My personal review of Frostpunk 2

[RipVampiretto]

Hello everyone, here is my personal experience with Frostpunk 1, Frostpunk 2 and 11 Bit Studios

in 2020 I was looking for a city builder game and discovered Frostpunk, I watched some videos online to see if I could like it, I liked it and so I bought it, from that moment I got more and more into it and once I finished 100% on all the scenarios, I temporarily abandoned it and a few months ago I took it up again deciding to start an endless mode (which I still carry on every now and then and I am ~300 per day in endurance difficulty) and currently on Frostpunk 1 I have about 700 hours.

But going back, with the time I played Frostpunk I also started to know the software house and their other games that I played consequently (including the demo of The Alters, another game that I will pre-order)

Going forward in time, they announced Frostpunk 2 (2021) and that day my eyes lit up, I was very excited by the fact that the game that I loved so much would have its successor and as soon as the pre-orders opened, I bought it with my eyes closed, with time 11 Bit Studios had somehow won me over up to that point, I also read the discussions, I liked their availability and openness towards listening to gamers (another reason why Frostpunk 2 was postponed for a few months, that is to improve the game with user feedback)

September 20 (2023) arrives if I'm not mistaken and 11 Bit Studios makes a post on Twitter/X where they say they are looking for interesting people to go to their studios in Warsaw to test Frostpunk 2 and I'm super excited about it, personally, it would be nice to visit their studio in person, see their process and maybe even work for them, but unfortunately due to work I have to hold back and I couldn't go (I didn't even apply)

April 15th (2024) arrives and there is the beta, I download it and start playing it right away, but for some reason I feel alienated from what was supposed to be an improvement of the first chapter, I could hardly see any connection other than the fact that there is a storm and you have to survive, no more construction of individual structures, no management of people, I could no longer see people in the parks having fun and much more, it was all gone I was a little disappointed by it, but it was a beta and it was written in capital letters that it was not the finished product etc, so that hope remained a little.

September 20th (2024) arrives and finally the game comes out, I download it there too and immediately start playing it, but I still feel that feeling of detachment and non-continuity between the two things, from a city builder it has become more of a tiles builder/law management (I feel like on Cities Skylines 1/2), almost you spend more time trying to keep society intact (through laws and development) than designing it itself, finding strategies, decide what citizens do, where and so on.

I absolutely appreciate the work that 11 Bit Studios has done and will do for the community (both in terms of communication and development), but as for Frostpunk 2, perhaps it has gone a little too far from the focus of what the first chapter was (focus that made me approach it) and this is not necessarily a bad thing, absolutely, also considering that it would have been enough to get a little information to know that the game itself would have been different from Frostpunk 1 and not just be limited to the trailer.

Regarding the development and the game in general, for me it's a solid 7/10 also considering that it's huge, with much more development possibilities and can only improve with the support of mods (thanks to FrostKit), always regarding this I hope that one will be developed that allows multiplayer.

For the citizens who don't see themselves walking, yes, I'm a little sorry, it made everything a little more "city", but I understand the fact that they were removed, starting from a performance factor.

Maybe many should simply open up to the fact that something can change over time and maybe appreciate the fact that 11 Bit Studios, unlike many software houses, listens (still, at least) to what their users say.

Thank you very much for your time and any feedback.

[idiot2]

I really like the measured tone of this review and i feel some people should take a page from your book. As we can see, reasonable takes get much less exposure though, because there's just not much to argue about here. You are pretty much spot on.

Personally I have not played it enough yet to know if i end up giving it a 7,8 or 9 for the current state of the game, since i dont have access to my good PC on the weekend - it could fall on any of those numbers depending on how satisfying i find the later stages of the campaign and the options in the sandbox mode.

But independent of current state i am pretty sure that it is a great basis for more and interesting stuff going forward, especially given the modding content and 11bit history of making great expansions for their games.

[Glitch]

I agree, Game is fine.

But you clearly feel less invested by the lack of reward per implication.

I mean, when you created an automaton on FP1, it's was a HUGE day knowing that it will protect your citizen and lower your coal consumption.

Now ppl and automaton are the same, you can't fine-tune everything like before.

The game feel a lot like "brute forcing" the gameplay, need food ? district. Need home ? district. Need anything ? District.

You don't even appreciate the animation anymore, game had potential, much more than what it is rn but he, it's fine.

Why is it good then ? Because you have the luxury to get into moral dilemna which was not the case in FP1. Because you have the CHOICE on how to approach a situation (expand, reinforce or flee)

FP2 is a strange game where the dev put effort on having a morale on citizen you don't even know.

This game ain't 100% about strategy, it's more about ambiance and dilemna, this is why the review are so mixed, don't buy this game expecting the same experience you had with FP1, this is not the New London you left, and you ain't a captain anymore.

[RipVampiretto]

Originally posted by Glitch:

I agree, Game is fine.

