Expert rating
Benefits
- A challenging social survival game
- Exciting story mode
- Replayable Utopia mode
Disadvantages
- Complex game mechanics
- Requires a simpler tutorial for beginners
- Does not work on Intel Macs
Our Verdict
It's more demanding than a conventional strategy game, but this board survival game will present a rewarding challenge for “stewards” who wish to guide their snowy dystopia through the trials of a new ice age.
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The original Frost Punk was a surprise success when it launched a few years ago, largely because it took a different approach to most conventional strategy games. In fact, developers 11bit Studios call it more of a “board survival game.” Rather than pitting you against rival armies, Frost Punk tells the story of an alternate 19th century world plunged into a new ice age by a massive global blizzard called the Great Freeze. Instead of facing an enemy army, the game challenges you to fight mother nature herself, battling blizzards to find food and fuel for the last survivors and establishing a home in a town called New London .
For more Mac games recommended by us, read: Best Games for Mac.
Frost Punk 2 takes place 30 years later, when New London has grown considerably. As “steward” of the city, your task is to find new sources of food and fuel for the growing population. There are other threats too, as the restive population struggles with hunger, crime and factional rivalries. And of course, there is the ever-constant threat of a snowy “whiteout” that can hit New London at any time.
Like its predecessor, Frost Punk 2 is a fairly challenging game, even for people who have played strategy games before and are used to the standard techniques of managing resources and developing new weapons and technologies. This sequel features a prologue that introduces new players to the story and also serves as a tutorial in which you struggle through the icy “frozen lands” to reach a wrecked train and recover its resources.
However, even the most basic tasks, like gathering resources, can be quite complex. Rather than simply chopping wood or collecting metal and other components, as you might do in a regular strategy game, you must first “frost-break” a path, making your way through the rocky terrain to reach the overturned train cars. You then need to build an “Extraction Quarter” – a small factory – capable of retrieving supplies from the train, followed by living quarters for your workers and food quarters to keep them fit and healthy.
This means that Frost Punk 2 is a bit more abstract than its predecessor, as the Steward has to step back and take a bigger picture of the structure of this society, rather than just rolling up his sleeves and digging up coal. However, the scale of New London and its complex society provide a rich tapestry to the story that unfolds under your guidance.
The main campaign features several difficulty levels in which you can adjust economic conditions, such as food and fuel shortages. You can also change the weather, choosing the frequency and severity of white storms, and even adjust social factors, such as crime levels and political unrest, to maintain the city's “zeitgeist.” There are also rival factions within the city, whose demands and goals must be managed, such as the Icebloods who believe that only the strong can survive in the winter wastes, and the Machinists who prefer to rely on technology to keep people safe and warm. .
Once you've completed the main game, there's also an “endless” Utopia mode that lets you start a new city by choosing from a variety of locations, with different terrain and weather conditions. The game also looks great, with spectacular, imposing 3D graphics that look like Blade Runner with added snow. You can zoom out to get a glimpse of the winter landscape, or zoom in to explore city neighborhoods in more detail. The game only runs on Macs with Apple Silicon, but it ran at a smooth 45 frames per second using medium graphics settings on my MacBook Pro with an M2 Pro chip. An M1 might struggle a bit, but you should be able to adjust the graphics settings on a base M2 processor if you need to.
Frost Punk 2 is available on Steam and the Mac App Store, but the Steam version of the game is slightly cheaper, and Steam also offers a Deluxe Edition that includes additional DLC if you want to continue the story.
Should you buy Frost Punk 2?
The Frost Punk games are not as accessible as strategy games such as the Civilization series, focusing as the developers say on “society survival” mechanics, rather than simply building a large army to overwhelm the forces of your opponent. But the challenge of balancing all the demands of this complex dystopia will appeal to many people, and it's a game you can continue playing long after the main story ends.
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