My review, this is not game for hardcore Frostpunk 1 fans

[kylix999]

This review is very important to me because I am a huge fan of the first game. I purchased the deluxe edition and participated in the beta. First of all, Frostpunk 2 can be a good game in its own right. If it were the first game in the franchise, I wouldn't have any issues with it. However, the problem is that the first game set certain expectations for many of us.

My review won't have much impact on Frostpunk 2's reception; the game is already a big success, and I am happy for 11bit Studios—they deserve it.

The first problem is the name itself. "Frostpunk 2" sets certain expectations for people who played the first game. Many people on the forum mentioned that they preordered the game without watching most of the marketing materials. For some of them, the game deviates too much from the original. In Frostpunk 2, you don't build a city; you only build districts. You don't see individual people, and so on. Of course, there is another group that thinks this is a good approach, and they have the right to their opinion as well.

I think the game should not have "2" in the title, at least. It sets the expectation for many that it will be like the first one but better, an evolution, but this game flipped the table. A better name would be "Frostpunk 1916," which would indicate that it's a game set in the same universe but is entirely different.

Another issue is that the prologue is not the best experience. Many people expressed that they felt lost and didn't know what to click or how to proceed. I don't think the developer's response to read the written tutorial accessed with the T key is a good solution. The game should have pop-ups that teach how to play. I believe 11bit will address this in the future.

For me, the biggest problem is that the game is not a city builder. It has city-builder elements like the first Frostpunk, but it feels more like a Civilization game. Heat management, placing buildings, and constructing roads are core city-builder experiences for me and many gamers. Of course, if someone likes the new mechanics, that's great, but for me, it's the biggest turn-off. However, who knows—maybe modders will expand the game and add these mechanics. In fact, I think 11bit should release modding tools for the first Frostpunk so modders can extend that game.

I think the graphics look nice and quite detailed.

To conclude, if you are a hardcore fan of the first Frostpunk and its city-building mechanics, you might be disappointed. If you enjoy games like Civilization or Urban Empire, you might like it a lot.

Also, remember that the original Frostpunk gameplay was adapted into a mobile game, so I think it was intentional to make the second game as different as possible. To me, it feels like a marketing decision. When I play Need for Speed, I expect the next Need for Speed to be a racing game as well. When I purchased Frostpunk 2, I expected the city-builder gameplay loop of the first Frostpunk but instead got a Civilization-like game. Imagine if Need for Speed fans received a car mechanic simulator as the next installment—it feels similar to that.

The game is not for me, but congratulations to 11bit. I hope Frostpunk 3 will be better. For those who enjoy Frostpunk 2, I'm happy for you, and I hope you have a great time with the game!

[kylix999]

İlk olarak Dusty13B tarafından gönderildi:

Darkest Dungeon keeps coming to mind when I think of FP2. The first one was sooooo good but then they went and changed up every core mechanic that made it good in the second one. We didn't want an exact copy of the first game but we at least wanted something that resembled it.

Imagine gameplay like Frostpunk 1 but with fractions You could focus on and they would give You special tech tree options, exclusive to them, buildings or industry or mines etc, it could give so much replayability. Now You run city from 100 to 1000 people, automated everything with automatons. At this point game could expand more to macro like building other cities, connecting them with railways or even finding other cities in frostland, or even going to war with them over resources or artifacts. That game I would like to play.

Frostpunk 2 feels like game make by people that have not played first game a t all who just got like 5 sentence description what game was about. It really feels like game was outsourced to people that didn't play frostpunk. With all respoect to devs, I know this was not their intention but it feels like it.

[just.dont.do.it]

İlk olarak kylix999 tarafından gönderildi:

Imagine gameplay like Frostpunk 1 but with fractions

You don't need to imagine it, play FP2. It's literally that.

[SMash]

After all these responses I need a demo to try it before buying it.

[kylix999]

İlk olarak SMash tarafından gönderildi:

After all these responses I need a demo to try it before buying it.

You can refund it before You will reach 2 hours of gameplay

[Markus Reese]

Two hours wont get you anything. Almost by design as prologue is very different than how game actually plays.

[kylix999]

İlk olarak Markus Reese tarafından gönderildi:

Two hours wont get you anything. Almost by design as prologue is very different than how game actually plays.

This is closest to demo he can get

[Archangel12504]

My thoughts, for what they're worth:

I was initially disappointed by Frostpunk 2. The original was such a great game and one I sunk a lot of time into—and Frostpunk 2 is, as OP and others have noted, very different. Its much more of a management game than a city builder, and that initially struck me as an awful shame because first, I love city builders and, second, the original Frostpunk was such an innovative and fun city builder. But once I put all of that aside and treated Frostpunk 2 as its own game, judging it on its own merits and not by my preconceived notions of what a Frostpunk game should be like, I had a lot of fun. There are a few things that I don't like as much--including people being reduced to a number instead of a living breathing person whom you would grow attached to, but none of them are dealbreakers for me.

