Frostpunk 2 Preview — Can a utopia thrive at the end of the world?

Frostpunk is one of the more memorable titles for me in recent years. Building the last bastion of a city in a post-apocalyptic world—when done correctly, like it is in Frostpunk—is sure to stick with you. I’m not quite sure there have been any games that have been released since that made me navigate harsh moral dilemmas quite as much as Frostpunk.

We recently had the opportunity to take a look at the freeplay mode of the upcoming sequel Frostpunk 2. As such, we didn’t get to see the story and nitty-gritty bleakness that’s a staple of the universe. But, we did get a look at some of the new features and overall gameplay the sequel will bring.

It’s a cold world

The stakes in Frostpunk were about as high as they can get. Players have the task of building an efficient hub in the shadow of a massive coal generator. In the end, you would oversee a population of about 600, while making choices all for the overall goal of simply surviving the harsh frozen landscape.

Frostpunk 2 takes place thirty years later. Survival has been accomplished, and the focus has shifted to thriving as opposed to just surviving. If the original could be considered a simulation title on a micro-scale, Frostpunk 2 is certainly on a macro-scale in comparison. Instead of placing individual buildings, you lay out entire districts. It’s a sprawling city as opposed to a tight hub in the original. Instead of a population in the hundreds, your city can grow into the thousands.

But while the denizens of Frostpunk 2 have survived the apocalypse, life still isn’t sunshine and rainbows. The choices player make when building up their city has shifted from pure necessity for survival to trying to help the city thrive and flourish. Several factions have been established, including the Engineers and the Foragers.

A divisive utopia

In the demo presented to us, a choice was given to the player where they had to side with one of these two factions on how to increase food production. Engineers wanted to utilize certain chemicals to increase food production. The Foragers, on the other hand, believed nutrients could be harvested from human waste and produced into a fertilizer of sorts. The choice was made to side with the Foragers, which in the immediate term provided a food production boost.

However, a little later in the demo, some problems stemming from our decision started to pop up. Those tasked with handling the human waste—mostly children—ended up falling ill. Of course, this led to new issues and new choices, just as you would expect from Frostpunk. Even though survival seems assured at this point, that doesn’t mean there aren’t still harsh realities to living in this post-apocalyptic world.

You can’t make everyone happy

At the end of the presentation, we see that there are several factions at play in Frostpunk 2. It’s important to balance your decisions amongst the factions. You don’t want one faction having all the power, or a faction to have growing dissent within you due to feeling neglected. While factions aren’t necessarily a new system to a game like Frostpunk 2, the overall theme makes it so much more important.

There is even a law system where delegates from the different factions will vote to pass or abolish laws. As the player you will have ways to influence the factions, even pressuring them to vote your way. Of course, you will have to carefully walk the line of give and take when it comes to dealing with each faction.

I’m excited to see more about Frostpunk 2, especially its story mode. The original Frostpunk was one of the better simulation management games in recent years. It’s great that 11 Bit Studios is opting to keep the core gameplay here while building upon it. But the additions to the sequel seem meaningful enough to make it a new experience worth playing.

Frostpunk 2 will release on PC in 2024.