Frostpunk initially released on PC back in April 2018 to huge critical and consumer praise. The game is set in an alternate timeline where the world never managed to recover from the volcano eruption in Krakatoa back in 1883. Temperatures continued to fall and as they did so the residents of London who were left alive decided to flee north to build a new city. The last city on earth.
So you set up shop in the middle of nowhere around a massive furnace. The first order of business is to mine coal to fuel the furnace and stop your people from freezing to death. Once that initial red alert has subsided you can begin expanding out and collecting wood and metal. This will be used to build the essentials; tents, a hunting hut, a cookhouse and a medical post.
Frostpunk very much relies on resource management. You decide how many people are collecting materials and working in the various facilities. The more people you have in one particular role, the higher the output. You can stockpile resources as well but something I found out very quickly is just when you think you have plenty of reserves in a certain material (in my case coal) and transfer focus onto something else, you will run dry on whatever you shifted focus off of in a hurry.
Because of this finding a good balance is key. This is one of Frostpunk’s real strengths. The game keeps you on your toes and you always have a small to-do list in order to keep things ticking over. This is highlighted by regular pleas from your people which often force you to implement one of the many laws you have access to. Short on food? Pass a law that instructs the cooks to add sawdust to meals making them appear more filling.
All of these decisions, coupled together with the living conditions and general warmth of your people feeds into two meters you have along the bottom of the screen. Hope and Discontent. Lose all hope or reach maximum discontent and your time leading the pack will come to an abrupt end. Each scenario provides different obstacles for you to overcome, often times making you claw one of the meters back from the brink.
The graphics are good, yet nothing spectacular. You can’t zoom in as far as you can in other games of a similar ilk, but this is often a novelty feature anyway. Frame rate is steady and during my 20+ hours with the game I noticed no performance issues. When building your city you start at the furnace and build out in a circle. Everything is built on a spherical grid which instantly gives it a unique look and while I was not sold on the idea at first it really grew on me as the game progressed.
Later in to the game you will be able to research better, more efficient ways of gathering and using resources which up the ante. You also gain access to more facilities and can send search teams to remote locations looking for survivors and materials. There really is a lot under the hood with Frostpunk and having Google open to assist you on your journey isn’t the worst idea.
In terms of trophies Frostpunk may be one of the most difficult platinums on the entire PlayStation 4. Keeping in mind that easy difficulty provides a decent challenge, you are tasked with the likes of finishing an entire playthrough without building a tent and surviving 100 days of endurance mode on extreme difficulty. Both of those by the way are only bronze trophies! I will honestly be surprised if anyone ever manages the platinum.
Overall Frostpunk is an excellent city builder with real, meaningful decisions that need to be made on a regular basis. It is tough, unforgiving and at times cruel, but that is what makes it so rewarding. Sometimes PC ports of games that used a mouse and keyboard don’t transition well, but Frostpunk has made the move seamlessly. I have no hesitation in recommending this to any fan of the genre. It has a great price point and you will not be disappointed.
Terry
A review copy was provided by the publisher. Reviewed on PS4 Slim.
