Frostpunk and Frostpunk: The Last Autumn

Have you ever thought about what would happen if a freak ice age hit during the middle of the Industrial Revolution? Probably not (unless you have a heck of a lot of free time on your hands). This is where Frostpunk steps in and helps us. Created by 11-bit Studios, this is world building and strategy playing as you’ve honestly never seen before.

You’re placed in a time where everything has gone wrong. Winter has taken over and you’re forced to leave. All of the earth’s population is gone except for you and your group of people. You’re thrust into a freezing world and are in control of how you and your following move forward. Based around a massive heating generator you need to build, grow and survive. All while managing workers and keeping them happy. There is a lot more depth to the game than just that. You can create workshops to research new tech and skills. I went right into finding a way to collect supplies faster and to help get the generator running. You have some limited resources around that you can scavenge right off the bat, but you need to try and think long game by researching how to build and work to coal mines, sawmills, and steelworks. As a leader, you also are the rule maker. You can put laws into place that affect the community. All choices have consequences though. You have to keep up with the discontentment and hope of the group. The more discontent the more likely that they will revolt against you. 

Now to preface this: I’m not the best when it comes to strategy games like this. Gameplay-wise it’s pretty damn hard. You need to keep close eyes and tabs on what is happening at all times. It’s a challenge to keep everyone organized and happy at the same time. It felt like I was constantly having to move people around and keep up to what needed to be built. I tried to look into developing skills through engineers and workshops. You have the ability to grow your knowledge through your research and skills. It will help you build better technology and teach your civilians skills such as hunting and gathering supplies. This is where for me the game gets super hard. It seemed like I wasn’t able to really build upon the skill ladder. I could get the entry-level parts, but nothing more. I found myself short on supplies for those as I was striving to just keep the colony alive for the first few days. That was my main goal as the game started. You also have to make choices fast. As the leader, you can make new laws determining how the people move forward. These are the main things that affect the discontentment and hope. You really need to get going those first few days. I remember a scene where the dead bodies were piling up and I was forced to decide on doing nothing or having a mass funeral every night for those dying. While I tried to do the respectful thing of the funeral, the people were still displeased with how I was handling it. 

As for The Last Autumn, the stage is somewhat flipped. Instead of starting in the arctic tundra of wherever you are, you actually start out in what looks like lovely weather. Based near the ocean your goals stay the same, but some things have changed. Now you have to prepare for the winter that is coming in. You’re left to plan and it’s a little bit easier as you don’t have to fearfully worry about keeping the generator going. This makes it a little easier to start off as you aren’t constantly having to scramble to save everyone as much, but the same process still applies.
Graphically, this game is really pretty. Playing at 1080 60 Hz is really nice. In-game everything runs really smooth with no real problems. Game art is always something I’m critical of. The cut scenes before you get in-game are really well animated and super cool. I loved the cut scenes in ‘The Last Autumn’ DLC. It honestly took my breath away. With it being a top-down game, visually the depth is amazing to look at. The attention to detail of the wood in building or the look of people is detailed superbly. The creation of law screens is well made too. Looking at a screen that shows a corpse saying ‘There’s a dead body in the street, you must do something about it’ will stick with you no matter what you’ve seen. Plus the tree of making laws is really well made. It shows all your possible options and choices that you can make for the colony. The control scheme is well made. It’s based around moving around in a 3d world so it needs to be. I was kinda nervous because I felt that the controls might be kinda bad, but there were splendid.

Overall, this is a game that is made for its fans and crowd. It’s beautifully made, the control scheme is really good, and the story is honestly a really intriguing one for me. I just couldn’t get past the idea of ‘farming’ things and trying to manage people while being strategic. Granted I’m not the best at these types of games, but still. It felt super hard to figure out which way to start. After multiple playthroughs of going in guns blazing, I finally tried the strategic move of trying to research things and grow my knowledge of what to do next. This was the playthrough where everyone started dying rapidly. It felt like no matter how I tried, I just couldn’t figure it out or get ahead. The Last Autumn also looks to be similar, with a little less stress starting off thankfully. Look, I know everyone’s gonna call me out on this. It really is a good game at its core. It just really isn’t for me.