You can’t review a game on Steam unless you bought it. However, a substantial chunk of Frostpunk’s core audience refunded and disowned this one following a paid beta earlier this year; or chose not to buy at all in response to “best industry practices” of cutthroat monetization.

This will likely lead to a situation where reviews are skewed towards painting a way more positive picture of the game than it deserves. As a prominent speaker for the 1.5 faction, I have decided to make my review a voice of those people. Every accolade comes from the game’s Steam discussions.


Frostpunk is one of my most favourite games ever. The climate, feels, connection, emotions. Perfect, touching music. Immersion. Frostpunk 2 lacks all of it, except for
main menu music... – Acrivec

I paid for Frostpunk 2, not this weird, uncomfortable, odd, distant, uninvolved mess! Why? – allbassfearme

Another company I'll be much more aware and careful with. Why does everyone who hit the jackpot once become devious and insidious? That's not even mentioning the insanely high base price for a game of this caliber. – Antiga

They removed everything that made Frostpunk a great game and added zeros to the population to make it seem bigger. – Archimidis

FP2 is a completely different game. You may like it, of course, but in my opinion a sequel should develop the idea and mechanics of its original, not create something completely different. – Artur

The new game is very impersonal and sort of feels soul-essly number driven and pure statistic game. – Asian Otter

it is not Frostpunk 2, it is Frostpunk Politics – Ayase

I choose to refund right away when I tried the beta and saw there is literally nothing the same as Frostpunk 1. – azurans

It is no longer a city builder, you no longer care about your population or your decisions, there is no life in the city. The game feels sterile. – BigDaddyD

This is not Frostpunk 2, it should have been called something else. – Blue Monkey

Paying for stuff that isn't even out yet (DLCS etc) and to play 3 days early? no, just no. – C E I L S

FP to FP2 is like Darkest Dungeon to DD2, it totally alienated the original core fanbase. – Corvus

Paid advanced access is super scummy and I refuse to support it. – CupCupBaconBox

Probably the worst business decision they could've made. – Daminionz

Massive letdown... was looking forward to FP2 but I could not be bothered to play any more of this Civ wannabe clone game angle they went for. – Devilss

Pre-paying for DLC that doesn't exist yet and which you have no idea what it will be is about as bad as paying to don't be delayed. – Doug Dimmadong

Games is part of escapism culture. Yet, developers make politics simulator to experience people stupidity in game. – Easy, bro

You ask people to help you with feedback about your game. People spend hours of their time to give you their feedback and as thanks, you try to fleece people for some extra cash. – ENAK

It is shame that we lost this beloved franchise because i do not believe there will be a 3 game after second one will fail in sales. – Ernexus

I don't need SimCity/Tropico/CIV mashup. – frolleinjacob

They just fell into the trap of overthinking. They thought we wanted another game, while we wanted an iteration over the first game – FrozenYogurt

you don't really build this city, you place districts on pre-determined deposits and choose a few tiles around it. – GamesBond

it might not be a bad game but it's not a worthy successor to Frostpunk 1 and certainly not what the fans wanted. – Grimgo

It's a huge departure from a winning formula that worked and everyone loved. – Grimulkin

an attempt to squeeze more money out of the community, without the game actually offering the value of a Triple-A title. – Hans Peter Schnösel

this game is gradually turning, from a resource-management game to political exhibitionism. – Hikuran

frostpunk2 is basically a netflix adaptation of the first game. – JAKI

everything just feels so un-engaging. I was so excited for FP2 this year but this Beta has me very skeptical about if its even for me anymore. Which honestly sucks. – JDAB

it is a loud and clear downgrade made to make money on top of the first game name. – jeansefan

i almost bought it just now, until i found out deluxe edition gives you 3 days early access. No thanks, i cannot support this. – KandosMain

It's boring, got zero tension, the politics system is nonsensical and barely works. – Kevin the Inkling

I would rather wait another 2 years for a game that lives up to what frostpunk is then play this hot garbage. – Kuzajin

F1 to F2 is like change from chair to electric chair – kylix999

They turned a city builder into a hex based Bolshevism simulator... hard pass – Lizard

I loved the first episode but I would not participate in the decline of the video game industry. – Loading...

being a huge frostpunk fan this game pisses me off to no end. – Luther

by trying too hard to be different, I believe FP2 lost sight of what made the essence of the original game. – lzb

Its not Frostpunk, this is something completely different. – MetroidPrime87

We got sold a glorified mobile game sadly. – NotMeGaming_YT

It's just not that engaging anymore. I don't really care about my people anymore. I even hate them now... – PeaceMaker

Kinda sucks devs decided to name it a sequel and then turn everything we loved on its head. – pepehands

The new game is over complicated and unclear. Unfortunately, the design has come at the expense of usability. – protoss

It lost its soul and became a typical 4X. – Realized

11 bit games is no longer making the games you think they are. They have moved on like every other company to making new games for money. – RNGstrategist

I hated it, i hated the hex based system. I hated how boring the districts were. I hated how simplified everything was. – rman88

I thought Frostpunk was a "nice indie game" and not a AAAA scam. – roar!

Unfortunately it seems the developers did not understand what made the first game great. – sciritai

Why would we pay AND do the job of your QA at the same time? – Scourger

the point is that they lost the charm & character... the soul... – Swervy

selling out to make the game simpler, and grander in scale/looks – technodoomedone

what we have is not a city builder, but a story-event driven society sim. Immersive art, sure, but still not worth tripple the price of other titles in this genre. – Toxo

the "feel" of the game is off, which is a major factor of what made the first game great. – Turkeynator

They risk alienating a substantial part of FP1 playerbase with no new market clearly in mind while also raising prices to 75$. I can only see this ending in ruin. – V4D4RS F1ST 97

I personally don't understand why developers chose to take a 180 and change a massively successful formula. – UnholyDentist

it's an entirely different game with a "2" slapped at the end of the title. – Uzkniso o.o

just a text adventure with a bunch of AI personalities. – WolfHound

It looks and feels like a City Skylines clone in a frozen wasteland. I'm really disappointed. – Xamalion

They have vanquished all the things that made people love the first, and similarly to what happened to darkest dungeon 2, they will lose all their playerbase. – Ygolnac

I need a tent simulator with a stove in the field that needs to be filled with coal. Why are there so many politics and factions in the game? There is a Stellaris. – ZloiOrk

The gameplay is absolutely nothing like Frostpunk. This is a joke of a successor. – zz