So the truth is I didn’t care much for Frostpunk 1. Just seemed like a survival city builder with some story elements. I can see why people like it but it didnt exactly wow me.
Frostpunk 2 seems different, though—the grander scale and apparent focus on politics really intrigue me.
I enjoy games like Victoria 3, Suzerain, etc. Does it scratch a similar itch? Or is the political arena much less impactful?
How much content / replay value is there in Frostpunk 2 ? Can I experience most of the game in just 10hours or is there much more than that ? So in terms of scope its much grander than the first game right ? Like I can control even multiple cities and have to juggle different factions ? Is the interaction with these factions fun (for a lack of a better word?)
I heard some folks say it even goes a bit into the direction of 4x games maybe.
Any input is welcome
I also forgot to, though it is slightly apparent from playtime, I liked the first more.
FP2 is divided up into 5 chapters, in my playtime I've gotten through the prologue(quite short, acts as a tutorial) and played some of the 1st chapter. Then restarted and played through the prologue (I only wanted to restart the 1st chap though. I kinda fucked up, ofc.) and some of the 1st again. I'm not sure I got to the end of the 1st chapter. So there is more than 10 hours (even considering I restarted). As such I also can't say how much replay there is once done with the chapters.
Yes, you can control multiple cities, since I didn't get that far into the game, I haven't had much experience with it. Its mostly like the main city, you build districts, you extract resources, you manage housing and heat, etc., but with the part I have played, fewer people, less space, and therefore also less resources in total. And the laws and research follows the main. You can transfer people back and forth, and can set resources to be sent either way (instant transfer, only for cities, if I remember correctly)
The faction juggling is primarily through the Senate (or whatevs its called) and research, where the factions have their preferred solution[1][2] to problems. Outside of these two, the factions are displayed at the bottom of the screen where you can click on them and do a few things, stuff that increases their relationship with you, asking them for money (decreasing their relationship with you in return), and others I forget.
Of course, if one of the factions has a very bad relationship with you, they'll riot.
in the senate you might have to negotiate with one of the factions to have something passed, or not, depending on what you want. Promising them e.g. the right to choose what law to vote on next session, potentially one you don't want, requiring you to negotiate ↩︎
In research, their solutions will have different requirements, e.g. one needs less of resource X, but more people, and gives disease, where the other faction will require more of X, but less people, and give squalor ↩︎