Winter is coming! First off, I've been playing games like Sim City and Cities: Skyline for as long as I've known how to move the mouse. Those games are more like chilled out metropolitan city simulators, so Frostpunk being a survival small city-builder set in an alternate Victorian-era universe stood out as I checked Steam's trending over the weekend. The blend of steampunk aesthetics over harsh blizzard looks both fitting and intriguing to say the least.
Developed by 11 bit studios, Frostpunk's premise is simple: winter doomsday is here, and you have to survive against all odds in a frozen hellhole, with nothing but a heat generator, a resource depot, and a small band of people to begin with. You are mankind's last hope.
Well-crafted, engaging gameplay.
The main currency of Frostpunk is heat. The lack of it will cause sickness. However, resources are limited so it's impossible to provide the highest level of warmth all around the city so you'd have to prioritise. Improperly managed, the entire city could spiral into death from civil unrest and the lack of manpower, amongst various other elements. For heat to sustain the community, a continuous supply of coal is required. The other equally important resources that needs to be taken of are wood, metal, and food.
Building out radially from the core of the heat generator, you will need to do some city-planning and micromanage resource pipelines in order to achieve outcomes that are less worse than the next. Yes, it's always desperate times in Frostpunk, so you'd most likely pause the game to make hard decisions every couple of minutes.
But that's not all, the game also pits you into sometimes ethically-challenging lawmaking decisions to keep your society ahead of the worsening blizzard. Add sawdust into food rations to make people feel less hungry? Make the children work? Only save the healthy folks and kill off the critically-conditioned? Focus on order and discipline, or faith and spirituality? Do we allow doomsayers and dissenters going all around town shaking up the mood of your city? 24-hour emergency shifts with no heater on? There is definitely a plethora of interesting conundrums worth discovering as the game unfolds.
A great audiovisual treat.
Frostpunk looks and sounds stunning with all its smoke, snow, wind, and ratchet-like contraptions. Just put it up on a big pair of speakers and screen. The heightened sense of immersion is unmistakable. The city is also well simulated: everybody can be tracked and observed going about their daily routines in winterland, even as they slowly trudge through the freezing, thick snow to salvage resources at the periphery.
The orchestral soundtrack is phenomenal as well. It builds up with intensity in each passing day as "the big one" approaches to plunge your entire city into total panic and disarray. It's magnificent. Feel the plight and hardship in your bones.
I also felt really cold during my entire playthrough, so I'm going to call Frostpunk an extreme winter mood simulator as well. This goes to show that small teams can pull off something that matches triple-A titles as long as the game is constrained and its design, well-reasoned. Kudos 11 bit studios. I hope you guys consider making future iterations in the vein of Solarpunk.
Final verdict.
This comes highly recommended. It's only available for PC at the moment on Steam, GOG, and Humblebundle. The game has already sold 250,000 copies during the first three days and the developers have expressed that they'll continue to improve and expand on the canon. Always happy to see indie developers getting recognised for their great work!
As always, thanks for reading. Stay frosty! ❄️
First of all, that Frost Punk logo is sickkkkk!!))
And also trying not to play too much before my exams end lol (Before they end me).
Your comment section is epic, pro gamers everywhere ;) I'm also very pleasantly surprised by Frostpunk, nothing like a good Steampunk game. City building, immersion, resource management, keeping everyone alive, child workers. On my trial run most people died, the ones that survived banished me from the city, I smiled, this game will punish you for your mistakes. I only fear it won't keep me playing for too long after seeing everything unlocked.
They're expanding the scenarios, so I think it's alright. Lemme know your # of survivors when you've finished it!
Number of survivors 91, humanity lives on :)
ah that's pretty harsh lol.. 645 here :D
Last few days of the storm I ran out of coal, people started dying like crazy, discontent was at 99% when the storm stopped, It was a very last minute win :)
An excellent game, was pleasantly surprised by gameplay and game mood, played a bit with moonwalker, you can not stop playing, played until two in the morning.
I recommend the game, Thanks Kevin very good review.
There are a lot of online games nowadays but I like those strategic games that need some analytical skills to win the battle.
The like of sim city is my second choice of game but this one is so entertaining also.
Wow, looks super cool. Love the fact that it includes challenging lawmaking decisions. Can't wait to play!
Game looks great! I've personally never played it, nor even heard of it but just seeing that Steemit's gaming community is evolving and growing makes me happy! I hope that someday I'll be able to post my Hearthstone/League of Legends related comments and actually get real readers/upvotes/comments rather than just "nice post!"
Thanks for promoting the gaming community here on Steemit!
