherwise you risk strikes and protests that can disrupt the work of key districts. In addition, deteriorating relations with factions leads to a decrease in trust, and if it falls too low, it can lead to your complete expulsion from the city.

You can, however, support factions by giving them Heat Marks (a universal rule that you’ll need for almost everything), taking on obligations like destroying a building of an “enemy” group, or researching a technology with their ideas. This is where the two most interesting parts of the policy come into play. The first concerns the tech tree, which may seem apolitical from the name, but there’s almost no such thing as a universal tech in this game. Each idea takes a few different forms, depending on the faction. For example, Gatherers let you research buildings that generally produce more material, but require more workers and are dangerous in terms of diseases. Machinists, on the other hand, will offer you buildings with fewer personnel or requirements, but often also produce less, and they also produce more air pollution.

The second part is really purely political, it is the city council, where the elected representatives of the people gather, who thus come from the factions already mentioned. If in the first part you decided on all the laws, then here you have to let the representatives vote on very key things: how foreigners will be treated, what will happen to small children, what kind of life insurance people will have and much more.

Consensus is usually very small, so most laws are passed by only a narrow majority (at least 51 out of 100 votes are needed). If you really want a law to pass and don’t want to leave anything to chance (the radical factions tend to be strong, but not the rest), you can negotiate with the groups and offer them something in exchange for the vote you want.

Representatives can also be pressured and essentially forced to vote a certain way, but that will of course reduce people’s trust in you. But there will probably be some ability for absolute power, because in the currently locked part of the law tree, which will only be in the full version, there were options like propaganda, martial law, secret police, state of emergency, the ability to veto laws, or even create a personal militia for the admin. Honestly, I’m very curious to see what it would look like if you went that route.

Other strengths

Also, the economy, at least for the most part, worked very well. Maintaining a balance between supply and demand is a difficult, but not impossible task. The key is the building, which is more reminiscent of, say, the SimCity series than the first Frostpunk. You have to cleverly work with the bonuses of neighboring districts, gradually expanding them and constructing special buildings. Raw materials cannot be stored very well, so it is important to maintain a stable supply, especially coal, on which the generator depends.

The survival elements have been slightly reduced compared to the first part, but they are definitely not absent. You have to make sure that the inhabitants do not get cold, they do not starve, the air is not too polluted and diseases do not spread too much. At least the last two aspects often increase the number of buildings, so this must be balanced by building purification towers and hospitals.

By the way, there is also exploration of the surrounding locations, where you will find out what happened to the landscape, you can extract raw materials once or even build a station for stable supplies. The system here is a little more complex than in the first one, but I think it lacks a little atmosphere, and this can be said about the whole game so far.

Unexpected disadvantages

The fact that I only had the sandbox to try out and Frostpunk’s strength has always been its story, which is completely absent here, while the full game will of course have a story mode, will probably have a big impact on this. Despite this, I can’t help but feel that the atmosphere wasn’t as strong as I would have imagined. The music is once again great, but it feels like the game is missing a whole bunch of the sounds we’ve come to associate with Frostpunk. Likewise, human voices are almost entirely absent, although we heard them in an earlier trailer, so hopefully we’ll see them in the full release.

Otherwise I had some minor balance issues, mostly around the universal currency, which can run out very quickly and without it you are completely overburdened. Likewise, I felt some of the technologies were not quite balanced, where the Forager faction usually had much better ones, although I didn’t agree with them at all.

The biggest problem I see, and probably more people would agree with this, is the UI anyway. The text is often too small, some windows aren’t very clear (for example, it took me about an hour of playing to realize that the tech tree was made up of multiple parts), and the white UI on white snow just isn’t quite right. I’d really appreciate a dark background option.

Finally, I would like to add some information regarding the technical side. The game runs on Unreal Engine 5 and looks very beautiful from a visual point of view, especially when it comes to various effects, but it took its toll. In order to run the game with a stable 60 FPS in 4K resolution on the RTX 4080, I had to lower the graphics settings to High and scale to Balanced. I would not have such a problem with this, but unfortunately, in the beta version, only FSR is available, which creates flickering in motion, and TSR, which, in turn, has significantly lower performance. Fortunately, the developers confirmed that DLSS and XeSS will not be missing in the full version. The frame rate was maintained in any case, and although there were typical Unreal Engine stutters, it was nothing terrible. After all, in a strategy game, this does not even play a big role.

bold continuation

Overall, I have very positive impressions of Frostpunk 2. The game is even more different from the first game than I expected, but that’s not a bad thing, the news is very imaginative and funny, especially the political aspect. But it’s not for everyone, so it’s no surprise that many fans of the number one are disappointed with the beta. In short, this is no longer an accessible strategy, but something much more complex. However, the world and aesthetics are not lost, and I’m really looking forward to returning to the frosty world again in July, this time in the full version.

Frostpunk 2 will be released on July 25, exclusively on PC for now, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions coming later. The game will be available on Game Pass from launch day.