In the bleak frozen world of Frostpunk, players assume leadership of the last city on Earth. 11 Bit Studios' post apocalyptic city building game repeatedly asks the player, “How far will you go to survive?” This question lies at the core of Frostpunk’s mechanics in the form of the various laws the player can pass in an attempt to optimize their city. Passing these laws allows players to add personality and narrative to their own city making it up to the player to decide how far they want to go with the laws. While each decision makes a part of the game easier to manage, it also corrupts the city into a more oppressive system. If the city becomes an authoritarian society this leads to the game’s “bad” ending. This points to the heart of Frostpunk’s message: in a world full of danger and the constant threat of destruction, it is still important to maintain a sense of morality, lest humanity destroy everything that made it worth saving. This message, increasingly ominous in a world hanging in the balance between egalitarianism and authoritarianism, points to the immediate danger of surrendering to the latter.
Frostpunk’s game is set on a fifty day scripted timeline of events. Throughout this timeline three separate crises will erupt, forcing the player to adapt and deal with them. The first of these involves a dissident political faction attempting to sabotage the city forcing the player to choose either the Faith or Order tree of laws. While each of these two trees have their unique advantages, rendering the game easier, they become more oppressive the more the player invests in them. Both trees begin with laws that are benevolent and directly beneficial, such as evening prayers, a neighborhood watch, or soup kitchens for workers. If pursued too far, however, Faith establishes an inquisition that weeds out the unfaithful and pits citizen against citizen, while Order eventually forces citizens to declare absolute loyalty to the player, establishing a strict social structure. The beginning of the game is typically easy enough for most players to get by without the most dramatic laws. However, after the player resolves the first crises several waves of refugees arrive. This doubles the population of the city and its consumption of important resources such as food or coal. At this point, the game, testing the player further, pushes the player towards the harsher laws. The third crises, a massive storm that cripples the city’s infrastructure, acts as a climatic final test of the player's ideological purity. Either the city will adapt to the new challenges, fall to oppressive ideologies, or succumb to the elements and die out.
This series of escalation forces the player to confront the morality of their actions. Often times in city building games there is only ever one “correct” path: creating the most productive city. Frostpunk complicates this formula by adding a layer of morality to the core game mechanics. Now their actions are judged by the game should they decide to move down the path of brutal efficiency. The ending to Frostpunk evaluates the player’s decisions and if the most tyrannical options are chosen then the game ends with one final question. “The City survived. But was it worth it?” The answer to this question can be found if the player finishes the game without the use of tyranny or oppression. “...yet I think we have not crossed the line. [Faith/Order] gave us strength. We have survived.” The use of the personal pronouns "I" and "we" instead of the "the City" make this a more uplifting and unifying ending. Furthermore, the more tyrannical options will lead to members of your city becoming injured or even killed. In the early game where there are few people alive in the city this would be crippling to any playstyle, towards the end when city's population swells to hundreds, individual lives become less important. This makes the endgame powers even more tempting despite their ruthless toll. The game takes note of this death toll even if the player does not and it is a crucial factor in determining whether the player receives an optimistic or pessimistic ending.
This sentiment is further echoed in the additional scenarios, added after the game’s launch. Far more challenging than the original game’s settings, these scenarios make the distinction more clear. One of these focuses on a much larger refugee crisis compared to the original game. This refugee crisis leads to an outbreak of class warfare and the player is expected to find some sort of peace. Another scenario puts the player in charge of a group of scientists maintaining the last seed bank on Earth. The scientists discover that another city is begging for their help and are forced to decide if they will protect their city or help the others. All scenarios in the game use the same challenging mechanics with varying degrees of difficulty. Similarly, all scenarios have a “good” and “bad” ending depending on whether or not the player takes the moral high ground. These added challenges further reinforce the message of the main game.
In a world filled with various dangers, including the threat of governments drifting towards authoritarianism, Frostpunk explores many of these threats and makes it clear how tempting and dangerous the road to an overpowering government is. Through this key mechanic of the City Laws, Frostpunk states that humanity must preserve its morals even in times of crisis otherwise we will destroy what made us worth saving in the first place.
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