If you want to traumatize yourself with hard decisions, you should definitely play Frostpunk 2

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11 bit Studios have a penchant for games that are dark and always present you with really hard decisions. Now they are planning Frostpunk 2 and have given MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus a first look at the game.

I can’t play a game from 11 bit Studios for long. Really: I like the games, I love the ideas behind them. The developers simply know how to sell a tragic story so well that it becomes gripping. Too good perhaps.

In This War of Mine, one of the best survival games, they tell the story of the civilian population in a destroyed city after a war. The core question: How cruel would you be if your survival depended on it?

Frostpunk is one of 11 bit’s biggest titles. The building game is one of the best apocalypse games ever and is set in the middle of an apocalypse. The world is frozen over and you have to somehow generate enough heat to keep a small town alive.

You can get your own impression of Frostpunk in the gameplay trailer:

Frostpunk – Gameplay Trailer

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Both games fascinate me and yet I can’t bring myself to finish them. Although I like to be really bad in games, the storytelling just takes me too much.

Now the studio has announced the successor to Frostpunk. It was immediately clear to me that I definitely wanted to watch the next game, which I definitely wouldn’t play for long. And, oh boy! Everything about it is just right.

What happens if you survive the apocalypse?

Frostpunk 2 is pretty much what you would imagine a sequel to a story-driven building game to be. In the first part you, as a captain, have to manage a small group of people so that they survive in the eternal ice.

That’s over now, 30 years later. The city is standing, everything is so developed that you finally no longer have to fight for survival every day. You have time to think about what the future should look like.

Deciding on new laws, renegotiating them and voting on them is an important part of Frostpunk 2.

Instead of stubbornly micromanaging individual buildings, you plan the city in districts in order to expand it. But the core of the game is – of course – decisions, because the game is intended to explore human nature:

  • you manage the city, but have different groups of residents with their own needs
  • In the Senate you hear what the different groups have to say – and decide on a path forward
  • Depending on the group you support, the cityscape changes and different opportunities and problems arise
  • Further factions then emerge from the groups themselves and more groups can form, often with opposing ideas

    • Although there is no longer an autocratic regime that dictates everything and makes the tough decisions, in the end you still set the direction. But if a large number of people are too dissatisfied, arguments can of course arise…

    In Frostpunk 2 you have to pay attention to the mood in your city if you don’t want the residents to radicalize step by step.

    “Expect that everything has consequences – dark ones”

    Frostpunk 2 wants to explore how a society develops after the apocalypse is over. It can still happen that you manage the city so poorly that the cold kills everyone – but that’s not actually the idea of ​​the game.

    Instead, you should decide how to proceed from now on. The bosses said in an interview at gamescom: “The focus is not on what you have to do, but on what you can do. Your choice depends on who you are.” Without exception, every decision you make will have a consequence. Maybe not immediately, but eventually:

  • You decide that children need education and shouldn’t work? In 5 years, production may fall below an important threshold.
  • Would you rather build sustainable organic plants instead of implementing progressive ideas? This can potentially make workers who have to work in these facilities sick.

    • While you can try to find a middle ground and please everyone, you may find yourself treading water. If you always choose the same ideas, it may turn out to be the wrong path and fail catastrophically.

    The technocrats are protesting: from now on, education should no longer take place by parents, but in schools. Attending school is of course compulsory. Do you give in to their demands?

    11 bit wants to tell a story that “can only be told through the language of video games,” said the developers. “Tools that no other medium has.” From my first impression, in which I was able to see 2 game sessions, Frostpunk 2 does this masterfully.

    Only when you play can you see the impact of your decisions. And if an 8-year-old child tells you directly that he no longer wants to work in the biogas plant because he has to cough all the time, then that does something to a person.

    What exactly is “human nature”?

    Frostpunk 2 wants to explore the “nature of man”, to know how a society develops that no longer just has to fight for survival, but can develop. When asked what this “nature” actually is, the developers have interesting answers:

  • we are a duality, the ultimate elements of destruction and creation; one moment we are destroying the rainforest, the next we are replanting it
  • Man is not inherently evil, but no one is able to suppress the inner demons of greed on their own
  • The only way to survive is to have the humility to recognize this duality

    • This very nature comes through clearly in Frostpunk 2. No single decision is all good or all bad. It always comes with a consequence that you then have to live with. I would have liked to explore for longer what exactly that meant – but after an hour it was over.

    Frostpunk 2 was announced in 2021, but a specific release date is still pending. So far, 2024 is in the room, but no specific date has been specified. The game is expected to be released only for PC (Steam, Epic and GOG).

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