Frostpunk

Having played the goty version, GOG won't allow me to refine my initial review there, so I'll post it here. That original review was based more on the tutorial (very good) and graphics (great except I wish I could've disabled the actively shifting time-of day shadows enitrely because on the lowest setting I needed they looked too blocky). This review is more about content and gameplay. The story and level of situational detail here is very good. Even as a mature fan of sci-fi and history, I quickly bought into it all. There's also some mystery to keep you playing. The only issues with that side of things are there's only two main branching ways to play - religious zealot or uncaring autocrat, and the mystery is not very fleshed out. This means it's largely a one-dimensional story - the frost of course. Build around heat centres and get enough fuel & upgrades to survive the killing cold events. That in itself isn't a bad sci-fi story, and the Victorian time-setting is a nice twist, The trouble is it throws the main benefits of city builders out of the window - namely, relaxation and planning aesthetics. For even during the less cold times you can't relax because you're in a deadly race against time and you don't really know how well you're doing or how bad the next event will be, so you can never really take your foot off the pedal. The other problem is there's really only one way to build - as closely and efficiently packed as possible around very constricted heat centres. You can at least turn down the difficulty (severity of the frosts) to feel less pressured, and take in the novelty of the story, but that doesn't change the mechanics underneath which is that of a pretty limited city builder. Get it when on sale - it's well made, has a neat story, a proper tutorial and so is worth playing once. But it has low replayability (two main life choices) and lacks the underlying joys of city builder games.

I played this on a friends windows machine, really like the game and would like to purchase myself. But alas - no linux version. They did "surviving mars" on linux. Come on guys, make a linux version!

First I liked this game, but very soon I realized that it is very shallow. All 3 missions are short and absolutely linear, so there is no point to play them twice. The mechanics are not diverse enough - there is a clear best way to build the city. I expected more. In the good old times of Diablo and Baldur's Gate this game would be viewed as a demo version.

I liked the setting of the game and how it looked in a Let's Play, so I decided to buy it. As I started playing it I noticed that I did not know how to interact with the game properly and how the mechanics worked. I did not see a manual and the game did not introduce me into the mechanics. You have to find out where the ingame tips are and which you want to read and then how to transfer that to the game. So this is basically a learning by doing approach. Then I had to get used to the resource management which is pretty complex and intertwined: You have to balance coal, wood, steel, raw food, food rations with a finite number of workers which you have to keep warm and healthy and you have to handle morale while building the settlement. The technology tree is pretty wide: you can unlock new buildings, improve efficiencies unlock new technology tiers and have to think about short- and longterm goals. You also have lots of political choices that heavily influence morale and game mechanics. The first time you will likely fail pretty soon. The second and third time you may have found a way to survive the campaign. And then you will ask yourself if that was just a thrilling game or a psychological experiment. Was it really necessary to go that far? Or did the game just trick you into these choices? (ok just a couple more days to survive, morale is (looks?) really, really bad, do I sign this horrid, grave law that might give me just one more day of survival... whose survival? The people in the game or my own as their leader? Do I want to win that badly? YES - oppression for everyone, I am your god-sent master, bow to me or die!) So this is how it goes :-) Or maybe you find another solution. This made the game worth it's money. Some people feel disconnected to the people but this is a strategy game, not an RPG. Unless you want to test out all possible choices and technologies, the campaign ends after an evening of game time. But the included DLC provides more campaigns.

This game is great, I was on the edge of my seat wondering " what the h$ll do I do now to keep them alive" but then its over and I connot keep playing after the last storm!!!!! WTF. This game builds the climax up with such intensity and then boots you in the southern region at the end. I would give this game 20 stars with absolutely no hesitation if it wasn't for the short game play. I felt extremely butt hurt, as you can probably tell by this review. give us a open play world and ill pay double what the original price was.