as many said and even as the game says itself, its not about a small settlement but a city-state you manage. its horribly grim dark, the authors know a lot about dystopian stories, history and poltitics and its well woven into the game.
I read many discussing that it has nothing to do with Frostpunk 1 and i must agree, it is a sequel in a way that does not mean "same game with different tileset and story" but in "What happens after FP1?" I hope they improve the User Interface including more autopause options, alerts and clearer science trees as well as to make frostbreaking of smaller areas possible when im short on money, maybe with some penalty. but so far im happy.
First of all: If you have a bad eyesight like me you will have problems with the SMALL FONTS in many game elements. Even after lots of new (partially free) content and many requests, the font size is still not scaleable. It also does not get bigger if you use a smaller resolution, oh no my friend: you get even tinier blurry letters! On my slow laptop in 720P its not playable so the review is only for my PC with big screen and 1080P which i can move closer to read, if needed. Unlike "Dark Souly" hardcore frustration games that are proud to make you lose and restart the whole game if you made one randomly wrong decision, you can still go on and learn from it. Sometimes you can manage it, else you can curse and reload a savegame. The start is the hardest part, but also the fastest to repeat. The game lives from the harsh athmosphere. You will need to live with losses. In my experience this is the way the game feels best, to be part of that joyful town. Only play "easy" to get a feel for the game mechanics. Why? Else the game is short, not because the devs were lazy but because if you can do what you want and everyone is still warm, well fed and not on a rampage you will soon have built and researched everything and miss the whole point of an apocalyptic strategy game where living with limitations is a key element. If you consider this you get a nice game with a medium length, great story/feeling unlike Anno or Settlers. Graphics are nice but will require a real PC so dont consider this game for a business laptop with iGPU. The Winterholm scenario is exceptionally hard. Be advised. The Last Autumn Scenario had a bug with stuck expeditions which needed reloading an older savegame, but was great and with new game mechanics. So if you get all DLCs in a sale: Do it.
I have to agree that in the long time perspective the game gets boring. BUT: It was a nice buy , ,its something completely different from other standard games, it had trains (always a plus for me!) and the totally isolated athmosphere in that locomotive with the four time phases that determine what you do. This feeling is something you dont experience quite often in other games. Yet anyone in a commanding or management job will realize that thats the way things work in real life, too. I would love to see more games like these, especially mixed with classics like Transarctica.
Nice adventure with an interesting serious story that has become real now, almost. Wiretapping internet? Yup. Getting raided because your movents follow a pattern ... check! ... Not so many surprises in today's reality compared to when the game came out. 4/5 stars because something innovative was missing compared to the Deponia series for example. But definitely worth it.