We just need a community function!
@kevinwong I've made a post about this!!!
I legit posted an article proposing the function to add things like subreddits onto Steemit. This would definitely help increase certain areas popularity and help reduce the clutter on the trending and stuff. I feel like tags simply aren't working that well and we need something extra. If you're interested, I can try dig out my old post!
Nice game - sounds like a mash of hardcore survival game with city building. I love city building games myself, so I will definitely have a look. It feels like a pretty heavy game though. Is there an endgame or is the goal just to increase population as much as you can?
Yup there's an endgame :) i wont spoil it for you
Except for keeping your society alive, and trying to grow, can you also play multiplayer and go to war etc ? Or is this focused solely on the construction of your own society ?
Nope, it's strictly singleplayer. Basically 30 days (or longer?) of building up to face the final boss lol
I have a PC and I'll try as much as possible to get this game but I am looking forward to a version which Mobile phones and tablets can support. These ones are more portable and you can carry them around everywhere. This is very necessary as FrostPunk looks like what I'd want to play everyday
Good point. I think they'll port it over if there's demand!
Hey hey, that's a hilarious description of yourself (playing games like sim city ever since you first used the mouse!) I'm not quite that level, but pretty close, among my first game memories are sim city 2000 and the like!
So this game actually seems really cool! The screenshots are modern and vivid and the game concept is cool (maybe downright cold?)
Kudos to the devs on making such an enhancement to the genre; I'll have to check it out when I can, super intrigued!
I'm now playing the other scenarios. what a gem, i think it's gonna become a classic.
Woah this game surely sounds amazing! I love strategy games and I haven't played anything good in a while. I've checked out some gameplay on Youtube and I already fell in love with this game... Hopefully it's going to be awesome when I play it :P
Ahh my favourite! Sim city!! I think i play it 20 years ago! Omg!!! Can't believe that!!!
nowadays cities: skyline is better, but still great :)
Nowadays I only know mammy pokko, anakku, toyrus, lego, kodomo, anmum, etc... 😂
Where is my dota and warcraft?!
On first look it's very well presented! Always a good start.
Civilisation, Sim City, Populous, Dune 2, Settlers, RR Tycoon have been a part of my life for decades and so it's always good to see the strategy genre continuing.
Great to see the vege option available!
As a Former cities and skylines player I'm shocked that I didn't even hear about this game as long as I understand from screenshots it looks sick ,I hope there aren't any elements of rage in the game like the traffic factor in cities and skylines
Lol no such thing as traffic here, everything is scarce!
This reminds me of the article I read about the Silicon Valley oligarchs building their refuges from apocalypse in New Zealand !
Easy decisions. LOL
You need to play this game with a fan in your face and the AC down low. I also recommend doing the same thing when you are watching my flying on youtube. LOL
Great review although it is really difficult to stay frosty in Athens these days haha!
oh summer's coming soon. maybe i should revisit mykonos..
That would be great! You could also try to visit another island if you have already visited mykonos, every island is so unique and has it's own beauty!
Steampunk on everything is always good news. I will have to check this game. If this one has your support, that's all I need to know. :)
Hey Kevin, this looks awesome. You’ve inspired me to get on Steam (yes, the other one 😂) and to give some of these a go.
See you around mate!
5th paragraph "pits" instead of "puts"
I spot this game days ago. I wanted to give it a try too. Looks good to my eyes.
meant to be pits :)
try it man, really well made game. i think the game draws pretty close to world news these days lol
Over the years, I've grown to love and respect Indie developers for their amazing works which is always outstanding. 250 000 sales in just three days is huge and very encouraging. I guess this is where they get their inspiration from
Screenshots from the game alone look so enticing and alluring. I know I want to play this game and I'll do everything poasible to get it. I hope the price will be friendly for me. God bless you @kevinwong for sharing this
From this quick review you just gave, I think the game is a great one but they should modify it so we can have it on game console like Ps, xbos and the likes. Not really a fan of playing games on PC.
Since the game is on steem GC I think @acidyo and @strawhat should come try this out then.
Frost punk? a game that sold 250k in 3 days? That's huge the graphics looks cool the ice formation and all, I love it
if about Game I lose and surrender :) because the facility does not support :)
This game is crazy, looks like a grand strategy game and its soo cool. The gameplay looks nice and the graphics is superb
When I read 'winter doomsday is here' I thought it's the game of thrones game. Am delighted how different this game is from many of the rest where it's about finishing off an enemy.
Fighting hard to save the city is not an easy task with the way you've elaborated it. I really need to feel the experience of this killer game.
