Frostpunk ventures out into the cold
Nippypunk
Despite society/city builder Frostpunk being on my radar for months, I somehow only just clocked that the name's a play on steampunk. The revelations continue: steam is something that can conceivably turn into frost! The This War Of Mine devs sure can name a good game.
Anyway, Chillypunk is now out and standing about in the cold with a launch trailer, waiting for you to come along and buy it. Xalavier Nelson's review calls it "one of the most tense, exciting city building survival games on PC", so you might want to take pity on the poor thing and show it the warmth of your wallet.
If you're after specifics, Xalavier also called the game:
"A steampunk city builder where you control the placement of buildings, the distribution of labor, and the laws guiding the evolution of the city of New London, against the backdrop of a world dominated by cold. Menus and direct ethical decisions burst on-screen with the uneven crackle of frost (the miners want to go home and be with their families before a major disaster—will you let them?), and lights caught at the edge of view refract through a pane of glazed ice. While it can be difficult to identify specific buildings you’re looking for amongst the tangle of ramshackle, snow-dusted structures and stacks of smoke, the eerily cozy aesthetic of the game is breathtaking in motion."
There's a lot to praise, though beware that it's not all sunshine - "Unfortunately, the moral portion of Frostpunk’s systemic balance, though heavily emphasized, is one of the few areas where it falls flat."
How can that be, when everything you've heard about Nippypunk has revolved around the hard-hitting impact of those tough moral choices? You'll have to read Xalavier's review to find out. These things get written for a reason, you know.
Frostpunk is out now on Steam, GOG and the Humble Store for £24.99/$29.99/€29.99.