Frostpunk review: Urban planning at the end of the world

Enlarge / This house is a pixel too big to fit into that slot. It's driving me bonkers just looking at it.

One part survival game and one part city builder, Frostpunk doesn't give you time to play around. The citizens of this frozen, alternate-history England are cold, hungry, restless, and despairing. Your job is to manage these four societal factors-though not necessarily fix them.

Nobody is ever really happy in the world of Frostpunk. The world has already come to an icy end, after all. This reality is reflected in a series of political and technological upgrade trees that usually trade one pro for another con. Ordering the cookhouses to liquefy food rations into soup will feed more people, for instance, but it will also raise discontent. Another option is to cut the gruel with sawdust, though that might make residents (aka potential workers) sick.

That latter option won't seem so clever, either, when those sick workers can't collect the coal that fuels the city generator that keeps everyone from freezing to death or the wood and steel needed to build new structures. Loyal, placated citizens are a resource just like anything else in this grim take on the usual city-management simulation.

This is not a slow and relaxing sort of playground like SimCity or Cities: Skylines. Nor is it a creative exercise in making the most aesthetically pleasing city possible. True to developer 11-Bit's pedigree (This War of Mine), Frostpunk wants you to confront what you're willing to sacrifice to keep on living. And to do that, it constantly hits you with choices between two bad options.

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