Frostpunk 2

It started when the Earth was hit by an ice age towards the end of the 19th century and humanity tried to come up with different ways to survive this disaster. Thanks to large coal-guzzling power plants, humans were able to build one last city and delay the demise of our species. It has now been 30 years since the Earth froze to ice and as the new mayor, the fate of humanity rests in your hands. It came as a bit of a shock when I realized that the big city you're in charge of is the one we built in the first game. As mayor, it is your job to ensure that it survives and continues to thrive. It's hard not to appreciate how seamlessly the first Frostpunk's story weaves into its sequel.

Almost every gameplay element in Frostpunk 2 is designed with a large city in mind, an example being the Districts. You now very rarely build individual buildings but instead create areas. It reminds a little of how it looks in Cities: Skylines and in SimCity 4. However, nothing comes for free, but everything has a cost. It will be your job as mayor to balance the needs of the residents, with what you have access to. The inhabitants need fuel to get warm, they need houses to live in and food to eat. And your supply of workers is not infinite. Therefore, you must prioritize what the workers will do and when. I discovered early on that this forced me to constantly plan for the future.

Although construction takes up a little less space than in the predecessor, it is at least as important in this sequel. You always need to make sure that the inhabitants are warm, have food and somewhere to live. If you fail, the city's various factions will remind you of your failures. To keep these groups happy, you must legislate, negotiate, and ensure that everyone accepts your leadership. They can easily tear the city to pieces if you don't get into the political power game. The groups are very different and usually want things in return for their support. Pushing through a new law may mean you have to prioritize researching a technical solution for a specific group. Which is perhaps to your disadvantage as the cost of the research was needed for something else.

Almost every technology in the large tech tree offers variations of the same invention. The factions usually have their own variant of the technology you are researching. Therefore, you also have to think about which variant is best to choose from the point of view of need and political support. It's easy to see which group likes which suggestion, so you have to choose carefully. The idea you support can have consequences later in the campaign. Because it is noticeable that the people are present in all your decisions, good or bad. The city you have to equip is not just a soulless place where you are god, but your decisions have tangible consequences on the future of the inhabitants. This is something I really like.

Your choices affect not only which groups and political parties emerge, but also who will live or die. Decisions about laws, exploration on the campaign map, and events in the city can determine how many keep their lives. By the time you get to this point in the campaign, Frostpunk 2 is at its very best. Because when the city is being torn apart by internal conflicts, you have more tasks than you can handle and the raw materials are starting to run out. Then you are also most involved in the experience. Depending on the degree of difficulty, this happens at different speeds. I felt that the first three difficulty levels offered a good balance without making the campaign too easy. The two most difficult settings are for those of you who are very experienced with the second and first. On these settings, you are not allowed to make more than occasional mistakes, before the city collapses. Of all the features the title offers, it was the construction that I liked the most.

I quickly fell in love with a new feature called colonies. They resemble the city you built in the predecessor. These smaller communities are there to create trade routes between different commodities and your capital. They help you ensure that humanity survives another day in the cold. In my opinion, it is a natural development of the concept. Even if you expand your large city, it will need more resources than you can supply it with in the immediate area. Then you have to go on expeditions and establish colonies. All of this happens without overwhelming you with things to do. And it's smooth and lag-free to zoom in and out between colonies, the campaign map and your capital city.

Technically, it is very good. Textures and effects look amazing. I also like how well done the snow is and how the camera freezes around the edges. A minor criticism is that the user interface can be a bit spotty at times. When you have to do many things at once, there may be too many icons on the screen at the same time. I also noticed that it's a bit slow to move the camera around on higher settings. On the audio side, everything sounds spectacular, the ice crackles, the voice acting impresses and the music is good. Small details like bells ringing and a voice declaring that laws have been made help breathe life into the world. My criticism on the audio front is that many characters in the world lack voice acting. It's a shame considering how good it is in the cutscenes.

If you liked Frostpunk, I think you'll like Frostpunk 2. It's a bigger and grander sequel. I also like that the people have been given a stronger presence in the narrative, it contributes to the city being more organic and alive. There are few indie projects that convey a story of humanity and survival as well as this one. It is also a story about being human and not always understanding each other. When my first playthrough ended in disaster, I thought of the Tower of Babel. In their quest to become master of the earth, everyone began to hate each other. The dream was torn apart from within and the whole experiment ended with the collapse of the city. I learned from this and tried to warm humanity again. It's something I think you should do too, because this is worth your time.