Now the last DLC has come out, I thought I would give this a review. Frostpunk is a city management game with a slight difference. It has event chains which mostly relate to keeping one section of your people happy at the expense of another. Its also a "tough as nails" experience where most people can expect to lose at first if they had not looked up or watched someone else play and went into it truly blind (similar to games like Banished, Dawn of Man, Dwarf Fortress - but a very different style of game). The heat mechanic has an obvious solution, but as you get more experienced other options come available. And this is what makes this game fun, there is definitely an expected experience, the tech tree, buildings and event options is designed to lead you to a certain path but there is often alternatives available, some likely not intentional (no generator runs, for example).

I think on the most part, most Frostpunk players thoroughly enjoy the experience and Frostpunk is a great game. One thing to note however is that feeling that you just want a little more... a little more options in the game, a little more variation, mod support (virtually confirmed as never coming), some extra use to the buildings you get in endless mode, etc.

Frostpunk was made in their own engine, and that is great, its actually nice to see someone use their own stuff for once. DLC has had long waits inbetween, and I think its been purely down to however they have programmed the maps. Although never said openly, it does feel that their map engine has properly screwed them over and created long development times for new material, perhaps because they never thought they would get this far and people would want it to keep going. I'm not entirely convinced that event chains are handled efficiently either, as they have regularly talked about mod support as something that would be too hard or even impossible to add. Adding mod support or changing the way an engine works late in a project is definitely difficult, and for small time bedroom developers like me its extremely time consuming - but for a paid company with quite a lot of success and support, you'd think they would have the ability to do so.

And I think that marks many of our frustrations as players, Frostpunk is not only an amazing concept, but one we can fully delve into and a world we want to explore in more detail than 11 bit studios can handle. A lot of this seems to be the way they coded the game, and there has been plenty of hints there will be a sequel of some kind (and not just the mobile game!) - my hope is that they will learn from this mistake and develop a much more fluid system that not only has mod support, but also makes the job of adding expansions for themselves a lot easier.

Finally, I would suggest buying the whole game as a bundle, the DLC are ok, but they are not fully engaging on their own, and some players have been disappointed with the small level of content of each. If you had to only buy the base game and one DLC, go for The Last Autumn.

Don't be disheartened by the hard talk in this review, Frostpunk is a great game and definitely one worth playing, if its not on a "100 games before you die" list, it needs to be.

Now the last DLC has come out, I thought I would give this a review. Frostpunk is a city management game with a slight difference. It has event chains which mostly relate to keeping one section of your people happy at the expense of another. Its also a "tough as nails" experience where most people can expect to lose at first if they had not looked up or watched someone else play and went into it truly blind (similar to games like Banished, Dawn of Man, Dwarf Fortress - but a very different style of game). The heat mechanic has an obvious solution, but as you get more experienced other options come available. And this is what makes this game fun, there is definitely an expected experience, the tech tree, buildings and event options is designed to lead you to a certain path but there is often alternatives available, some likely not intentional (no generator runs, for example). I think on the most part, most Frostpunk players thoroughly enjoy the experience and Frostpunk is a great game. One thing to note however is that feeling that you just want a little more... a little more options in the game, a little more variation, mod support (virtually confirmed as never coming), some extra use to the buildings you get in endless mode, etc. Frostpunk was made in their own engine, and that is great, its actually nice to see someone use their own stuff for once. DLC has had long waits inbetween, and I think its been purely down to however they have programmed the maps. Although never said openly, it does feel that their map engine has properly screwed them over and created long development times for new material, perhaps because they never thought they would get this far and people would want it to keep going. I'm not entirely convinced that event chains are handled efficiently either, as they have regularly talked about mod support as something that would be too hard or even impossible to add. Adding mod support or changing the way an engine works late in a project is definitely difficult, and for small time bedroom developers like me its extremely time consuming - but for a paid company with quite a lot of success and support, you'd think they would have the ability to do so. And I think that marks many of our frustrations as players, Frostpunk is not only an amazing concept, but one we can fully delve into and a world we want to explore in more detail than 11 bit studios can handle. A lot of this seems to be the way they coded the game, and there has been plenty of hints there will be a sequel of some kind (and not just the mobile game!) - my hope is that they will learn from this mistake and develop a much more fluid system that not only has mod support, but also makes the job of adding expansions for themselves a lot easier. Finally, I would suggest buying the whole game as a bundle, the DLC are ok, but they are not fully engaging on their own, and some players have been disappointed with the small level of content of each. If you had to only buy the base game and one DLC, go for The Last Autumn. Don't be disheartened by the hard talk in this review, Frostpunk is a great game and definitely one worth playing, if its not on a "100 games before you die" list, it needs to be.