Frostpunk Review (Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 & PC)

I have never felt more incompetent in all my life, yet, for some reason, I can’t help but feel that I have a lot more to prove as the governor of an icy citadel that is, quite frankly, about as close to finding warmth as I am to losing the final hairs on my scalp. It seems that, if I make so much as a single mistake, the whole colony knows about it. Unfortunately, this isn’t a job for the weak; it’s a role that brings you that much closer to boiling point. And if you don’t have what it takes to make a change in a world that quite simply despises you, then you have little choice but to face your fears and accept banishment. Sadly, the odds of that taking place within the first fifteen minutes are extremely high. But hey — welcome to Frostpunk, a world where nobody survives the winter.

Frostpunk is arguably one of the most brutal city-building games of all time. And I don’t mean that as in, oh, it’s a bit of a tough cookie to crack, but that it is, in all honesty, a game that bathes in your failures and loathes progression. But that’s sort of what this game is: a painfully taxing sandbox game that doesn’t just ask you to build a colony, but to also bend over backwards to secure warmth, safety, and a place for freezing citizens to call home between ravenous storms. And, here’s the best part: it doesn’t guide you through the motions and let you breeze over the first hurdle; it slaps you with a hundred problems, and then tells you that there’s a storm en route to your citadel. The bad news? If you don’t find a foothold in ten minutes or less, then the citizens will banish you and kindly remind you that, in spite of all your best efforts, you are a piece of human garbage. Game over, basically.

Like a lot of relentless sandbox games on the market, Frostpunk is very much a game that you’ll either learn to love through tireless practice, or immediately hate and uninstall within the first twenty minutes. There is, of course, a lot of fun to be had during the latter stages of the building process I’ll admit. Sadly, it’s building up the patience to overcome the initial summit, that’s the problem. If you can tackle that, then you might just find a pleasantly enjoyable experience here. Well, it’s probably best to take that with a huge pinch of salt, to be honest.

It all begins with the icy crater in a world that, sadly, stands on the brink of ruin. As the newly appointed governor in this desperate nation, you have citizens, workshops, and a plethora of survival programs to keep tabs on in order to meet demands. Aside from the general need to expand your colony, you also have to deal with frequent storms, hunger, icy weather conditions, and, above all, citizens who have an awful habit of presenting you with ultimatums that can either make or break your governorship. And that’s barely scratching the tip of the iceberg — literally.

Ad I said, Frostpunk isn’t a game that holds your hand and gives you the odd word of warning to help you find your way. No, if anything, it does all in its power to provide you with as many hurdles as possible, not to test your mettle as a governor, but to keep you on your toes as you rewind hundreds of times over in an effort to find that “perfect” soliton for everyone’s problems. The annoying part here is that, while the game does offer you a couple of breadcrumbs to help you understand the basics, at no point does it dial it down to ensure that you, you know, survive the economic crisis. And if you think that sounds a little too extreme, well, that’s because it is. Yet, people still play Dark Souls and Nioh. Go figure.

While the initial sequences of Frostpunk can feel incredibly overbearing and somewhat unfair, there is a silver lining to it all. See, once you begin to master the basics and learn what it means to be the curator of icy legacies, the game does become a lot of fun to snowball through. It’s painfully difficult to defuse, true, but it also ensures that you have a lot of great features to unlock as you gradually advance through the wintry months. For instance, you have hundreds of building combinations, citadel layers, work tasks, moral dilemmas, and synergies to explore, all of which evolve as you carve your name out in the icy throne. Is it worth it? Absolutely. Though, to be clear, it isn’t a game that’s for the feint of heart. Frankly, it’ll make your blood boil and the hairs on your chest ice over — but that’s all part of the fun. Right?

Verdict

Frostpunk deserves its spot on the icy throne as a true force of evil among city-building sandbox properties, not because it’s a ruthlessly cruel experience, but because it loves to push you to your limits and make you freeze to death under your own governorship. That being said, it does offer a silver lining, of sorts—a ray of light between wall-to-wall ravenous storms, mainly in the form of satisfying milestones and brief spells of evolution. Granted, it doesn’t make a habit of making you feel good, but it does make an effort to pat you on the back when you perform a miracle. For the most part, though, you are not God; you are an incompetent idiot who has no experience whatsoever. Or, maybe that was just my experience, anyway.

Let it be said that, if you are looking to carve through the icy waters of a barbaric citadel and test your skills as a curator of lost souls, then you might just find exactly what you’re looking for in Frostpunk. Be warned, though — it isn’t a game that will make you feel all warm inside. And yes, that was a terrible pun.