Frostpunk 2 is a great game set in the Frostpunk universe, and while it is a literal narrative sequel to the original Frostpunk, it is not a sequel in the gameplay sense. The closest comparison I can make is the original Star Wars (aka A New Hope) and Rogue One. Rogue One is a literal narrative prequel to A New Hope, but they are vastly different films made in different eras and with different technologies. I enjoyed both films a lot, but trying to compare them from a filmmaking perspective would be hopeless, and pointless, and trying to judge Rogue One through my nostalgia for A New Hope is equally pointless. They're both great films ... full stop. Frostpunk and Frostpunk 2 are both great games, full stop. And as long as I put my nostalgia for Frostpunk aside and just enjoyed Frostpunk 2, I had a good time playing it.

My only material reservation is replayability as there appear to be less opportunities for replayability in Frostpunk 2 than in the original Frostpunk due to the move from city builder to city manager. But I don't have enough time in the game to make that judgement one way or another, so I'll put a pin in that issue and come back to it once I've played more hours.

In conclusion, if you liked the original Frostpunk beyond it just scratching your city builder itch, then I think you will like Frostpunk 2. If you're looking for a gameplay and mechanics sequel, then you may be disappointed. And you may be disappointed initially anyway—as I was—but if you give it a chance I think Frostpunk 2 will quickly grow on you. But if it doesn't, I think that's perfectly fair—its a very different game—and I too hope that the next one returns to the city builder roots. That said, I hope you do enjoy it :-) And as OP said, I wish the best to 11bit and the wider Frostpunk community.

[Vex]

Invalid Review, Level 0 private steam account.

[[PBS] Marek P]

İlk olarak Inkidu tarafından gönderildi:

I have one question:

Does the game have RNG this time around or are you on the same static map like the first one?

What made me refund the first Frostpunk at time of release (I got it for free through EGS eventually anyway so I could play it, but I've not been sufficiently convinced but I'm getting head of myself) was that I realized after a few quick losses and restarts that the map never changed. The resources never changed.

I was playing a survival city-builder with no RNG elements. Well... that's not a survival city-builder; that's a puzzle game with a survival city-builder skin. With no random elements forcing the player to actually change their strategy then it just becomes a race--to quote Brian Reynolds, "Optimize the fun out the game."

So to make a long preamble short: Does this game have RNG elements or are you stuck playing the same map with the same elements every time? Because again, that will just make it a puzzle game with one correct-most solution.

Endless mode claims to have RNG in terms of resources. Story I would imagine is fixed

[Thiridian]

Might as well throw in the board game to this mix. It looks complicated to me, but some people might prefer it to the video games because of other perks it has, such as a bit more randomness with the card drawing and dice rolling, and playing with friends in a local multiplayer cooperative way...

[Grifta]

This is a fair comment, but also a fair decision from 11bit. All media mentions of FP2 is that it is quite different from FP1.

They didn't destroy the game like Gearbox recently did to Homeworld 3 (same but worse in every possible way).
11bit just pulled the camera and turned it into country management instead of city management.

[Airbus4Life]

wish i read this before putting 2 hours in

[rgoodness]

Frankly I'm really enjoying that it's Frostpunk 2 instead of Frostpunk, Too. Going in I didn't expect it to hit the same way -- considering that Frostpunk was my Pandemic Game, there's no way I'd get the same kind of experience. I'm enjoying the focus on the higher levels of the city and the colony management rather than on the building level like the first one. I'm excited for Frostpunk 3, which could be on the country level, and Frostpunk 4: In Space.

[Sverd]

İlk olarak Grifta tarafından gönderildi:

This is a fair comment, but also a fair decision from 11bit. All media mentions of FP2 is that it is quite different from FP1.

They didn't destroy the game like Gearbox recently did to Homeworld 3 (same but worse in every possible way).
11bit just pulled the camera and turned it into country management instead of city management.

yup. Game is not so much a city builder as a political sim. Most of the people whining are mad about this change (even though the devs very clearly communicated it) - personally as a political sim fan I think this is exciting and eagerly await how they expand the mechanics with DLCs

[mellamoger]

I'm actually enjoying this more than FP1. I usually dislike city builders and FP1 was a very welcome exception, but FP2 is more focused on sociopolitics which i'm way more interested.

However, I'm a little bit baffled at the hex mechanic, I think it isn't well explained (and there are things that after some hours I still don't understand how they work).

I agree the tutorial should teach you more about this things, and not about the really basics that aren't even close to what the real game feels like. Many people will be detracted from the game because the tuto doesn't even show the politic management which is the core of the game.