The denizens of Frostpunk are, understandably, quite grumpy so-and-sos a lot of the time, but through their cries of “More heat!” and “Please can we not with the human waste hothouse jobs!”, I reckon even they’d be quite pleased to hear that Frostpunk 2 will be heading to PC Game Pass on its day of release (with Xbox Game Pass following when it arrives on consoles). Alas, we still don’t know exactly when it’s coming out yet, but in the mean time, why not gather round the burning barrel of 11 Bit’s very first gameplay trailer for it while we wait?
In many respects, the trailer (embedded above) visualises a lot of what I wrote about during my big early Gamescom preview. Indeed, even though what I saw back then was a glimpse at the game’s endless sandbox mode, the scale of Frostpunk 2’s cities is immediately made clear. Gone are the days where you’re confined by the walls of your crater. This is wasteland apocalypse survival writ large, and bigger cities naturally mean: more grumpy sods to deal with.
And man alive, do those sods make themselves heard in the trailer. Cries of “Steward! Steward! Do you hear us?” abound here, and it looks as though we’ll be making tough calls about lots of familiar problems, such as having too many mouths to feed, building enough homes, and whether hospitals should have the license to, err, experiment on the sick and ailing. They’re very effective at conveying the urgency of the situation, but I do hope they’ll be rather less irritating/needy/petulant in the final game. Mates, I’m trying my best here, no need to get uppity about it.
We also get to see one of Frostpunk 2’s new features in action: the Council Hall. It’s not just you making decisions now, after all, and some laws will need to be passed and voted on by the game’s faction representatives. One of those, glimpsed in the trailer, is the Technocrats, a group of hardline Engineers who believe that technology above all is the thing that will save humanity from extinction. These factions can become hostile, however, and you’ll need to build up trust with their leaders if you’re going to successfully negotiate with them. Indeed, if things turn nasty and the city falls, it’s game over.
It’s almost certainly going to be “Quite A Grim Time” TM, but what can I say, Frostpunk 2 is still one of my most anticipated games of 2024, and I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for a final release date. And if you’re not a PC Game Pass subscriber, it will also be coming to Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store.
