Frostpunk

Zoom needed. Ive seen the city zoomed in before and it still looks good (relegious events zoomed in close) I dislike having to look from so far away as do many others that have noted this and complained to the devs. Good, atmposheric, survival city builder. I enjoyed it, just wish we could get more content and of course, ZOOM.

I've only played 2 scenarios so far, but they were pretty engaging. I must say, I was surprised at the difficulty level, which seemed to be fairly easy. The very first play-through I made terrible decisions all along, but still somehow beat the game despite running out of food, heating and 1/2 of my population. I would have preferred the game to be a bit more punishing for bad decisions, perhaps I should try a harder difficulty. Overall this goes on sale for $20 and below and I think it's worth every penny. Great art, cool tech tree, interesting decision making all make for a solid game.

The game perfectly captures the atmoshper it's set in. Everything you do will revolved around survival and moral choices for your survivor, which won't always feel right, but you know it has to be done, which really captures that feeling of desparation but with a tiny dash of hope. Art style is simply gorgeous, everything is so wonderfully designed- from the buildings to the world at weather effects. Every person has their name and description, which will make you feel like you're really among them and part of the struggle. All that combined makes for a very immersive experience. All that being said however, it feels that the game falls short after a few hours of gameplay. Survival gets harder due to cold, but it's always the same princaple- research heat/insulation, stock coal and survive the freezing wave. Soon you run out of unique challenges and the game becomes a little more boring. It's the same with the Book of laws, where there are 2 main trees (Adaptation and Purpose), it feels like those could use some expanding. Overall, I'd recommend playing it for the unique experience of the game itself

This game is very challenging but also very rewarding, I lose myself for hours into it, every step forward feels so smooth and well earned; it took me several failed attempts fo finally get going but it was totaly worth it.

Frostpunk nails presentation perfectly, and the narrative side of the game is pretty fun. The game pulls you in into its world and tries its best to keep you in. Some general gameplay loops are good (scouts and overarching story), while others are - or would be - fine, if the game was devoid of the city builder layer. Frostpunk is a really bad city builder, and if you're looking for your fix, you won't find it here. It's more of a "choose your story" type of adventure, where 99% of decisions and options presented to you equal to a Sierra style death sequence and restarting the main mission which effectively is the only campaign/scenario/mission there is in the base game. If you pick a "wrong" option, its game ending consequence will be only visible dozen minutes later in the game. To complete the game, you need to solve the puzzle the developers thought of, and if you guess one step wrong - tough luck, try again. This is to detriment of the city builder part of the game, because by default the gameplay should offer multiple different paths to success, not funnel you down a narrow game of guessing "do I press A or B now". The city builder layer is extremely basic and highly unsatisfactory on its own. Random events do give you short term goals, but sometimes a certain sequence of subsequent events will contradict each other or require to stretch your human resources too thin (so you need to ignore one to not lose completely). And this sequence can accumulate. If you guess wrong what the future requires from you - tough luck. The temperature management is cool at first, but quickly overstays its welcome, since it requires a ton of micromanagement and prioritizing certain research options first in certain (not telegraphed) moments. If you're looking for certain spin on visual novel with resource management, this can be highly enjoyable and recommendable. If you're looking for a classic building experience only - better avoid. It's not fun.