Frostpunk 2 is 11 bit Studio’s follow-up to their legendary city-builder, and it just got a major content update! Read our review to know what this new update brings and if it’s worth playing Frostpunk 2 again.

← Return to Frostpunk 2 main article

Frostpunk 2 Story

While Frostpunk focused on a city struggling to survive on the brink of life and death, Frostpunk 2 shifts its narrative to a city that has defied the odds. The story now centers on New London's attempt to move beyond mere survival, venturing into the wasteland to rebuild the civilization lost to the eternal winter.

Leadership has also evolved. The Captain no longer holds sole authority over the people of New London. Instead, the City Council has taken the reins under the guidance of the Steward. This new governing body, composed of influential thinkers and decision-makers, will determine the city’s future. Whether their efforts lead to prosperity or spark rebellion remains uncertain, leaving the fate of New London in the balance.

Frostpunk 2 Gameplay

Frostpunk 2 provides an expanded experience in city-building, survival, and management, tasking players with overseeing a wasteland city across critical aspects like production, research, expansion, and law-making.

The game introduces a hexagonal grid system where players can establish districts, each serving specific functions based on its type and location. These districts may facilitate activities such as resource extraction, housing provision, or refining raw materials into more advanced resources.

Building new districts requires both resources and labor, initially depleting supplies but eventually contributing to the city’s overall growth and sustainability. These additions also influence factors such as squalor, disease, heat consumption, and crime, adding layers of complexity to the city's management.

Regarding resource management, Frostpunk 2 has been expanded with new materials like heat stamps, prefabs, and goods. These resources are influenced by the placement of buildings, research advancements, and laws enacted by the city’s leadership. Players must carefully balance these elements to ensure the city's survival and prosperity.

In the realm of lawmaking, Frostpunk 2 introduces a more intricate City Council system, moving away from the binary decision-making of its predecessor. Passing laws now requires securing a majority vote within the council. Players can sway votes by negotiating with faction representatives, often through promises that may carry consequences depending on whether they are fulfilled.

On the topic of factions, each one plays a significant role in the governance of New London, both within the council and in the broader management of the city. They can be valuable allies, providing resources and support for legislative decisions, but their demands must be met to maintain their favor.

Lastly, covering the game’s research system in Frostpunk 2 has also been significantly developed, featuring a larger and more branching research tree. Each node offers diverse options, allowing players to tailor their city's development. Research choices are linked to faction preferences, providing additional opportunities to build affinity with specific groups. This system encourages strategic planning and adds a layer of strategy to the game's technological progression that was not as present in the first game.

Frostpunk 2 Release Date and Time

Released on September 20, 2024

Frostpunk 2 was finally released on September 20, 2024, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S after being originally slated for a July 25 release date.

Steam		Epic Games		GOG		Xbox
Price		$44.99
PSN
Price		Wishlist Only

Frostpunk 2 Review (May 2025)

Building On Near-Perfection

I’m not going to downplay how much of a knockout Frostpunk 2 was for me, even if there were plenty of naysayers and non-believers in the crowd. The change in scale was a brilliant move that redefined the game mechanically without losing touch with its grimy, unapologetically British roots—and that, to me, is 90% of what made Frostpunk 2 so incredible.

But even great works of art aren’t without their flaws. Clearly unsatisfied with the state of the game at launch—even if it was close to perfect, though technically a bit rough around the edges—11 bit studios didn’t rest on their laurels. They could’ve, and maybe even had every right to, but instead, they chose to keep pushing. The result of this pursuant denial of mediocrity is a recent update that goes far beyond simple bug fixes or balance tweaks. It genuinely transforms the Utopia Builder mode and expands what the game is capable of. Well, that’s enough of a preamble to make the town be out of the job, so let’s get into it.

The Pit Beckons!

