While Frostpunk was nerve wracking out of absence, its sequel is overwhelming out of abundance. The focus in the original game was survival, while the focus in its sequel is expansion. In Frostpunk, you were solely concerned with surviving the approaching cataclysmic winter; in Frostpunk 2, you must hold your city together as it rapidly develops, and your focus is on establishing a settlement that will survive for years to decades. Individual units and buildings have been replaced with districts that encompass what was once segmented in Frostpunk. For example, in its predecessor you would need to build extraction facilities for each type of resource. In Frostpunk 2, you simply have an Extraction District that can extract any kind of resource. Small huts that housed a few dozen at most have been expanded to have a capacity in the dozens at a base level. Frostpunk 2 does keep some of its original blood by letting you research Buildings that have similar functions as the structures from before, but these are simply placed onto Districts after you’ve expanded them. Each district can be expanded twice to fit two of these buildings, though it will require more tile space and a construction cost. The game also introduces a new type of resource, Goods, that represent luxury or common items your population desire. Without goods, your crime level continues to increase. With Goods comes a new type of building, Industrial Districts, and Food Districts round off the last necessity of your populace. Scouting plays a significantly more important role in this game with the introduction of Logistics Districts, as exploration is a mandatory and necessary thing if you wish to survive.

Frostpunk 2 also introduces an expansive new society system. No longer are you simply overseeing a ragtag group of survivors. In this New London, if you wish to survive, you must balance four different factions inside your society. While there are a half-dozen different combinations, in my playthrough there were two groups that leaned more towards religious tradition and mechanical engineering, while the other two leaned towards radicalism and adaptation to the cold through survivalism. Both sides had one radical faction that sought the advancement of their own goals and ideal utopia, and I had to be careful with what laws and research I performed. Laws are no longer just selections you unlock by choosing prior laws like in its predecessor, but must be passed by a council making up all four factions. In order to pass laws, you must have the Trust of each faction, and you can even negotiate with factions if they were going to vote against a law in exchange for researching something, voting on something in their agenda, or donating to them. If their Trust in you falls, you are likely to be ousted, and they will resist passing any laws you suggest. But as your Trust rises, they are more likely to support each law you bring forth; even laws that centralize and extend your powers as Steward.

Research is another part of Frostpunk that was greatly extended in its sequel. While in the past you simply had a tree of research you worked down, Frostpunk 2 introduces branching paths and differing ideas on how to confront the same problem. Each faction has its own opinion on how something should be approached, and they can occasionally agree on something (along their side of their aisle), but generally they will differ in the manpower cost, resource cost, or benefits of the research (such as reduced manpower, resource, or heating requirement). For example, the adaptation factions might throw 800 Workforce at a problem but only cost 160 Materials and 20 Heat, while the mechanical engineering factions might throw 600 Workforce at a problem but cost 200 Materials and require 40 Heat. Every choice you make, whether in law or research, influences the balance of factions and their relationship towards you, and that delicate balance has now become a part of the core gameplay loop.

Visually, the game is a massive step up in terms of having a unified and striking aesthetic, with its UI design and visuals embracing the sooty, pitch-black darkness of oil and machinery. It leans even harder into London steampunk aesthetics than the first game, and I think it is fantastic in its presentation. That said, some have found the UI too confusing or overwhelming at first, and I agreed at the start, but I quickly caught onto it after only 30 minutes or so of play. The sound design on the machinery and atmosphere is even better than before, and the music is incredible. The scale and size of the soundscape they’ve crafted far exceeds the original, and the beautiful work on the instrumentation really makes you feel captivated and obsessed in the (power) fantasy of this game.

But I don’t want to ignore the biggest criticism of this title. It’s not Frostpunk 2, it’s Frostpunk New. The sequel has taken a massive step in a different direction that has alienated a good portion of its original fans. Frostpunk 2 is a much less intimate experience that has more flavors of Grand Strategy, and I understand why people are disappointed. You can’t follow the lives of each individual worker and care for them. Moral dilemmas are weakened by the sheer size of your populace; how losing a few dozen in Frostpunk was a tragedy, but losing a few hundred in Frostpunk 2 is simply expected from a severe drop in temperature. To a lot of people who have played the new game, the abundance of workers, resources, and food meant there was no longer any pressure or any connection to the settlement they were managing. But, speaking personally… I didn’t mind it. The most enthralling part of Frostpunk to me wasn’t the connections, it was the feeling of survival. Being a fan of Grand Strategy and Tycoon games, I’m well-aware of the resource obsession and the dopamine rush of seeing your negative numbers turn positive. I fully respect why people dislike this game, and I believe their complaints are valid. But I also believe Frostpunk 2 is an almost perfect game to me, and I enjoyed every hour I spent with it as my city became a utopia.

That said, even I had some issues with it. The game has received some hotpatches after launch that fixed some previous issues, but many still remain. Performance in general leaves much to be desired, but performance in the mid- to late-game sections was paltry. Despite playing with Medium settings and using DLSS Quality, my RTX still struggled to keep 40FPS at 3440x1440 when the game was unpaused. Outside (or zoomed out) of the main city, and when the game is paused, I got a fairly solid 60FPS experience, but in my mind there is a lot more for them to do. The game also crashed a handful of times, and as the city grew each autosave or manual save would freeze the game for upwards of 15 seconds. Some UI issues also persist after patches, including issues with the camera drifting after clicking on a building or option, causing UI buttons to be nonfunctional or in the wrong place and opening the door to activating something you would really regret clicking.

Morally, the game is no saint. You are given the opportunity to enact some terrible laws, such as introducing alcoholism, opioids, Pleasure Clubs, and forced relationships. Children can be put to work and be killed by laws you pass, by crime, or civil wars, and citizens will frequently die if you do not take proper care of your city. There are some suggestive scenes implying or describing nudity, though it is not shown. There are depictions of violence and gore, such as bodies frozen in the cold, hung in the streets, or bleeding out after being stabbed. Some strong language is also present in dialogue. There are also frequent discussions and depictions of rioting and rebellion, and you can choose to enact a full dictatorship through the laws.

Overall, I felt that Frostpunk 2 was a worthy successor and a great game in its own right. It took the series in a logical next step while some people simply wanted more of the original, and that’s okay. But 11 bit chose to innovate, not iterate, and for once in the modern gaming scene I think that’s paid off. I believe DLCs will expand on its solid foundation, and that the other bugs and performance issues will be ironed out. I’d strongly recommend the game, though perhaps on sale or in a bundle with its inevitable expansions due to its 10-15 hour length for a playthrough and $45 asking price.