Frostpunk: Game of the Year Edition

This would get a 5/5 if not for two, glaring negatives: 1. 11 bit promised from the very beginning that all of Frostpunk's DLC's (God, I miss expansion packs) would be free... and then proceeded to go back on their word. 2. The Last Autumn sucks the fun out of the formula, and adds tediousness and linearity of gameplay in its place (on pain of guaranteed failure if you 'dare' to deviate from the 'correct', prescribed stratagem). The base game is harsh and unforgiving: you'll have to plan out your strategy before you make any decisions, and the only effective way you can do that is by trial and error. It's great limited resource-management in a cruelly-unforgiving environment that forces you to prioritize your peoples' actions... with the potential for success or abysmal failure, though often, said failure won't be evident until later on in the game. A word of warning: there is no happy ending in the main campaigns. Well: not 'truly' happy, but not even bitter sweet: just... depressing. I honestly had to uninstall it for that very reason, but I would still recommend it... just not with The Last Autumn included.

I don't normally review/recommend games but this game, this game... If you like to micro manage stuff and actually feel like your decisions have consequence this is for you. When you complete the objective it feels so satisfying, but when you fail it can get quite distressing, to the point where your heart sinks and 8hrs later you're still playing because its just that damn good. The season pass/dlc has now been released in full, which from what I've played really mixes things up. I can't recommend this game enough.

I love that game so much. I literally bought a new PC to play it because my old one lagged too much. It's so good to finally see some new good management game. If that's your jam play it! It's a must.

Finally got to play this game at Xmas having been gifted it, and it looks great at 1920x1200 (native on my monitor) but with the rest of the settings set to medium, despite a nowadays modest i5-2500 and gtx 750ti. I'm getting a very smooth 45fps but because my gpu is just below spec I expect to drop to low settings as the city grows. This is much better builder than Surviving Mars: First Colony (see my review of it). And someone actually thought through a sensible enough tutorial integration for FrostPunk - not perfect, but miles better than Mars. This reminds me a little bit of Cliff Empire but set in Victorian times and with added societal choices. If I didn't already have it I still wouldn't pay £40 for the GOTY - maybe I would pay the £27 in the current sale, but I'm an old timer and normally wary of anything over £15. The last time I risked it (Surviving Mars, £18 in the sales) I thought it a total waste of dough. But FrostPunk wouldn't be.