At a glance, I thought frostpunk would be a game with nihilistic themes, a city builder like any other where after time, tedium kicks in and overspreading metropolises become boring. A sim city or cities skyline in a fancy piece of clothing to obfuscate it.

I was very very wrong.

This game kicks away from those tropes with mechanics, narrative and decisions I haven't seen anywhere else in the genre. Never have I felt so empathetic towards the population of such a game.

In the end, you're not just laying down blocks in a city, you're making choices in the hope that you can keep your population in line, in the hope that you might save others, in the hope that you can keep children safe and out of harms way, in the hope that your people will live to see another day, another day, another day.

another day.

What an excellent piece of art.

At a glance, I thought frostpunk would be a game with nihilistic themes, a city builder like any other where after time, tedium kicks in and overspreading metropolises become boring. A sim city or cities skyline in a fancy piece of clothing to obfuscate it. I was very very wrong. This game kicks away from those tropes with mechanics, narrative and decisions I haven't seen anywhere else in the genre. Never have I felt so empathetic towards the population of such a game. In the end, you're not just laying down blocks in a city, you're making choices in the hope that you can keep your population in line, in the hope that you might save others, in the hope that you can keep children safe and out of harms way, in the hope that your people will live to see another day, another day, another day. another day. What an excellent piece of art.