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.
I hadn't even heard of this game until I saw Cohh play it last week on Twitch. Wow. Let me start off with the good things:
1 - Graphics are great
2 - The music is awesome and engaging
3 - The gameplay is challenging, rewarding, unique and frustrating at times, very well done
I think this game takes all of the great elements from other base building/4x style games/choose your own adventure books and combines them into one (without the combat!) - which is super hard to pull off. You have the top down ISO view combined with the base building and economy aspects from RTS games, along with the exploratory aspect of 4x games and the permanent decision making outcomes from a choose your own adventure book. The addition of the heat map and the generator centric unique mechanic is so cool. I honestly found myself apologizing out loud to my computer when I had to amputate people's legs and force them to work 24 hours shifts to keep the generator running. I know people talk about immersion alot these days, but with headphones on and you'll feel like you are really part of the group you are trying to save.
I saw some previous reviews about how this game was too easy...not sure when they were written but I found the learning curve decently steep. I mean I spent hours on the first mission only to come down the end and die with a few hours left. At first I was kind of pissed, but then I realized I just get to start it over again! Yes there are currently only 4 or 5 built scenarios along with Endless mode, but I find myself wanting to go back and improve as I learn how to play.
This game is great. I really hope they continue to release future scenarios as the storyline for this game could go on for quite some time.
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.