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Frostpunk is a city-building simulation game that puts an emphasis not just on efficiency, but also the moral qualities of the player as a leader. Even if you normally don’t play simulation games, you will definitely be able to appreciate its uniqueness on a lower difficulty setting.
Frostpunk is bleak. Really bleak. Each decision serves not to ensure progress, but to ensure survival against overwhelming odds. It’s essentially a Crisis Management Simulator, and I love it for that. Just remember to play something more cheerful immediately afterwards.
80
LEVEL (Czech Republic)
Scripted events will get annoying, but the very foundation chills to the bones. Extraordinary building strategy, with which you will literally freeze. [Issue#286]
8
Utame
Engancha. A veces se nota mucho que hay cosas scripteadas, pero en general la historia, apartado artístico y progresión son buenos. No tiene rejugabilidad, pero esas 15 horitas la pasé muy bien.
9
RikkuESP
Frostpunk is, honestly, a really, really great game. It reminds me a lot of The Alters, which makes sense since both come from 11 bit studios — a studio I’m liking more and more, and I’m genuinely excited to see what they do next. It also shares some ideas with colony simulators like Oxygen Not Included, but in a more focused and somewhat lighter way mechanically. That said, the difference in theme and weight is everything. You’re not a duplicant in space, not an astronaut dealing with clones and identity dilemmas. Here, you are leading people — real people, with names, thoughts, discontent, and hope — trying to survive in a frozen wasteland. And sooner than you expect, the game puts you in situations you never thought you would even consider. At first, it might just be sending children to help in the kitchens or gather basic materials — simpler tasks, easier to justify. But then you find yourself signing laws that allow them to work everywhere, and eventually sending them to mine coal in extended shifts. That’s when it hits you. When you realize that if they don’t do it, your generator might shut down — and with it, your people’s hope, the health of the sick, and the lives of your citizens — that’s when morality and necessity truly start to weigh on you. You might find a shipment out in the wild, full of resources you desperately need, while knowing it belongs to a nearby settlement. If you take it, they may not survive the next couple of days. What matters more? Their lives, or the lives of your people? Is that selfishness… or leadership? It depends on where you stand. It’s a difficult game — not just mechanically (even if its colony management is more approachable), but because of everything it represents. You will be forced to make decisions you don’t want to make, because the alternative is death. This isn’t a game where you casually pick one of four dialogue options and get a “they will remember this” message. Here, decisions have consequences the game won’t warn you about — just like real life. Every step matters, and you have to move forward with both confidence and caution. A powerful, tense, and deeply human experience. A great game, and an easy recommendation.
2
kivancmtee
If you play it for a short time you'll like it if you play 7-8 hours, you ll hate it

Frostpunk

Released On: 
Apr 24, 2018
Metascore
Generally Favorable
84
User score
Generally Favorable
8.3
My Score
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
84
94% Positive
63 Reviews
6% Mixed
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
Apr 23, 2018
100
Strategy Gamer
I’ve never cared about the people under my command in any game more than in Frostpunk. The window-dressing isn’t perfect. Aspects of the experience are frustrating; a couple of failed games can leave one a tiny weeny bit annoyed. I am not even sure if some of the scenarios are even possible! Yet if the perfect game is a series of choices where every choice has meaning, then Frostpunk is it.
Apr 30, 2018
90
AusGamers
Going in with as little knowledge of the mechanics and choices and scenario structure is the best way to experience Frostpunk. One of the most intense, beautiful, and emotionally resonant games that features arranging housing and streets ever made.
User score
Generally Favorable
8.3
80% Positive
1186 Ratings
14% Mixed
214 Ratings
6% Negative
82 Ratings
  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
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Jan 18, 2026
10
Scrunkly
why not play frostpunk? we have: child labour. cannibalism. throwing corpses into fertilizer prostitutes propaganda prision public whipping executions labour camps
Apr 12, 2025
10
Trishi
A Chillingly Addictive Experience! Frostpunk is a game that - for me - stands out as a masterpiece of strategy and survival. At its core, it’s a challenging and deeply motivating experience—one that demands persistence, as the learning curve can feel steep at first. Once you grasp its mechanics, the sense of accomplishment is unparalleled. The game’s design is nothing short of brilliant. The mechanics are thoughtfully crafted, offering a balance of complexity and accessibility. Whether you’re rationing scarce resources, making gut-wrenching moral decisions, or tweaking the laws of your frozen society, every choice matters. The immersion is second to none, with the game’s atmosphere pulling you into its harsh, apocalyptic world. Visually, Frostpunk is still awesome in 2025. From the intricate details of the snow-covered city to the visual effects of the relentless cold, it’s clear that a lot of love and effort went into its presentation. The soundtrack deserves special mention—it's an absolute masterpiece. The additional DLCs elevate the experience even further. They’re incredibly creative, each offering fresh perspectives and new challenges. One particular level stands out as exceptionally intereseting. I've played Frostpunk for many hours and love to come back. Frostpunk has become one of my favorite games of all time. Sadly, Frostpunk 2 doesn’t quite capture the same magic as its predecessor for me.
Apr 23, 2018
88
Game Informer
Rarely does an interactive experience keep me awake at night wrestling with big decisions. Frostpunk did this on multiple occasions and made me feel squeamish when forcing edicts upon society instead of building consensus. Extraordinary circumstances call for desperate measures, and all I can do is ask for forgiveness from those trampled by my headstrong approach.
