In city builder Frostpunk, every decision is agony. Steam reviewers are feeling the burn.
Frostpunk is bleak as hell. You play as the ruler of the last city on an iced-over earth. Your greatest enemy is the cold. No matter how well you play, resources rarely last long. People – with names and faces, unlike in other city builders – die and leave behind orphans. If things get bad enough, you might have to put those orphans to work by bringing back child labour. And that example is relatively tame by the game’s standards!
Survival matters above all else, which forces you to sink pretty damn low. We’ve been loving the game’s brutal assault on our sense of morality, even if we’ve had to choke back our share of guilty tears along the way.
Steam reviewers have been sharing stories of their own, and in summary: yeesh.
Comments
2 responses to “Frostpunk, As Told By Steam Reviews”
Solid journalism.
Pissed off at the game bitching me out at the ending to the main story scenario…
everyone bloody survived, dammit, my (easy mode) management was impeccable. The citizens rallied around the neighbourhood watch which got upgraded to official guards, bringing them soup on their patrols, and being grateful when guards rescued kids or removed graffiti. And I had to build those prisons to stop the food thieves from being LYNCHED! It was the ethical decision, dammit! But nooooo, come the end of the game, it throws patrols, guards, and morning meetings in my face as if they were evidence of ‘going too far’. Pffft.OK, I knew I went too far when I built the ‘propaganda centre’ (LOOK… it provided a permanent Hope bonus, and it was described as a place to better collect feedback of citizen concerns and respond to that in an organized manner. That’s ADMIRABLE, dammit!). A bunch of red banners with white-and-black geometric symbols on them unfurled everywhere and citizens started cheering, “Death to traitors!” which… yeah. OK. Not great.