As in title - the premise, setting and the mechanics of the game are well made and would potentially have led to a great survival strategy game with endless hours of enjoyment. Unfortunately, the game just feels unfinished and more like a demo than a full fledged game. The entire campaign consists of four missions (which for some reason are called "campaigns themselves", but I would give the developers the benefit of the doubt and put this down to a missed translation rather than deliberate attempt to mislead the player), and you get "endless mode" which is exactly as it sounds - build your survival city without time limits or a 'win' condition. Now while chances are you will likely fail each mission a few times if you have just picked up the game, it still doesn't change the sheer lack of content of the game. This would normally not be an issue - especially when you consider the unfortunate state of 'early access' norm and the state of the gaming industry compared to a decade or so ago - but rather than improving, or even sticking to status quo, Frostpunk is only further lowering the bar in seeing how much more gamers can take. To clarify my point - take 'They are Billions' as a comparison - which is another steam-punky strategy city building survival game. Same four missions with the "sandbox" mode, then the game included a map editor which provided hundreds of hours of workshop content in the form of campaigns, minigames and completely altered scenario concepts, then they released a campaign - which arguably could have been done better - is solid 30-40 hours worth of gameplay at least. And that in itself is pretty light for a game when compared to anything in the genre released half a decade ago. Frostpunk on the other hand, is already attempting to pass another mission as "DLC" despite falling miserably short of what could be considered a full product. It's fun, it's a good game, but it's just not worth the money for how little you get.
The game is great, if you have half an hour or so to kill here and there. Good graphics for an oldie, good choice of equipment and characters, and each offers unique playstyle. Combat is fast paced, as expected, and I can see how a lot of people would be pleasantly surprised by this game. The thing that really kills it for me, is how much potential this game could have had if multiplayer was included. No need for servers or anything fancy - a simple peer to peer connection would have made this game infinitely better, as it feels like something you would really be able to enjoy with a few friends. The other thing is there seems to be a lack of proper hardcore or epic boss fights - which again would compliment this game. Add these two things and you have an immensely fun gem of a game. Would give 3.5 stars, but can only chose between 3 and 4 - and while this is definitely a better game than a good portion of AAA crap that's thrown at us nowadays, and I recommend everyone tries it, I just don't see - after the initial couple of hours - many playing it for any extended periods of time. maybe booting it up once every few months or so for an hour here and there.