Apr 29, 2018
85
Wccftech
Frostpunk is a challenging city builder where your decisions have dramatic repercussions on the citizens you’re tasked with looking after in a wintery apocalypse. It's a pleasant surprise that is definitely worth your time if you’re looking for something different and brutally challenging.
May 9, 2018
80
Shacknews
I'm eager to see what new situations 11 Bit Studios adds to the Frostpunk in the future, as the concept has a ton of untapped potential.
Apr 24, 2018
80
PC Invasion
Frostpunk is no city builder, if that’s what you’re looking for then this is not a game for you. If you are on the other hand wanting to be pushed when it comes to city management, survival, research and moral decisions, that’s where Frost Punk delivers. Be prepared to be stressed when things don’t go your way.
Jun 30, 2018
68
Riot Pixels
Nice-looking and highly original, Frostpunk is too simplistic for a city-building sim and too shallow to grip you with emotional hooks.
See All 67 Critic Reviews
Oct 25, 2024
10
Noxious_Miasma
Fantastic. Gives those darkest dungeon vibes, that grueling struggle that makes every accomplishment feel so rewarding, and every misstep so costly. Firstly gotta hand it to devs for making a solid port to ps4, making the interface fluid and easy to use. Also, all the information to analyze your colony is easy to access and understand. Complex Strategy games like this often don't port well but this was done right ! The progression is bang on, I've died numerous times and still trying to rack my brain to figure out how to pass certain hurdles. But despite the constant struggle and tragedies along the way, building and managing this wasteland colony is fun. You can get really OCD about building placement like in sim city. Crafting the colony after your own vision, making it your own, making it all the more painful when everything falls apart , be it from ignorance or negligence. This is one of those rare gems . A game you can get lost in for hours and hours.... and hours.
Sep 30, 2025
7
GVB
Un juego difícil pero con una ambientación que me encantó. Quizá un poco repetitivo, y la historia no termina de profundizar todo lo que debería, pero por lo demás es un notable muy sólido.
Jul 29, 2025
7
HaloFever
Despite all I have heard about Frustpunk, I was surprised that it’s just a city builder with style. The game is well made and great for the genre, but it doesn’t bend the genre in was that I found interesting. Then again, this is not my first city builder and I’m not a big fan of this genre. You can actually go way way back to 1982’s “Utopia” to find the essence of a city building game. You need to harvest resources to build buildings that let you harvest resources and build more buildings. The strategy is in optimizing the placement of buildings and the number and type of buildings. That’s the game. While I was enraptured with “Utopia” in the early 80s, I was less and less interested in the city builders that followed. Dress them up how you like, it’s the same game. “Frostpunk” pushes this genre forward by adding a survival element. (However, Utopia also had this with frequent hurricane). The city you build is the last city on earth, heated by one generator, and the only refuge on an earth that is frozen to -40 degrees. This dire situation means making moral choices such as legalizing child labor and 24 work shifts. Survivors are constantly dying. The narrative is laid out in narration, bits of story, and snippets of survivors’ conversations. Is this enough to make an old genre new again? I think that depends on who you ask. For me, not really. Once I figured out the best placement of buildings, saw the tech tree, and figured out how to mine coal, I knew how I’d min max this game to victory. But if I were a little kid again, as I was when “Utopia” was released, I would have spent half a summer figuring out the best way to play “Frostpunk”. Technically, “Frostpunk” offers up a lot nice additions to city builders. You can see your little people down there on earth trudging through the snow to work their jobs and collect resources. A larger map shows you where scouts might go. Pop ups for random events appear, creating a story for this last city. This is the kind of hand crafted quality that is missing from the mass market games created by the big publishers. All in all, “Frostpunk” is a good game, likely a great game, that I’m not interested in playing. (Full disclosure: I downloaded Frostpunk from my PS+ Extra collection.)
Aug 13, 2024
4
SopraSy
It's a fake game an impostor. There is nothing sadder in a management game than a scripted event and this game is nothing if not a series of scripts, there is no hearth beating in it. A book has a similar amount of interactivity. At the end **** you are told to get this and this amount of food to survive and I got myself a month's worth of it and a second after that a pop up appears that people are fighting over supplies. The resources are practically infinity there is no danger to their scarcity no need to optimize your production and consumption right up the alley of its historical setting, but I did wonder what animals could be there left to hunt? I was extremely well off from the mid game onwards I was telling myself that man this city is a utopia even in terms of contemporary cities if I could make multiple shifts people would have to work 4 hours a day. Of course a scripted event happened and somehow sizeable portion of my utopia thought that going into the frozen hell would be better than living comfortably here. Again the worst ludonarrative dissonance I have seen in a game. 4 people died out of 700 at the end of my playthrough , 2 because of scripted event at the start ****. It's a beautiful game, although not well optimized. The lore of the world and it's inhabitants is enthralling. But it's more of a movie worth watching rather than a game worth playing
Jun 28, 2023
4
Marinusf
Its fun for a while and then it's the same nonsense over and over again. It has good graphics tho.
See All 1,482 User Reviews
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SummaryIn a completely frozen world, people develop steam-powered technology to oppose the overwhelming cold. Society in its current form becomes ineffective and it has to change in order to survive.
Rated Mfor Mature
  • PC
  • Nintendo Switch
  • PlayStation 4
  • Xbox One
Apr 24, 2018
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