Strategygamer - 5/5
Twinfinite - 4.5/5
PC Gamer - 89/100
Rockpapershotgun
I'll admit to being worried when I first launched Frostpunk. It was easy to feel like there wasn't a lot there. You had, so it seemed, a second-rate city builder. Good, but there are plenty of other games that pure management better. How wrong I was. City building isn't really the point of Frostpunk. What makes Frostpunk special are its choices. Every choice matters, every decision counts. Over the course of two hours (yes, just two!), you are in for a rollercoaster of emotions. 'Success' (the way the game handles this means success is relative to your personality) is deeply satisfying. It handles its morality with a fine touch. 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.
Twinfinite - 4.5/5
Frostpunk is an extremely polished city-builder game that builds upon the genre's core mechanics with meaningful innovations. Despite the steep learning curve at the start, it manages to be captivating every step of the way while never forgoing that rush of adrenaline you get when the game strips away your power and complacency with yet another ethically conflicting challenge.
PC Gamer - 89/100
Frostpunk is a city-builder and a society simulator, but most of all a crisis management game where the crisis doesn't end until the game does. A few hours with Frostpunk and the tornadoes and tsunamis of Cities: Skylines seem like minor inconveniences. The traffic jams and noise pollution you used to fret over are now an utter fucking joke. In Frostpunk, if citizens are unhappy enough they'll banish you from your own city to die despised and alone. They might leave town if you fail them, but first they'll spend days trying to convince others to join them in mass exodus. Frostpunk is a tense, gripping, and often stressful survival strategy game filled with difficult, sometimes unthinkable choices. It's tough to play but even tougher to stop.
Rockpapershotgun
Frostpunk may be one of the most tense, exciting city building survival games on PC, but for a game with such an emphasis on innate justice, and heat, it leaves you surprisingly cold.
