It’s been coming up on three years since Frostpunk 2 was revealed as a full-blown sequel to the frosty survival city-management game, which itself turns six years old (!!) next month. After we finally got a proper look at 11 bit Studios’ beautifully brutal follow-up last year, we now know when we’ll be able to brave the unforgiving tundra and the nightmarish climate of, uh, July?
Frostpunk 2’s release date has been revealed as July 25th this year, putting it just shy of the actual three-year mark from reveal to release.
In its date reveal trailer, shown during today’s Xbox Partner Preview event, we were given a further glimpse of the way that your fellow humans will become the primary threat to your survival, rather than the unforgiving weather outside (though no doubt there’ll be plenty of that to deal with, too).
With factions such as the survivalist Icebloods and progression-driven Technocrats demanding different things of your city, you’ll have to juggle their wants against the needs of your citizens as you expand through a tech tree of possible advancements and laws, from managing worker shifts to dealing with your inhabitants’ waste. Of course, there’s no pleasing everyone, so prepare to deal with protests and choose how harshly you need to act in order to bring your opposition into line – risking further outrage if you do.
Frostpunk 2 is set three decades after the original game, and aims to expand the scale of its survival sim by having you manage entire districts in comparison to the original’s singular buildings. In-game time, too, will stretch out over a wider canvas, going by in weeks and months rather than just days.
With the steady foundation of the first Frostpunk below, it sounds like Frostpunk 2 is aiming to build some ambitious new ideas on top. We’ll all be able to see how we fare for ourselves when it arrives on Steam and PC Game Pass from day one in July.