14 DAY TRIAL // Frostpunk is one of the few games that we've rated above 9 here at Softpedia. The game offers survival strategy at its best intertwined with a deep story that shocks you at every turn. No, this is not a turn-based strategy game, but you can pause while executing various tasks or give orders to your people.
11 Bit Studios's masterpiece made its debut on PC back in April 2018, and after more than a year PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players can enjoy the game as well. Frostpunk Console Edition doesn't come with anything new in terms of content, but it plays very differently compared with the PC version.
But let us start with the premise of the game: humanity is brought to the brink of extinction by some sort of nuclear winter. A small group of people have fled from London and went North in search of a fabled outpost that could protect them from the harsh conditions.
Something goes wrong during the expedition and your people end up being lost in the wilderness. Luckily, they come across an abandoned generator that can save their lives, so you start building your settlement around this generator.
Frostpunk features steampunk technology, so don't be surprised to see that you can build automatons, although your generator works with coal. The city-building aspects of the game are quite unique, as you must expand your settlement in a radial pattern with the center being the generator that keeps your settlers warm.
On the PC, you'll be able to choose which constructions to build and where, but on the console that's a bit of a pain. You have to open a few radial menus before you can choose what you want to build and then you have to rotate the map to position it exactly where you want it. That's very easy to do with mouse and keyboard, but not so much with the controller.
Apart from the city-builder aspect, Frostpunk features a morale gauge that will deplete whenever you fail an objective. If you don't keep your people in check many will die, others will desert, and your city will ultimately fall. You will fail many times in the game, but each time you start anew, you'll be better prepared to face the crisis.
Graphics-wise, the Console Edition of the game looks gorgeous, even though it's not on par with the PC game. Thankfully, the folks at 11 Bit Studios managed to port everything that makes Frostpunk such a good game on the console, minus the controls, but that's certainly not their fault.
Overall, I think Frostpunk is a must-buy for every fan of the strategy genre. If I were to choose my favorite platform, it would be the PC, but the Console Edition is just as good if don't have a decent rig to run it.
