Metropolis-building survival recreation Frostpunk 2 will put settlers in the identical perilous circumstances as the primary recreation — in a time of ice age, the place the surroundings turns into bleaker and bleaker. However, based on a brand new gameplay trailer, it appears like it would up the ante from the unique recreation’s unforgiving, dystopian circumstances. The sequel is slated to come back out someday within the first half of 2024 on PC, and can debut on Recreation Cross.
In Frostpunk, you handle a metropolis of settlers in a city close to London in the course of the industrial revolution, weathering a cataclysmic environmental occasion. Ice storms have ravaged most of humanity; you should discover a option to preserve the turbines for warmth, whereas assigning staff and making fixed tradeoffs with the intention to preserve individuals fed, housed, and, most of all, alive. The sport’s motto was “Town should survive” — your residents consider they’re a few of the final dwelling people, and letting the generator die means freezing to loss of life.
Frostpunk 2, which is ready 30 years after the unique, takes these concepts and runs with them — town has lasted this lengthy, the motto is now “Town should not fall.” It appears as if every of the core conceits of the unique recreation obtained a glow-up. The highest-down design of town is simply as vivid and picturesque. However the gameplay trailer reveals extra subtle UI options within the constructing structure, together with what seem like design parts associated to new heating applied sciences. When Frostpunk 2 was first introduced in 2021, the announcement trailer famous generator expertise advanced to run on oil — however that these upgrades would come at a worth.
In Frostpunk 2, gamers should navigate political battle and employee rise up. It seems staff now have company to battle again towards the Steward’s — that’s you, the participant — decisions, within the type of voting issues down. The gameplay trailer exhibits the within of a civic constructing, during which staff vote on equal pay. The trailer additionally exhibits off a number of narrative flashpoint moments, the place residents ask for particular issues, or voice particular complaints: At one level, a miner named Ian Mactavish shouts “the place are the houses you’ve promised.”
That could be probably the most horrifying bit this sequel guarantees, actually — having the ability to put faces and names to the working inhabitants. The unique recreation gave you principally no good decisions: You’re forcing individuals to work 18 hours, feeding them sawdust, and trying to puzzle out whether or not militarism or faith is the easiest way to implement adherence. It appears like within the sequel, you’ll need to face the brutal penalties of your decisions.
