Frostpunk is in gameplay and systems a city-building RTS in the vein of civilization, Tropico, and SimCity. It borrows from all of these in different ways and adds its own spin to gameplay and narrative that add value for the player in a tangible way. However, much like 11 Bit studio’s last critically acclaimed outing: This War of Mine, FrostPunk’s departures from expected civilization-building structure both helps and hinders it. This makes for a great expereince for new and returning players but perhaps not a perfect fit for hardcore RTS players in search of a title to sink hundreds of hours into.
11 Bit’s strength in world-building shines through in FrostPunk as much, if not more, than This War of Mine. Their ability to add narrative flavor is their strength and they play to it. From characters who trudge soberly through the snow to hauntingly melancholy faces of the children that represent the policy of child labor in the law tree, which each passing turn FrostPunk impresses upon the player the responsibility of pulling their society up by its bootstraps and out of the snow.
It’s not just the art direction or the setting of the game, but a world that 11 Bit has crafted what feels like a barren hopeless waste. After only an hour or so of playtime, you’ll unlock the ability to send scouts into the unknown in search of survivors to join your colony. In time, they’ll return with supplies, companions, and information about the surrounding area: potential secrets to find or tidbits of the narrative.
As your city grows, so does your ability to send out more and more scouts. This leads to more discovery about the outside world and the people you’re trying to save. It’s this gameplay loop of survive, scout, discover that keeps the story of FrostPunk progressing and introduces new gameplay challenges; as the game progresses, the world gets colder demanding more and more resources just to keep the heat on.
All of this leads to a great RTS game that’s a bit different than your usual city-building title. But, how does it play on consoles? We’ll the answer is: pretty good. If you’ve played FrostPunk on PC already you can expect a smooth experience with solid visuals. The controls work well about 80% of the time but do have some tricky maneuvers to perform here or there.
If you haven’t played FrostPunk before then I wholeheartedly recommend it. Not only for those who like RTS or City-building games but also for those that like deeply engrossing worlds with compelling narratives. If you can play it on a top-end PC then you should undoubtedly play it there, but if playing on a console is your only choice then by all means pick up a controller. It’ll take a bit to get acclimated to the controls, but a small learning curve shouldn’t keep anyone from enjoying 11 Bits latest hit.
As always,
A big thanks to the publisher for the review code.