Frostpunk review

Reviewed on: PC

Welcome stranger! No beating around the bush, today we’re talking about the RTS that moved me, something that hasn’t happened since the first time I got my hands on Age of Empires 2. We’ll talk about Frostpunk, a masterpiece from 11 bit Studios. A studio that arrived gradually and took over the minds of many players, especially older ones, by following a raw, heavy and realistic theme.

11 bit Studios is a Polish studio that surprised us with its previous title This War of Mine, a game that tells the horrors of war through 3 survivors trying to stay alive, a heavy, impactful theme. A factor that was used magnificently in Frostpunk. A visceral game that isn’t for every audience, but is a masterpiece for its impact and for breaking away from the same old thing.

FROSTPUNK

During the industrial age the world got rid of humans, not the way we’re doing it with heat and carbon, but with cold and lots of ice. A new ice age caught humanity unprepared and wiped everything out. The opening is sensational and shows the impact and how humans are not prepared to withstand the planet and its changes.

The game begins when a few manage to flee North, after the last furnace, the last source of heat for humans to survive, creating around it a city that must survive. And you’ll have the difficult mission of leading that city.

Forget the usual RTS (real-time strategy) games where you prosper, dominate, kill and succeed. Here the talk is far less romantic and more real. There aren’t resources for everyone to survive fully; managing resources is a condition that borders on the inhuman, not everyone can keep warm, not everyone can eat well and in the end, you will be the one who has to make that hard choice.

Saving some, abandoning the sick and exhausted, prioritizing the upkeep of the city over the comfort and well-being of some citizens, the choices are cruel and border on two lines of control, one through faith and the other through order.

GAMEPLAY

The city must survive, and the essential thing for that is keeping it warm; the coal around the city is one of the most valuable and necessary resources, along with wood and iron. All essential to develop technologies and techniques for the survival of the city and its population, a factor that will often come into friction, it will be inevitable.

Buildings are all placed in relation to the heat emitted by the furnace, since distant buildings won’t be heated and all their functions will suffer, leading to loss of technology, resources and even lives. Building and devising a proper way of heating is one of the keys to surviving in this icy chaos.

Besides the geography of the environment you’ll have to be a political leader of your people, taking care of the city’s laws and assignments. Harsh conditions and extreme needs lead to difficult choices, conditions that bring the game to a very high realism, dropping that simplistic good-and-evil talk; here you’ll have to prioritize factors and the consequences will be heavy and terrible.

SOUND

The game’s atmosphere is very good, the mood of loneliness and hopelessness is catalyzed by the music with its heavy, even simple but functional melody, as it should be in this game. The sound effects are very well crafted and help immersion; when you open each building, the ambient audio helps you focus on the endeavor with its sounds. The movement of the city’s units is exquisite, an RTS you play by listening.

VERDICT

Forget easy solutions and playing in your comfort zone; Frostpunk is a game with a serious theme that will mess with your head, especially if you’re up for a serious and challenging experience, because the harsh choices here will decide a future (or not) for humanity’s last city.

SCORE

Narrative: 10

Mechanics: 10

Audiovisual: 10

FINAL SCORE: 10