But you clearly feel less invested by the lack of reward per implication.

I mean, when you created an automaton on FP1, it's was a HUGE day knowing that it will protect your citizen and lower your coal consumption.

Now ppl and automaton are the same, you can't fine-tune everything like before.

The game feel a lot like "brute forcing" the gameplay, need food ? district. Need home ? district. Need anything ? District.

You don't even appreciate the animation anymore, game had potential, much more than what it is rn but he, it's fine.

Why is it good then ? Because you have the luxury to get into moral dilemna which was not the case in FP1. Because you have the CHOICE on how to approach a situation (expand, reinforce or flee)

FP2 is a strange game where the dev put effort on having a morale on citizen you don't even know.

This game ain't 100% about strategy, it's more about ambiance and dilemna, this is why the review are so mixed, don't buy this game expecting the same experience you had with FP1, this is not the New London you left, and you ain't a captain anymore.

I don't think I fully understood the message, maybe because of tiredness, but I'll answer you anyway


it's a complex point of view that I find

before you were the captain, you decided everything and even if something went wrong, it was fixed, but only you were responsible for your development and in a certain sense you lived it through technologies such as automatons, efficiency, helping the well-being of people and so on and almost drew a feeling of satisfaction from your actions

now instead I feel like a citizen who does not recognize himself in any faction and barely recognizes himself, everything seems "on the same level", is a new technology being developed? Who cares? people will continue to fight, hate each other and so on, I no longer have a people who acclaim or glorify me because I do something positive and that maybe helps them, now they come on stage only to complain about things and get angry.

on the other hand, as you say, you have the luxury of being able to decide how to deal with it, a possibility that Frostpunk 1 didn't allow

I feel like I'm living it more but at the same time in a detached way, which is paradoxical

and I think that on this topic, 11 Bit Studios has seen far

[Bagus Fikri]

Absolutely agreee!!!!

[Satyricon42]

Originally posted by idiot2:

I really like the measured tone of this review and i feel some people should take a page from your book. As we can see, reasonable takes get much less exposure though, because there's just not much to argue about here. You are pretty much spot on.

Personally I have not played it enough yet to know if i end up giving it a 7,8 or 9 for the current state of the game, since i dont have access to my good PC on the weekend - it could fall on any of those numbers depending on how satisfying i find the later stages of the campaign and the options in the sandbox mode.

But independent of current state i am pretty sure that it is a great basis for more and interesting stuff going forward, especially given the modding content and 11bit history of making great expansions for their games.

Basically, "I agree with this review therefore it is measured". It's interesting how people disguise bias as a call for "more measured takes". I personally disagree with a lot of these "measured takes". The game is grander in scope. Of course each and every single citizen is less important. There are simply more of them. That's the painful reality of larger societies. Individual citizens start to matter less when viewed from a higher vantage point.

My main gripes with this game is the sheer lack of replayability. The map is always the same with the same settlements, the same missions, the same interactions, the same points of interest etc. I played through the endless mode a few times and starts to feel a lot less "endless" when the map has very clear defined borders that you cannot cross.

This was something the first game did well. The game felt "endless" because it was simply your city in the middle of a vast and unknown world that you could not explore as much. There was a limit to what you could do, but the limit made sense. Sometimes less can indeed be more.

In Frostpunk 2 we should realistically be able to create icebreaker ships to explore beyond the sea and perhaps even cross an ocean. But the map simply ends where the seas and oceans begin. This limit feels artificial and forced. There should also be other well developed settlements out there with their own populations and ways of life that we could engage with in diplomacy, trade and perhaps even war.

That is my point of view on this game. Now I'm not saying your point of view is not valid, because it is valid. We simply disagree on certain things and that is fine. I sure hope that my view on things is not "unmeasured" simply because it does not align with yours. Alignment with personal perspectives and bias is not inherently "measured". That's just confirmation bias.

[runegui [C.I] [FR]]

I played FP1 and FP2. Finished FP2 in one day on medium settings. It's a good game, with quite a few tricks to make you feel urgency and sorrow when everybody seems hell bent on f...ing everything around them instead of doing their jobs and provide. It's more about politics than micromanagement, and it succeeds at making you want to become a dictator just to make the parliament shut up and follow orders for once.

Buuuuut... I don't think the timing for this game is right. Face it, we have enough political ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on our hands right now, I really don't think more politics, more ideologies and more gulag is what the majority of people want to enjoy themselves after a hard day.

I personally, if given the chance, would have exiled both the pilgrims and the wardens on the account of them being more concerned about enforcing their agendas instead of doing what need to be done to make the majority thrive...

There's not much replayability. Once you finished on one side, you can do the other or try to navigate in between until you have to make a dreadful choice. That's the main concern about this game : its longevity. 3-4 days tops to explore different paths, then up the shelf it goes.

[kylix999]

This is why Frostpunk 1886 has a chance to win back Frostpunk 1 fans