Alright. Frostpunk is done and dusted. It actually took me 16 hours to complete the main campaign with the rest of my gametime spent trying out the unlockable scenarios and playing through the DLC. The first couple hours, I spent really figuring out how to play, then I played through the story until my people eventually executed me, and then I played through again and finished the campaign (which is called "A New Home"). I'm not somebody who plays a lot of builders, and even less so builders that require significant thought and strategy, so this wasn't in my wheelhouse, and yet I thoroughly enjoyed it.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3363912749

The story set-up is pretty simple. You are the captain of an expedition sent to set up a new city, New London, around a powerful generator set-up previously in anticipation of the world freezing, which it has by the time you begin your adventure. Your goal is to keep the generator running while creating a city within which people can survive this frozen land. Maybe even thrive. The rest of the story is one of your own making. You are in charge, and you will make decisions and enact laws that will determine your city's outcome.

To that end, you will direct the gathering of resources, the construction of buildings and streets, the warming of the city, exploration outside of the city to find more resources and survivors to bring to your city, and you will as mentioned make laws. This takes the form of the Book of Laws, and your edicts will shape this developing survivor society. You have your base set of laws. Some are simple things such as decreeing that a graveyard will be built or a public house for people to let off some steam after a hard day. Other decisions will include deciding whether you will make the children work as laborers or allow them to develop and help out elsewhere instead. Your decisions will range from benevolent to tyrannical, and they will have an impact on your people and their morale.

So, in a sense, the morale system is also the morality system. And you will have to make some difficult decisions at times in order to ensure everybody's survival, whether or not they like how it happens, lol. And the people are fickle. This is represented by two bars: a hope bar and a discontent bar. Woe be the captain who lets that discontent bar grow and the hope bar wane. Think of them as health bars, only it's the health of your city and your leadership. Additionally, the people will make requests of you. Sometimes those requests will be common sense, other times they will be selfish requests, and yet other times, they will be completely unrealistic. Like letting people rest when you only have a few hours before a massive storm hits your city and need them manning their posts. And those types of requests often force your hand and make you issue some of the more tyrannical edicts.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3363257888

As far as the unlockable scenarios, I'd consider those to be challenge modes of sorts. The Ark, so example, you are tasked with building up a community around seed vaults. And while I'm sure there are people who have no problems playing through this, for me, it was super difficult. Not in a bad way. But probably above my skill level lol. I did not try the Endless modes, btw. That's not really my type of thing. But it is awesome that they are available for people.

Most of the game is spent staring at your city and various timers for job completion, the day/night cycle, and so on. However, there is also an overland map which you will use to assign search teams to check out various landmarks or things you can see from your city due to a beacon you will craft early on (basically a big balloon that gives you the ability to see the various places located outside your city but within eyeshot). And that might seem like it could get boring, but it doesn't. Why?

Because you're always planning your next moves, trying to reason out what will be most necessary to ensure your survival. And that leads to some incredibly tense moments throughout a playthrough. My first full playthrough, the people revolted and executed me fairly close to the end. And that taught me a lot about what I needed to do to actually survive. My second playthrough, I took the lessons I learned from my first and did complete the game. However, with only a couple in-game hours left, my generator still failed despite my planning and I barely limped across the proverbial finish line. I was so relieved and happy to have beat the scenario but I also couldn't believe how tense and uncertain it was, lol.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3363912610

And those kinds of visceral moments and experiences is really what makes this game special. Additionally, something I never really do IRL is lose track of time, and yet while playing Frostpunk, as I was wrapping up a playthrough, I'd look up and realize it was 4 AM and I needed to be up at 7, lol. That's what this game can do to you. It's been out for over six years now, so it's a safe bet you have at least heard of it, and it may very well be languishing in your library. Play it. It's one of those games that deserves to be experienced by as many people as possible.

The quintessential survival citybuilder

Reasons to play:

• The frost and low steampunk aesthetic
  
• The thrill of survival and exploration
  
• Original citybuilding
  
• The victorian dystopia setting
  
• Multifaceted human struggles
  
• Societal discourse
  
• Simple yet difficult
  
• Well put together visuals
  
• All-time great soundtrack

Negatives:

• More puzzle than creative freedom
  
• No high replay value
  
• Snowballs if you screw up

It will have your full attention if you let it

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Frostpunk is a game I didn’t think I would get into as much as I did, but as the product balances an easily understood system with harsh countermeasures; it is an unforgiving ordeal that is quick to pick up. I put in 6 hours the first day of play, and that is not something to scoff at as I nowadays more often than not give games 30 minutes before treading back to mind numbing repetition of already played titles. Frostpunk did something with me that I have not experienced since I was a kid. That feeling of obsession. That ungainly nerdiness that deletes time and space. I was supposed to go to work in the morning but there I was transfixed by this strange thrill of city building? This is not a pool of genre I often dip my toes in, yet there is an uncanny familiarity. A long gone time of flash games, turn-based fantasy and civ/sim games. Frostpunk is more than a city builder, it is a challenge.

Not only a challenge in difficulty, but a grandiose challenge of humanity contra practicality, complete with all the bells and whistles to subvert you from seeing its inner workings. A puzzle game with more pieces than the puzzle needs to be finished. But all the while I have always thought of puzzles as a bore so how is it possible that I could sink so many hours into it, with a thirst for more. The theming and story got me hook, line and sinker.

You operate as the leader of a newly founded city in the dystopian icy ridges of a late 19th century Britain, where steam and coal power is key and your people (work force) clamor in famine and frostbite. It is an unforgiving setting where every speck of snow and your frosted up vignette instill a sense of respect and fear. There will be death, there will be uprising and in between the meticulous city building and resource management there will be mystery and exploration, politicking spliced with monotheism, fascism and class war. The world of Frostpunk is a grim canvas of the helpless state of humanity and the implosion of the environment. Will this new world order even have room for humankind or will the ice age erase our memory and subtract our very culture. The nightmarish setting choice of a victorian apocalypse has never been this good.

The crux of the game is at its core rapid expansion of the circular city and resource gain, paired with story beats that will help you or sap you (most likely absolutely obliterate you). You will have to balance the hope and discontent of the citizens while keeping a watchful eye on the heat level. Sickness and death will plague you while you scavenge for food and coal, making you wary of overworking but frantic for stockpiling. There are several scenarios to choose from in the main menu with an applicable difficulty setting. Although the main campaign is the one with the biggest scope and hoorah, the others serve their purpose quite well with some exciting curveballs and variation, but they will never come close to the initial playthrough of the mainline. That is an experience to be had!

As you open the game you are at once greeted by a beautiful soundtrack that wholly encapsulates the tragedy of man that is about to play out before you. The devastating frugal violin and subtle horror glissandos that is soon joined by an aristocratic quartet. The industrial stoicism that progress the track with staccato, brass and urgency. In no other soundtrack have I found such a diegetic delivery that tells you of the world while coinciding with it. It tells you of nationalism, technological advancements, the environmental collapse, power play, melancholy yet industriousness, time and setting. It tells you what beauty is and what trepidation that lies within it, but most importantly it tells you that the city MUST NOT FALL… and it chills you to the bone as if the northern wind has taken a hold of your room. At least Frostpunk has taken a hold of me.


9/10

Решила, что нельзя начинать играть во Frostpunk 2, не пройдя первой части. И божечки... Какой же вагон эмоций получила! Геймплей крайне захватывающий, переживаешь за каждого жителя своего поселения как за родного. Музыка выводит атмосферу на другой уровень. В общем и целом: рекомендую Frostpunk к прохождению абсолютно каждому!