With over 85,000 positive reviews alone Steam and more than three million sales, published on April 24, 2018 Society survival game Frostpunk as the Warsaw-based 11 bit Studios' most successful project to date. Almost four years after the release of their surprise hit, the Polish developer is now releasing a beta version of Frostpunk 2 online for all pre-orders.
We were able to play before the official start of the beta on April 15, 2024 and summarize for you the most important innovations and first impressions of the sandbox mode “Utopia Builder” presented there. Important information in advance: Although this is an endless mode, within the beta the playing time is limited to a total of 300 weeks on the “Windswept Peaks” map.
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Of the four victory conditions, only the “Colonization” variant was available, in which the long-term goals were to build a food, fuel and material colony and to conquer at least 50 territories in the Frostland.
Narratively, Frostpunk 2 begins 30 years after the events of the first part, more precisely on January 8, 1916. A small part of humanity managed to survive an apocalyptic cold snap and, despite all odds, built a heated city and made great sacrifices to keep going.
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This very enclave called New London, which you manage as stadtholder, will now continue to grow and reach unimagined dimensions with tens of thousands of inhabitants.
From building to district administration
In order to implement exactly this aspect in terms of game mechanics, in Frostpunk 2 you no longer primarily build individual buildings, but rather large districts of various categories, similar to what we know from many city building simulations. For example, if you need more accommodation for your growing population, then you have to build residential districts.
Extraction districts are responsible for extracting raw materials stored in the ground such as coal and icy wood, food districts ensure people's food supply and industrial districts produce everyday goods – provided there are enough raw materials.
Fifth in the league are the so-called logistics districts, which you can usually create on the outskirts of the city. Here the population puts together so-called Frostlanding teams in order to then explore the icy territory outside of New London.
Source: plasma agency
Existing districts can also be expanded, further improving their performance and providing special building slots for upgrades. For example, if you place an organic waste greenhouse in a food district, you will receive a decent bonus in food production.
If you equip an extraction district with a mine shaft, you optimize coal production. If you build a hospital in a residential district, your citizens can be cured of illnesses there and so on and so forth.
Well done: Thanks to numerous tooltips, it is always immediately clear what a building improvement does, how it affects the heat consumption of your city and which construction requirements must be met.
At the start of the game, however, the sectors around the existing city center are still covered by thick layers of ice. In order to make them economically usable, you first have to send out huge excavators, which then carry out so-called frostbreaking, i.e. tearing open the ice layers over a large area.
Disadvantage: Each Frostbreaking action requires at least 300 workers and 40 so-called heat stamps – a currency introduced specifically for Frostpunk 2, which is also required for setting up districts and buildings as well as for numerous in-game actions. Heat Stamps are produced by satisfying the demand for goods in your city. But certain laws and technological advances can also boost the heat stamp output of your growing metropolis.