Sequels even in gaming are often hard to pull off for a variety of reasons. Maybe they just don’t live up to their predecessors in terms of gameplay, maybe they didn’t evolve enough or maybe they’re too different from what came before that alienates the original audience. Frostpunk 2 arguably sort of toes the line with some of the core concepts from the first game but definitely and boldly changes a lot of the systems you use to engage with those concepts like heating, population management, governance and so forth.
A great example of this would be that instead of implementing laws or reforms directly like in Frostpunk 1 from a Book of Laws you have to go through a council system that involves 3 to 4 other political factions which is paired with an expansive Idea Tree producing said legislative ideas or research or buildings that each of those factions want to back.
I think if you enjoyed the first Frostpunk you may appreciate some of the newer gameplay mechanics but it will probably take some time for you to adjust or warm up to some of the newer things like the economic currency of heatstamps which I found a bit annoying. Overall, I would recommend Frostpunk 2 if you are into city building or management games, I don’t think it has too much of a complex depth to it compared to say Crusader Kings 3 but I think it will satisfy a lot of people’s taste for basic political intrigue with resource and population management.
In terms of settings and accessibility, Frostpunk 2 offers a surprising amount of things including four difficulties, support for 14 different languages, a Twitch integration for viewer participation which can be quite hilarious and solid upscaling options that not only includes DLSS but also XESS. The performance of the game is top-notch, I had absolutely no issues with running the game at all although the auto-saves do sometimes freeze up the game more than I’d like once you get to a certain point in your rebuilt civilization.
The UI definitely takes time getting used to if you’re coming right away from the first game and of course if you’re just playing Frostpunk 2 a while after or this is your introduction to the now franchise, the UI and User Experience in navigating the different panels and such could in my opinion have been handled better particularly with the interactions between the world map now offered in Frostpunk 2 and the management of the different cities or settlements.
Just like the first Frostpunk, the audio or music of Frostpunk 2 really tries to immerse you in the moment with booming cacophonies when a whiteout storm is taking place or even when you’re sort of idly waiting for more resources to proceed building your primary city.
There are definitely some great moments with both the audio combined with the campaign story writing I think people in general will appreciate. Speaking of the campaign, the story is pretty straightforward, there are of course references to the first game but for the most part it stands on its own with a particular emphasis on growing society more so than emphasizing that humanity needs to do anything it can to survive the constant apocalyptic blizzards that have frozen the planet. Visually the game looks great, I have no complaints with any of what the game presents from the glow of the power lines to the weather system.
Gameplay-wise, Frostpunk 2 can often feel disconnected and less intimate compared to its predecessor which I think was a bit of a risky double-edged blade here. For example, you don’t really see a lot of people walking around until you zoom in on a particular part of a section of a district you had built and even then it’s a paltry amount.
The first game really gave you that intimacy with what was essentially your tribe or small town of people and you being able to see them walk around and do activities with not a lot of restrictions reinforced that intimacy. Yet in Frostpunk 2 you have to use a bit of your imagination aided by the event or story popups that you can read to immerse yourself in what the people are experiencing rather than seeing it more directly on the screen.
However this disconnect from reality on the ground is probably intended by the game developers as Frostpunk 2 canonically takes place a few decades or so after the events of the first game and there’s a lot more people to manage and realistically, once humans including you are put in charge of so many people, they tend to get disconnected or view others as statistics or numbers at the end of the day. The building system once you understand it is relatively straightforward although I think for people who want to stay organized from the get-go you have to just accept you will need to demolish quite a bit of what you’ve built for a so called perfect layout due to the tile and frostbreak system.
Probably the biggest two systems you will engage with the most outside of the actual building aspect will be the political faction system where you definitely need to stay wary and attentive especially on the higher difficulties although eventually once you get to a certain point you can definitely mistreat one or two of them pretty blatantly depending on your progression.
The other system is that unlike Frostpunk 1, which had separated the exploration map and the city map; the former for expeditionary missions you send scouts on for stories or resources and the latter for you to play on, Frostpunk 2 essentially merged both these maps into one big world map which I think was a great move as this new system offers more gameplay options or mechanics like settlements and a live view of the decisions you make in regards to the stories you encounter out in the frostlands.
So you will be zooming out quite a lot to look at the world map and zooming back into your city effortlessly, micromanaging missions while also checking up on all of your holdings.
In my opinion the worst parts about Frostpunk 2 is probably the new currency system of heatstamps or maybe even manpower because again it’s a growing society, they need to trade they need a currency as opposed to everyone pulling together and surviving no matter what heinous act in the first game. Unfortunately, you also need a LOT of this currency or manpower to build and do things like pave new ground.
Particularly on the higher difficulties, there are prolonged periods of you just sort of waiting and watching the game early or midgame even on the faster forward speeds waiting for heatstamp income or population increases to come in while all of your other stockpiles of materials, food, goods and prefabricated stuffs are in a surplus.
It definitely felt like these two things were unnecessary timegates that bottlenecked my gameplay experience more so than something I could engage with more meaningfully even through the faction or building system.
With all this being said, I think the replayability factor of Frostpunk 2 is super high, I’m already almost 14 hours into the game after finishing the campaign on a higher difficulty and there’s definitely enough content here before any potential DLC to sort of chew on slowly for sure if you’re ever feeling the itch for Frostpunk’s elements.