As I said earlier, this update is far more than your run-of-the-generator bug fix or balance patch—it was clearly crafted to target the few areas where the game stumbled at launch. Specifically, the limited map selection, a new but noticeably underwhelming heating system compared to the original, and a lack of variety and modability. Taken alone, these were just minor thorns in the game’s otherwise stellar side, but they were thorns all the same—hard to overlook and even harder to ignore.

The most notable addition in this update is a brand-new map for the game’s sandbox mode, Utopia Builder. Aptly titled The Pit, this map gives players the freedom to spread out across a resource-rich expanse, complete with the eponymous Pit itself—a feature tucked just a snowdrift away from the city, hiding its own trove of secrets and resources. It’s a striking landmark, especially alongside your districts, and if you're in the market for a fresh landscape with a generous helping of prefabs and early access to oil, this map delivers.

Best of all, you’re not locked into starting there—The Pit is available both as a starting location and as a frostland colonization site, in case one of the other starting options suits your style better. It also introduces a unique frostland tileset, adding even more visual and strategic variety to sandbox play—variety that’s only expanded further by the new Tales from the Frostland options also brought in by this update.

Tell the Tale of New London, Whichever One It May Be

That’s right—Utopia Builder isn’t just about surviving the whiteout for as long as humanly possible anymore, though there’s still plenty of room to do exactly that. With this update, players can now inject a dose of narrative, drama, and ambition into their sandbox runs by enabling one or more of the new Tales from the Frostland options.

Each tale is centered around a distinct narrative and mechanical theme—immigration, survival, or exploration—and each one gives your progression a powerful shove in a specific direction right from the start. They’re more than just flavor text; they shape your goals, challenges, and moment-to-moment decisions in ways that transform how you approach the entire playthrough. You can think of them as mini story bombs that reward you with decorative hubs whenever they’re completed.

For my revisit of Frostpunk 2, I picked Beacon of Hope—a tale where waves of Frostland immigrants arrive in New London roughly every 30 weeks, turning what might’ve been a slow-burn survival sim into a frantic scramble to gather resources before the next population surge. Each new wave brought more people, more disease, more crime, a housing crisis, and a plummeting satisfaction rate—along with a healthy spike in my dopamine levels.

If you're more the type to hunker down and hope for the best, then Apocalyptic Whiteout might be right up your snow-covered alley. This tale pits your modest city against the biggest blizzard in human history—a true test of endurance. It's all about how well you can stockpile before the storm hits, and how long you can hold out once it does. When the whiteout rolls in, it’s not just about survival—it’s about proving you were prepared.

On the other hand, if you enjoy exploring the Frostlands more than managing your own city, Depleted Cores might be the tale for you. This scenario sends you scouring the icy wastes outside New London in search of Steam Cores, putting your Frostland Teams at the center of your strategy. It demands attention, planning, and a steady hand, but the rewards from your expeditions are well worth it.

And if you're really looking to suffer—well, you can always enable all three tales at once. Not sure why you'd do that (unless you're into that sort of thing), but the option's there. Just be ready: the effects stack, the challenges compound, and if you’re not on top of things fast, the City Council’s trust in you will start to nosedive. But hey, what’s Frostpunk without a little suffering on the player’s end, right?

Serenity Mode and Heat System Overhauls

While we’re on the topic of suffering, let’s shift gears and talk about what this update does to make things easier for the player, because if it were all suffering, I’d just fire up Cities: Skylines 2 and call it a day. This update introduces a new option for Utopia Builder called Serenity Mode, a welcome addition for new players and seasoned veterans alike looking to experiment without immediately getting crushed under the game’s frostbitten boots. It softens the blow of one of Frostpunk 2’s most punishing mechanics: faction conflict.

A spiritual successor to Frostpunk 1’s Serenity Mode, this option shortens whiteouts, grants extra resources, improves weather conditions, and—most importantly—disables the Fervour System entirely. That means no more riots, no spontaneous rallies, and no political meltdowns when a faction gets ignored for too long. Even better, it plays nicely with the game’s standard difficulty presets, letting you tailor the challenge to your liking. If that’s not a win for accessibility, I don’t know what is.

