Skip to main content

Frostpunk 2 will bring snow to a sunny July when it launches on PC

A frozen man with Liar written on his chest sits in front of oil rigs in Frostpunk 2.
11 bit Studios

We finally learned the release date of 11 Bit Studios’ highly anticipated Frostpunk 2 during the Xbox Partner Preview today. While the game is about surviving and thriving in a frosty postapocalyptic world, Frostpunk 2 is coming out in the middle of summer.

More specifically, it launches for PC on July 25, and buying its deluxe edition will give players the chance to try it out early a couple of times. Those who pre-order Frostpunk 2’s deluxe edition will receive the base game 72 hours early — so sometime on July 22 — and have the chance to participate in a beta for Frostpunk 2’s sandbox mode this April. At release, it will net players a digital novella set in the Frostpunk universe titled Warm Flesh, as well as the game’s digital artbook and soundtrack. Post-launch, it will give players access to three unspecified paid DLCs. If you want to forgo the bonuses of the digital deluxe edition, developer 11 bit studios previously confirmed that Frostpunk 2 will hit PC Game Pass on day one.

Frostpunk 2 | Date Reveal Trailer

If you’re unfamiliar with Frostpunk 2, it’s a sequel to a survival real-time strategy game that takes place in a postapocalytptic world where players must slowly build up a settlement in harsh conditions. Heading into Frostpunk 2, that settlement is already established, so this sequel plays out more like a city-building and management game where players must deal with all the political and resource-allocating decisions that come with running a struggling city like this. The trailer shown off during the Xbox Partner Preview gives a quick, but ample overview of its gameplay.

If what you saw intrigues you, Frostpunk 2 will be released for PC on July 25 and will be included in the PC Game Pass catalog from launch. It will also come to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S at a later date, and it will be added to the console version of Game Pass when it does so.

Tomas Franzese
Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
Frostpunk 2 takes notes from Cities: Skylines with its grander scope
A frozen man with Liar written on his chest sits in front of oil rigs in Frostpunk 2.

In the original Frostpunk, the main goal is to survive an icy apocalypse and reestablish civilization around a powerful generator while slowly gathering resources, building structures with them, and dealing with a plethora of ethical questions along the way. It’s a challenging game, but after dozens of hours and several decisions, players have a solid city center that can withstand the apocalypse.
In Frostpunk 2, that’s just the starting point.
Frostpunk 2 | The City Must Not Fall Trailer
Developer 11 Bit Studios recently gave me a presentation of the sandbox “Utopia Builder” mode in Frostpunk 2. During this hands-off demo, I saw how Frostpunk 2 has grown much larger in scale, with players primarily dealing with building entire districts and influencing council votes rather than concerning themselves with gathering tiny amounts of resources and the minutiae of building a small city. That’s a bold approach for a city builder sequel, as they don’t usually change the gameplay this much, but 11 Bit Studios is confident with its large-scale swing. Frostpunk 2 may expand on the original, but it's not throwing away what made the 2018 gem so special.
A true postapocalyptic game
The developer believes Frostpunk 2 is postapocalyptic in the truest sense. While that term was often applied to the original, its developers pointed out in my hands-off preview that the original game technically occurred during an apocalypse and was mainly about surviving it. Meanwhile, this sequel takes place 30 years later and is more interested in challenging players by having them manage a society that’s saved itself and is trying to evolve following an apocalyptic event.

In practice, that means Frostpunk 2’s gameplay lies somewhere between the original’s and that of Cities: Skylines. The hands-off Utopia Builder demo began with a city the size of what players would have built by the end of the first game; this isn’t the entire city, though, just the starting central district. The developers quickly built housing districts on one side of that central hub, pointing out that time in Frostpunk 2 now progresses in weekly increments instead of daily.
They explained how resource management is still a part of the game, but that it also takes place on a more macro level. It’s tied to supply and demand for specific resources that districts can provide. Ultimately, the goal is to create synergies between districts so there’s a constant flow of the resources required to keep your city growing and people happy. That’s easier said than done, though. Frostpunk 2 is still a difficult game that will present complex decisions for players to deal with.
Choices, choices
Challenges were mostly centered around two communities of peoples that populated this “utopia”: the industrial and technical-focused Engineers and the survivalist and adaptive Foragers. As players grow their city, they’ll need to improve it by completing research in the Idea Tree. Each community will present solutions for the player to choose from.
In this demo’s case, the question of “How do we produce more food?” was proposed. The developers chose to side with the Foragers, who wanted to use human waste to create more fertilizer. This one decision had clear consequences throughout the rest of the demo. The Engineers eventually asked if they could chemically treat the sewage to prevent disease, which the developers agreed to, and then learned that children were being used to obtain the biowaste.

Read more
Frostpunk 2 will force players to quell humanity’s ambition in 2024
A Frostpunk 2 leader looks over his city

Frostpunk 2 finally reemerged during the PC Gaming Show today, where we learned that it will release on PC in 2024 and that it takes place 30 years after the events of the original game.

Frostpunk 2 | The City Must Not Fall Trailer

Read more
Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 will remain on last-gen consoles when it launches this year
Soldier with weapon from Modern Warfare II.

The follow-up to Warzone -- which is now being referred to as Warzone 2.0 -- will launch in 2022, according to Activision.

Warzone 2.0 doesn't have a firm release date just yet, but it will tie directly to the upcoming Modern Warfare II, which is gearing up to launch on October 28, 2022. Based on previous integrations, it's likely Warzone 2.0 will launch sometime in December 2022.

Read more