Frostpunk 2 Review: The City Builder That Made Me Evil

builds upon the concepts of the original city builder in a myriad of interesting ways that completely change the scope of the game. While this may be a hard adjustment for fans of the first, and perhaps even sound undesirable initially, the franchise ultimately comes away stronger in this new iteration. Though the overall messaging can at times feel a bit heavy-handed, and the bleakness can make it hard to play long stretches, as a whole the 11 bit studios title is one that deftly and satisfyingly blends strategic management and poignant decision-making.

During a preview of at Gamescom 2023, the title’s co-directors Jakub Stokalski and Łukasz Juszczyk said thatthey wanted the game to focus on " " — a goal which the game wholeheartedly achieves. Set 30 years after the original, the society-running minutiae is eschewed for broader leadership decisions, and fighting the elements is only part of the struggle to be faced. Instead of mechanics like placing individual buildings and assigning workers, players will build whole districts at a time, and will also have to contend with a growing populace with diverging visions of society.

However, one facet of the original that remains the same is the fact that nothing is easy, which oscillates between rewarding, frustrating, or even funny, depending on the situation. Building up a functioning society through the Story Mode’s five chapters comes at an increasingly high price in terms of the tough decisions players must make, often making sweeping changes to society with a single click. I walked away from honestly feeling like it had made me evil by the end — which I suppose is precisely the point.

Instead of fulfilling the role of captain, players will instead rule as Steward, elected by a council to lead the growing metropolis of New London following the survival of the initial colony in the first game. The general populace, of course, aims to help form a true utopian society, but the specific visions they have for this