I turn off "smooth scrolling" everywhere I can in other apps because it's not smooth scrolling, but slow scrolling, which makes me obnoxious. This game takes it to another level that when I click on something, the camera actively pans away non-linearly. I have to chase the camera every time I want to do anything. I complained about that issue in the pre-launch access feedback form since I preordered the game, but that was Sep 2024 (it's May 2025 now). I haven't seen any change to address it at all. If you ask me, I don't think the UI designer played this game. Besides that, this game shouldn't be called Frostpunk. It took away the meaning of every decision in the first game. To me, it's all just political squabbles for the sake of having something to manage in the game. You don't interact with the city or its construction; you deal with factions and their never ending conflict.
I played the other 2 games by Jump Over the Age before and liked the stories. It was years ago, so some details are fuzzy, but I remember the game mechanic of In Other Waters feeling like a distraction from the story telling and the first Citizen Sleeper's story ending on a cliffhanger. This game does not continue the story of the previous one, but expands the world a bit by telling a different story. It feels whole on its own, both emotionally and story wise. The basic setting of the story should be familiar to any sci-fi fans, but the author's choices of story elements are intriguing and believable. I think it's a coherent combination of what-ifs and whys, and a fitting farewell to the series for the time being. Needless to say, the graphics and music are well done, adding a lot to the atmosphere.
If you've checked out some reviews on Steam, one major issue is the clunky UI. You can't rotate items or swap I/O ports. If all the storages are shared, that'll be less of an issue, but storages are limited by range. Judging from the lack of activity and the announcement of a new game on the official Discord server, the developer has moved on since March 2024. Steam workshop support was planned since at least Feb 2023, yet nothing has come out a year later. So I say if you are willing to accept an unfinished game, it's worth a try.
This review is not about the game. I didn't want to write a review, but every time I close the game, GOG Galaxy would ask me to rate this game, so here's a star.
If you look past the unsophisticated 2D animations which, I think, has the right amount of resources spent on, this game balances different aspects well. What I like the most is the voice acting. MAC is especially likeable not only because of Andrew Goulding's script, but also because of his acting talent. Looking forward to a sequel with possible 3D animations. By the way, the format of dev commentary is quite nice. I'll pretend MAC is filling us in by breaking the fourth wall. It also makes the game more like an interactive movie.
I first bought this game on Steam in July 2018 and played it on and off for about 200 hours until a little over a year ago. During that time, I don't recall experiencing bugs or issues so severe that the game was unplayable. So upon reading the news of a new seemingly interesting DLC, I immediately jumped back in only to be greeted (read: buggered) by a series of game-breaking bugs: 1. Drone navigation issue causing food not being picked up; 2. Drone navigation issue causing dome construction unable to proceed; 3. Drone navigation issue causing RC Commander to lose drones underground; 4. Drone navigation issue causing underground rubble unclearable. The first 2 seem to have been fixed 2~4 weeks after I encountered them. After going back to Steam to read reviews, I finally understood what's going on: Haemimont Games no longer work on this game. I recommend anyone interested in the details to check out the negative reviews left by "James187" and "Sticky Wicket" on Steam. To summarize their points if I may: 1. Abstraction software do not love this game; 2. Abstraction software do not care about the player community; 3. Abstraction software are incompetant at game development; 4. Abstraction software are here to milk the market. The current situation is quite unfortunate, so unless Paradox Interactive reverse it, my rating is 1 star out of 5. If you really want to try this game, wait for at least 75% off.
