Frostpunk 2 Review - Better than the original in every way

I absolutely loved my time with Frostpunk 2. It's a rare gem that somehow manages to eclipse even the first game, which is one of my favourite city builders of all time. Frostpunk 2 improves on pretty much every aspect of the original while also giving a whole new set of mechanics, creating a much deeper experience overall. 

If you've played the first game, the concept will be very familiar - the goal is to keep your people happy, survive the harsh winters and make sure to explore the snowy wastelands to find more resources and survivors to expand your city. 

However, instead of being up close and personal with your people like in the first game, where you had to deal with even the smallest of issues in the city, now you'll have to make decisions via the city council as every great democracy does. 

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Frostpunk 2

The city council is the biggest new feature in the game and a key mechanic that replaces the Book of Laws from the original where you got to make decisions on your own as a true Captain, without anyone standing in your way, at least not actively. Now, every new law that you want to sign to improve things in your city needs to get enough votes in the city council.

The council is made of delegates from various city factions and each of these factions has its worldviews and opinions on these laws so the game will pretty much be about balancing your decisions and making sure these factions are not at each other's (or yours) throats all the time, which can increase the tension in the city and eventually lead to protests, riots and full-scale war on the city streets.

Later on in the game, you can sign laws that give you more power so if some specific faction is becoming too much of an annoyance, the game will allow you to show them who's the boss. You can turn the people against any faction by spreading vile rumours about them in the city, publicly condemning them or asking the rival faction to help you deradicalise their members. Frostpunk 2 offers plenty of these options so you can tackle any problems with factions in various ways. 

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Frostpunk 2 - City council is a fantastic new feature that gives the game a lot of depth

Having enough support in the city council was never an issue in my campaign playthrough but I did play on the second level of difficulty. I always managed to make the delegates vote for the laws I was pushing, even those radical ones like the Sterilisation of Criminals or one of the late-game laws that gave me the ultimate power. Even if you don't have the support for some specific laws, there are several ways you can influence factions to support you. 

For example, one of the ways is to fund factions' projects, publicly endorse them, promise to pass one of their laws next and so on. However, you'll have to be smart and try not to give too much power to one faction, as they can become radicalised and even turn against you if you decide to suddenly choose an option that is against their core ideals.

All these new mechanics work like a charm and create such an incredibly addicting gameplay loop that will swallow hours and hours of your time before you even know it. Paired with the iconic grim atmosphere that will almost make you feel cold of the wasteland and smell the dirty air filled with coal and oil smoke and that sense of despair when the first Whiteout hits you, and Frostpunk 2 is truly unlike any other game on the market.

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Frostpunk 2

Collecting resources is still one of your main worries in the game but if you plan your moves carefully you won't have a lot of trouble in stocking up with food, materials and fuel. The key is to, again, strike a balance between having just enough districts that will supply your city on a daily basis but at the same time, keep the heat demand low, especially in colder seasons when the temperatures drop to -60C or even lower.

One of the changes from Frostpunk is that you now cannot individually put buildings in place in your city or build roads to connect these since Frostpunk 2 replaces these with the abovementioned districts that specify gathering different types of resources. 

So, instead of having a Hunter Cabin, a Hothouse or a Fishing Harbour, you now have a big Food District that you place on the map with rich soil so you can produce food. Then, you can add two additional buildings within a district to make the district collect more materials or spend less heat for example. 

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Frostpunk 2

Additionally, Frostpunk 2 also doesn't let you choose how many workers you want working at these places like Frostpunk. There's a similar slider which you can adjust to make it less productive to save on fuel for example, but it's much simpler overall.

It's a welcomed and more streamlined process of resource collecting, allowing you to focus on other parts of the game, like the factions, laws, research and development and exploration instead of micro-managing every building all the time.

The research and development tree is huge and it will allow you to create all sorts of upgrades for the city. You'll start with a very basic set of buildings but as you explore more and collect additional resources and valuable cores, you'll unlock different machines that will speed up the process of extracting materials. But the R and D tree is also where you'll unlock hospitals, schools, watchtowers and similar structures that will benefit your survivors just like in the first game. 

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Frostpunk 2

The depth in Frostpunk 2 is on a whole another level and there are so many things here that can influence your playthrough. Specifically, in the campaign that I've played, the game offered me to make a key decision a couple of times which led me on one specific path but you can choose something completely different than me and get a totally different outcome. 

Throughout my playthrough, I was constantly thinking about what would happen if I decided something completely different or went with a different approach to some of the issues that arose in the city. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to play the game multiple times but you can bet I'll give it a couple of more spins after this review.

I'll start wrapping up this review by talking about the game's sound and visual presentation. In the simplest of terms, Frostpunk 2 sounds and looks incredible. The soundtrack is absolutely perfect and the way it's implemented is genius. 

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Frostpunk 2

Basically, as long as the situation in your city is great, you'll get slow and calm music in the background but once the tension starts to rise and factions start distributing the peace in the streets, the game will start playing epic and nervy music that will make you feel like you're really on the brink of letting it all fall apart. It's a small touch but a simply fantastic way to add a cinematic feel to a survival strategy game. 

In terms of the art direction, Frostpunk 2 is excellent. It retains the grim look of the original but you'll get some colours here in there as each district is specifically coloured to make your life a bit easier when your city becomes a true post-apocalyptic metropolis. 

The effects of smoke, snowstorms and the lights on the roads create a visually stunning image, especially during the Whiteouts when the image gets a darker and even more atmospheric look.

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Frostpunk 2 looks incredibly atmospheric

Truth be told, the only issue I had with Frostpunk 2 was that it didn't really run well on my PC. My Ryzen 7800X3D and RTX 4080 barely managed to push 50-60 FPS on Ultra settings with DLSS set to Quality and Frame Generation ON. But the low frame rate isn't even the biggest problem with the performance - it's the frame pacing or stuttering that happens every time you zoom in onto the map or your city, or when you change the camera from the city to the wasteland and vice versa. Lowering the settings didn't help with stuttering sadly, so this is frankly one of the issues that I hope 11 Bit Studios will look to resolve with post-launch updates.

CONCLUSION

In a nutshell, if city builders are your thing, then go buy Frostpunk 2. It's an absolutely incredible game, a true shining masterpiece with such a unique setting, mechanics and addicting gameplay loop. Since it's also on Game Pass, I'm recommending it even to players who aren't really into these types of games. You won't regret it.