But Serenity Mode isn’t the only callback to Frostpunk 1—this update also brings a long-requested overhaul to the game’s Heat System. While it’s not a one-to-one recreation of the original’s proximity-based heat dispersion (that wouldn’t work with Frostpunk 2’s district-level scale), it’s a smart reinterpretation. Heat is now localized within each district, each with its own heat levels and consequences if you fail to manage them. The generator still controls the city’s overall temperature, but districts can now adjust their heat independently via sliders.

To support this system, new technologies, laws, and buildings have been added that create deeper synergy within your city. Some laws let warmer districts generate more Heatstamps, while others allow one-time insulation upgrades to raise a district’s baseline temperature relative to the environment. It’s a thoughtful return to form, one that neatly patches up what many saw as Frostpunk 2’s biggest “fixed what wasn’t broken” moment. And frankly, it makes the game feel that much closer to the near-perfect sequel we were hoping for.

Base Game Improvements and Mods Tie A Neat Bow On This Update

Finally, rounding out everything this update brings to Frostpunk 2, we have a slew of base game improvements and the conclusion of the Frostkit 1.0 Modding Tools Beta. First up, both the tutorial and the prologue have been smoothed out and restructured around the newly overhauled Heat System, making the game far more welcoming to first-time players.

One of Frostpunk 2’s biggest accessibility hurdles was how brutally the prologue scenario hit you—jumping in blind practically guaranteed you wouldn’t last a month. Now, it’s a far gentler introduction. With fewer resource constraints, shorter whiteouts, and a more manageable learning curve, the prologue feels more like a brisk walk through a snow-covered park than a death march. Of course, the moment Chapter One begins, the gloves come off, and the whiteout’s going to hit you with everything it has—but by then, you won’t need the training wheels anymore.

Secondly, there’s the game’s improved modability. Frostpunk 2 is a quality game on its own, but so was The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Now look at them both, doable, perhaps not to the same extent, but we needn’t wait for the devs to come up with something nice before the next update. The Frostkit 1.0 Modding Tools come out with this update, allowing users to make their own content down the line, including new Tales, scenarios, and even maps. It’s quite the robust toolset, enough for a few good QoL changes, not that the devs haven’t made plenty of their own already.

There’s No Better Time to Fire Up That Generator Again

All in all, this update is a massive win for Frostpunk 2. Maybe it’s not game-changing—though technically, it kind of is—but the new map is both distinct and exciting, the overhauled Heat System isn’t just welcome, it’s something fans have been waiting on since day one, the Tales from the Frostlands inject a much-needed layer of variety into the game’s endless sandbox, and the improved modability ensures Frostpunk 2 has a long, frostbitten future ahead.

There’s no merit in resting on your laurels—and this update proves it. Given the opportunity to improve, no matter how minor or easy to dismiss, 11 bit studios chose to do right by their community and keep pushing toward the perfect sequel they nearly delivered at launch. Unlike the temperature in New London, it’s only up from here—and I can’t wait to see what the developers, both official and modding, have in store for us next.

Godspeed, steward!

Game8 Reviews

You may also like...

	Frostpunk 2 Review | High Praise in Low Temperatures Simulation, Survival
	LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW RePOP Review | Glorious Blood, Guts, And Upskirt Shots Action, Adventure, Anime
	Against The Storm Review | A Near-Perfect Storm Simulation, Strategy, Roguelite
	Fabledom Review | Deserves A Happy Ever After Simulation

Frostpunk 2 Product Information

Title	FROSTPUNK 2
Release Date	September 20, 202
Developer	11 Bit Studios
Publisher	11 Bit Studios
Supported Platforms	PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Genre	City-builder, Survival
Number of Players	1
ESRB Rating	ESRB M 17+
Official Website	Frostpunk 2 Website

Aaron Bruce Albert..

A massive fan of roguelikes, turn-based RPGs, and open world adventure games. His gold standard games include The Binding of Isaac, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and Dragon Quest Monsters Joker.