The original Frostpunk was a visionary combination of survival and strategy games. Focused on a tiny, try-hard settlement, it felt like a mix of Civilization 6 and The Long Dark – Age of Empires by way of The Forest. Six years later, it sports a ‘very positive’ rating on Steam, and a player count in the thousands. Frostpunk 2 isn’t so lucky. The user reviews are less enthusiastic. Similarly, in the last 24 hours, Frostpunk 2’s concurrent player count peaked at a comparatively meager 856. But if it let you down at launch, there’s a new reason to go back to 11 bit’s sequel – and it’s all about Frostpunk 2 mods.
It’s not that Frostpunk 2 is bad. On the contrary, in our own Frostpunk 2 review, Reid calls it a “more realized” version of the original strategy game. But part of Frostpunk’s unique identity is missing from the sequel. It’s bigger and more complex, and because of that, you feel less connected to the minutiae of your peoples’ plight. In the original, you can watch all your individual citizens as they strive, build, and huddle together. In the sequel, you’re more distant and disconnected. It’s not as brutal. It feels less like a survival game.
Being on Game Pass might chip into Frostpunk 2’s Steam player figures, but the original game is available on Game Pass, too, and it’s still performing better on Valve’s store than its successor. Fortunately, if you’ve been away from FP2 for a while, or felt generally let down by it, there’s a reason to come back.
11 bit has officially unveiled the Frostpunk 2 Steam Workshop. A limited version of the page went quietly live in November, but with only a tiny number of available mods. After a more public launch on Monday January 13, more mod makers will likely populate the page with their work, allowing you to easily and instantly install the best community improvements.
If Frostpunk 2 mods have so far been dispersed across various platforms, they may now have a single home, and tweaking the game to your specifications should be straightforward. Perhaps this brings the sequel a step closer to the regard people have for the original game. We’ll have to see, but you can get mods from Frostpunk 2’s Steam Workshop right here.
Otherwise, try some of the best 4X games, or maybe the best RTS games available today.
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