Frostpunk 2: Our Console Review!

Frostpunk 2: How Cold is the Ice Age on Console?

A year has passed since Frostpunk 2 arrived on our PCs, and in that time, we've spent countless hours trying to give hope to our people, striving to keep a collapsing New London alive, thirty years after the events of the first Frostpunk. Transported once again to this alternate world, where an relentless ice age brought the entire world to its knees at the close of the nineteenth century, we're ready to return to the ice armed with our Xbox Series X controller, so we can bring you our review of Frostpunk 2's console edition! As the Overseer, we'll have the difficult task of doing everything possible to ensure New London's survival, utilizing a proven management gameplay that no longer needs to prove anything in its mechanics. While the protagonist faces the great challenge of survival, the guys at 11 Bit Studios had to work diligently to bring Frostpunk 2 to consoles, trying to limit probable "bottlenecks" from both a technical and control perspective. Although the recommended PC requirements aren't too demanding, running Frostpunk 2 at maximum still requires a decidedly powerful machine, and we're certainly not just discovering the difficulties of adapting gameplay designed for mouse and keyboard to a controller. With some obvious difficulties, the developers managed to find excellent solutions to the problems, mindful of the good work done with the conversion of the brand's first installment, but let's delve deeper into what awaits us in this cold adventure. Here's the review of the console version of Frostpunk 2.

As already mentioned, thirty years have passed since the events narrated in the previous chapter, but the world is still in the grip of the relentless ice age that is severely threatening the survival of the human race. If before we mainly had to deal with the material needs of our citizens, now all this will not be enough to bring us success, because politics also comes to claim a leading role. The core gameplay of Frostpunk 2 remains that of a resource-gathering management game with an overhead view (extremely zoomable) where everything revolves around the community generator, an enormous power plant that, thanks to a furnace, is our main source of heat and energy, necessary factors to have some chance of survival. Icebreakers are powerful machines capable of breaking through the ice sheet, allowing us to clear areas of the map and build various types of districts on them, including housing, work areas, and production. As for this part of the gameplay, everything falls within "classic" tropes, including scientific research and improvements aimed at making our buildings and citizens' work increasingly functional and productive, always keeping a close eye on the needs of the people and raw material supplies. However, as mentioned, the political management of New London emerges in all this, making it crucial to listen to the inclinations of the citizens, lest you lose your role as overseer and risk a bad end. No longer individuals more or less satisfied with their living conditions, but groups organized according to their worldview.

Frostpunk 2: Between Management and Politics

There are three main factions, each with its own ideas and priorities: the Icebloods believe there's little to be done against the cold and that the best way to survive is to accept it and learn to live with it pragmatically; the Faithful, deeply devoted to traditions and the cult of the Generator, seen as a true deity; and the New Londoners, fervent supporters of technological growth and science above all else. All these groups have seats on the New London council, where all decisions are put to a vote to determine the settlement's path. Our role is very complicated, and we will often find ourselves having to manage situations where we risk losing the council's trust, a situation that will lead us to a quick game over. Around this gameplay mechanic, a dense network of variables and situations unfolds. First, the factions are not always cohesive, and often within them, there will be different currents that interpret the general guidelines differently, making it even more complicated even with a single group. 

Forget about managing New London by aiming for absolute justice and impeccable conduct: the path to survival is paved with backroom deals, promises you won't know if you can keep, subterfuge, and double-dealing, always keeping in mind that at every council vote you'll need to secure a majority in your favor. In short, not just a simple management game, but also a sophisticated simulator of political relationships, where you'll always have to consider that any agreement made could break at any moment and that the word "trust" has much less value than the term "interest." Frostpunk 2 is an excellently successful mix of these two factors: resource and building management and the ability to navigate the difficult political life of a community that only thinks about survival, with both proving credible and satisfying. The final result almost perfectly balances the two elements, making the gameplay extremely intriguing. There are as many as five difficulty levels, but be aware that even the medium one offers a challenging experience, and it is absolutely recommended to complete the tutorial, integrated into the main story, before tackling the eight available scenarios. Frostpunk 2 also has the great merit of offering a very layered experience, thanks to which the further you go, the more new functionalities you will discover: once you reach a good level of supplies, we can start looking around and seeing what the ice around New London hides, but internal management never allows you to let your guard down: at any moment a blizzard could arrive, and we might be forced to make difficult choices for the safeguard of the people: sacrifice the oldest citizens? Force workers into grueling shifts? Push the generator to produce more energy, risking a malfunction? These are just some examples of the difficult situations we might find ourselves in, and rest assured that every decision will weigh heavily.

Frostpunk 2: What Changes from PC to Console?

Frostpunk 2's gameplay offers many interesting elements, and the development team managed to bring them to consoles, although some compromises had to be made in the transition from mouse and keyboard to controller. Using the shoulder buttons and triggers to open the various menus works, but there's some uncertainty regarding cursor movement between the hexagonal cells that divide the game maps. Movement isn't always free, and in some cases, to move the cursor between cells, we'll have to follow the chessboard's position in a less intuitive way. Furthermore, from a graphical standpoint, some compromises had to be made compared to games played on high-end PCs. We have three modes available: one dedicated to fluidity, one to visual quality, and a hybrid one. Since we're dealing with a title where constant 60 FPS isn't necessary, I recommend playing at maximum graphical quality, but sometimes the graphics engine might show its weaknesses, especially when the maps start to get crowded. As on PC, the game has all texts translated into Italian, but the fonts are really small, and even when enlarged to the maximum, they remain problematic to read, so much so that I struggled on a 55-inch TV: a real shame, given the large amount of lines to read.

Frostpunk 2 brings with it a highly valuable art direction, and it's a pleasure to zoom in on buildings to peek closely at what our industrious people are doing, but everything else also contributes to creating a suggestive atmosphere, between an evocative soundtrack and respectable artwork. Frostpunk 2 lives up to expectations and manages to establish itself on consoles, even if the conversion wasn't entirely painless. 11 Bit Studios once again demonstrates that with intelligence and passion, management games can be successfully brought to consoles, but it's obvious that if you have a good PC, this remains the best platform to become the overseers of New London (here you can find the PC version review). If, however, you are avid console gamers, just make a few acceptable compromises to experience an adventure as icy as it is unforgettable: even a controller can help you survive in the worst ice age in history!

Frostpunk 2 is also available on Amazon (for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X).