Editor-in-Chief Leya visited the 11 Bit Studios and played Frostpunk 2, the sequel to their successful strategy game. Everything is on fire within no time, but she still had fun.
I knew from the start that Frostpunk 2 and I would not get along well. How could we? The first part of the series is considered a difficult strategy game and I have nothing to do with this genre.
But now I am here at the developer studio 11 Bit and get to try the story mode of Frostpunk 2. “Why am I even putting myself through this?” crosses my mind. The answer is simple: Frostpunk 2 is a very special strategy-building game.
The scenario is literally cool. In the first part, you have to survive the longest winter in history and secure humanity’s survival. It is about much more than just expanding the city or optimally managing resources. As is typical for the studio, morally difficult decisions must be made.
Frostpunk 2 takes place 30 years after the events of the first part.
The apocalyptic winter is now permanent, civilization is almost completely destroyed, and with you as ruler, a new society is forming. Different factions are emerging, which you must somehow satisfy – and they often think what you are doing is pretty stupid. Naturally, these factions have conflicts with each other. Some are traditionalists, others are progressive; there are religious and atheists, idealists and materialists. The big question in Frostpunk 2 is: where do we want to go as a society after the apocalypse?
This entire moral aspect and setting appeal to me greatly. It’s all too exciting! So I grit my teeth and let’s go.
Not tolerated after 20 minutes, banished after 35 minutes
I reach the test PC assigned to me, start the game, and immediately feel helpless and overwhelmed. Just to be safe, I set the difficulty to “easy” right away.
My first round goes as catastrophically as it can. I get the task of getting a stove burning so that my people do not freeze in the cold. I am to ensure shelter and food. Sounds doable and simple.
While I am still trying to orient myself and click through the menus, my little civilization is already starting to scream: We are hungry and it is freezing cold!
I first have to break up all the ice to even build something. Well, what do I mean by I? My people are doing all that while I watch them toil. They don’t seem to be in particularly good spirits, but I can’t blame them.
As I will find out later, I choose the most foolish routes to get to my resources. Everything is going way too slowly. My people are starving, they are freezing, and I lack the funds to build. One by one, they become ill and start dying off.
I barely play for 20 minutes before the message comes that my people can no longer tolerate me as their ruler. I don’t understand it. So far, only about 3/4 of the population has died.
I see the population count continuing to plummet. I must do something. Time for radical measures! There is the option to have people work double shifts. Then the food will arrive faster.
Bad idea, now they are really mad. They also get sick faster, and I just have more dead.
After 35 minutes, almost nobody is left, and everyone has finally had enough of me. They send me into exile. I can’t even get past the tutorial.
Game Over.
This is the Frostpunk experience: Tips from the Lead Developer
About this time, I am led to my interview appointment with head developer Jakub Stokalski. Damn, I haven’t thought of any great questions about the gameplay yet. In my mind, I still see my city going up in flames.
I decide to tell Jakub outright how I completely failed in his game. This at least elicits a genuine laugh from him. Encouragingly, the developer tells me that this is the completely normal Frostpunk experience and that I haven’t done anything wrong.
Frostpunk 2 is designed to build a lot of pressure so that tough decisions have great significance.
Now I feel a bit better and ask Jakub directly for tips for an absolute strategy novice like me.
Play the game at your own pace.
Don’t hesitate to play at the difficulty level that suits you best. This is not well developed in this build yet, and we are still working on it. The game should not mentally punish you for playing at your difficulty level. Easy doesn’t mean you’re bad.
Don’t be too hard on yourself.
Frostpunk 2 is quite complex and challenging. Consider every mistake as a learning experience. Games are just like life itself.
Use the pause.
Pause the game and think about what you want to do next. We support active pauses in Frostpunk 2. Get an overview and think about what could go wrong. I even believe that playing slowly is the best way to play Frostpunk 2. Don’t rush; quick play is for very experienced players. When I play Frostpunk 2 at the office and rush, I usually end up losing.
Lead Developer Jakub Stokalski gives beginner tips for Frostpunk 2
After the interview, I have time to delve further into Frostpunk 2 and play.
Especially the tip to use the active pause more consciously has helped me a lot as the game progressed. I quickly notice a learning curve and succeed in the tutorial on my second attempt.
At the end of the tutorial, you immediately get insight into what it means to make tough decisions in Frostpunk 2. Here comes the moral component into play.
Before going into the real game, the stockpile becomes a topic. I can decide to kill some seals for food. They are the last of their kind. Just as my oldest residents are willing to simply go into the woods to die and thus provide more resources for the young.
But I can also refuse both and start with scarce supplies.
Since I want to respect the wishes of the old, I send them into the forest to die and begin with more supplies by reducing my civilization. Beautiful new world.
Making everyone happy is the most challenging way to play Frostpunk 2
As our conversation progresses, Jakub admits to me that he is not really the best player either and often fails at his own game. He says they even have a laugh about it in the office.
When I ask him what his weakness is, he gives me an unexpected and quite exciting answer: he plays too nice.
My weakness is that I want to please everyone. Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions, and I apparently fail to do so.
Making everyone happy is the hardest part of Frostpunk 2. It is not impossible. That is one of our design philosophies. We do not try to glorify “bad” decisions so that you cannot make “good” decisions. We design it so that you can play well without having to do bad things. But for that, you really have to be good at the game.
I try to achieve that, and since I am not such a good player, I make it hard for myself.
Lead Developer Jakub Stokalski on the hardest way in Frostpunk 2
And it is true. Morally questionable behavior can bring benefits. Double shifts and sending the old to die in the woods have already been mentioned.
Then there are the different factions in the game, each with different ideas about the future of the new society. Jakub explains to me that the team researched the entire history of humanity for this – at least as far as it was possible in the four years of development time.
The community system is meant to represent different ideas found in the history of humanity. This is all simplified to work in the game.
The deepest level of Frostpunk 2 makes the game special
This very moral dilemma eventually put me into a flow state. I have never experienced that with a building game before. Normally, I always forget in between what I actually want to do, and chaos ensues.
However, since the factions reach out from time to time and story events take place on the map, I am curious and want to see where my civilization develops. This really makes Frostpunk 2 something special and also motivates me as a strategy novice.
At the end of our conversation, Jakub confirms this.
The truth is: Any kind of ideology in the history of humanity, if you take it too seriously and start to see ideals instead of people, always led to a tragedy. And that is the deep level of Frostpunk 2.
We hope this is the part you start to see as you play the game. There is never a good reason to place ideals above people.
Lead Developer Jakub Stokalski on the core of Frostpunk 2
When the test session is over, I am surprised at how much fun I had with Frostpunk 2. I did not expect that. I think it really has to do with the deeper level of the strategy-building game that sets it apart from other genre representatives.
If you are in a similar situation as I am and the game still appeals to you, it might be worth giving it a try and just trying it out. I can also advise you to seek help if you get stuck.
If I must criticize something, it is the lack of clarity of the mechanics at the beginning of the game. There are menus where everything is explained, but it is already difficult to find your way around. Especially when playing in easy mode, a few more explanations in the tutorial would be desirable.
From time to time, I had to get help from the 11 Bit team when I didn’t understand something, and that helped me progress step by step. Without this help, I would not have made it further.
From my perspective, it is worth sticking with it for a special gaming experience.
If you would like another assessment from strategy experts, check out our sister site GameStar. There you’ll find the opinions of experts Fabiano Uslenghi, Maurice Weber, and Steinwallen: Frostpunk 2 will lose fans but inspire new ones”: Three building experts give their first impressions
Are you planning to play Frostpunk 2? The release is in July 2024 for PC.
