City building survival game Frostpunk 2 will put settlers in the same dangerous conditions as in the first game – in an Ice Age period where the environment is becoming increasingly dire. But according to a new gameplay trailer, it looks like it will surpass the original game’s unforgiving, dystopian conditions. The sequel is scheduled to launch on PC sometime in the first half of 2024 and will appear on Game Pass.
In Frostpunk, you run a settler town in a town near London during the Industrial Revolution while surviving a catastrophic environmental event. Ice storms have devastated most of humanity; They must find a way to keep the generators for heat while assigning workers and making constant compromises to feed, house and, most importantly, keep people alive. The game’s motto was “The city must survive” – its citizens believe they are among the last people alive, and if you let the generator die, you will freeze to death.
Frostpunk 2, set 30 years after the original, takes these ideas and continues them – the city has endured so long, the motto is now “The city must not fall.” It looks like each of the original game’s core ideas would have experienced a new dimension. The top-down design of the city is equally vibrant and picturesque. However, the gameplay trailer reveals more sophisticated UI features in the building layout, including what appear to be design elements related to new heating technologies. When Frostpunk 2 was first announced in 2021, the announcement trailer noted that generator technology had evolved to run on oil – but these upgrades would come at a price.
In Frostpunk 2, players must master political conflicts and worker rebellions. It seems that workers now have the opportunity to fight back against the decisions of the steward – that’s you as a player – by saying no to things. The gameplay trailer shows the interior of a community center where workers vote on equal pay. The trailer also features several narrative flashpoint moments in which citizens ask about specific things or voice specific complaints: At one point, a miner named Ian Mactavish shouts, “Where are the houses you promised?”
That might honestly be the most frightening thing this sequel promises: giving faces and names to working people. The original game basically gave you no good choices: you force people to work 18 hours, feed them sawdust, and try to figure out whether militarism or religion is the best way to enforce compliance. It looks like you’ll have to deal with the brutal consequences of your decisions in the sequel.