It's been long since I saw this quality of review. You make the game look so irrresistible. I'm going to serve part of my feeding money for it. I hope it will be affordable and I also hope that it will be worth my effort. FROSTPUNK ALL THE WAY. God bless your family @kevinwong
This is one of the most detailed game analysis I have ever seen. Thank you @kevinwong for spending so much time to do this. I think you deserve some accolades from the Indie developers. I must get this game but first I want to see a critique and have somebody talk about the price. Much love
First run on normal took me a total of 8Hours 46Min and 47sec
fucking amazing game xD great music, nice graphics
always worrying about coal, food, discontent and hope!
next time have to try the "Faith" path
i hope they add Modding to the game
there are still 2 other scenarios to play, but now i have ... 17GB of Forstpunk to upload....after work..
Interesting review i mean you give us a whole idea of this games and the key points, i think is a game you pass time and time playing it because you want to unlock more and more things. Regards
Frostpunk is a like a 4x/survival/stategy game where the world has turned cold due to some disaster. Your group of people fled their previous settlement to look for a more promising future. It's a grim game, a brutal game and a very well put together game. Tasked as the captain you must guide your people through tough times. Scavenging what you can to stay alive and leading your people with the utmost efficiency.
The goal of the game is to survive the brutal cold and raise the hope of your settlement. You will be passing laws to put the children to work or provide a safe shelter for them during work hours. Will you amputate limbs to keep people alive? Or let the injured die without further suffering? There is also an exploration element to the game. Sending out scouts to find other settlements, building outposts or just scrapping things from those who have fallen. The atmosphere is wonderful, it's a very chill game. Ironically relaxing to manage a group of settlers in a post apocalyptic setting when you aren't in it yourself. The music and sound effects are great. Mechanically this game is ready for release, which isn't a common thing these days.
wooow thats great promotion thanks for sharing keep it up
Frostpunk manages to get us on the ropes and get us out of our comfort zone constantly. 11 bits studios has not only created a solid strategy game but has managed to maintain its essence as a studio.
Happy Gaming!!!
Indeed initially must be lost, and from that defeat we can win and level up. Use trauma do not play games? Not true. Ever despair of playing games? Once certain yes if difficult levels sometimes we become lazy and stop playing.
But have your friends felt desperate but keep wondering and try to continue, ... finally can? I have been and I feel very satisfied. Well, life is as real as it is. Has told us that life is like a game, so yes treat like a game. We must pursue the points of merit, almsgiving, faith and the amount of taqwa-sum to reach God's ridlo and heaven.
Just like in the game. We should pray five times a day, zakat, fasting and pilgrimage to gain "strength" like "strength" in the game. Be careful with holes and traps that look invisible in the fog, as well as demons and demons that will not stop flirting. Live and tiered, just like "level" in the game. To be able to level up we must pass through various obstacles that make it more difficult to pass.
That's where our skills are assigned, honed and improved. By living like a living game, we will continue to be happy. The believer should be happy, if God always accompany him in the game of money and ensure no problems are not accompanied as in the game.
It is very surprising for me to meet a man who has remained faithful to the game SimCity. You are worthy of respect. This game was very fashionable, I played this game, as well as in the warcraft and starcraft in the early 2000s, but then abandoned due to lack of time.
This game is really crazy, looks like a grand strategy game and its soo cool.
This is excellent for my son, thank you for awesome promotions.
good post friends, life should we live cold, hot, and happy, and hard.
Sims and many other games like this are so popular. A lot of my friends play, I've myself tried to play a few times just because everyone else was. But I never understood the appeal of these games.
Well to each his own :)
I do want to try this game out, from what @kevinwong has posted here i am too sure ot will worth the play....
Are you gamed? Lets rock the game.
The game is interesting, i like the use of massive effects and it display , thanks @kevinwong for sharing this great detail review about Frost punk
Game time , fun time. Can I be part of this building project building the Last city on earth 🌏. Build the 9th wonder of the world my friend. Happy gaming
Very interesting game to play. 😂
You game lords own this one @kevinwong. I know so little about games these days, I actually helped someone finish God of War 3
this seems like a very fun game ..
very good game, and full of excited, I am very interested in the game @kevinwong.
Great explanation. Does it have a multiplayer combat/experience?
Been looking for a drift off FIFA, but it would be great if it can be made for consoles too.
Stay frost and in frost we trust 😁
The game must be really phenomenal....
For it to have sold more than 250000 copies within the first 3 days....
It sure looks like something that can arouse your intellectuals....
I'd be sure to check it out though.
Thanks Kev....