Announced a couple of years ago, Frostpunk 2, the sequel to brilliantly bleak city-builder, Frostpunk, is on track for a 2024 release on PC. Developer 11-bit studios announced the release window alongside the debut of a new cinematic trailer for the game. One that really captures the tone of the original, albeit in a more industrial-oil-fire-gone-wrong way.

Although it's a shame that we don't get in-game footage or screenshots we do know that the game is set thirty years after the events of the original, with a new story and focus on 'The City' and its society. What made the original so fascinating was the stark and often catastrophic decisions you had to make just to keep people alive.

Thirty years have passed since the vicious storm that concluded the first chapter of humankind's survival story in Frostpunk. The City, settled around the Generator and its life-giving warmth, grew and progressed as the years ticked on. Years of whiteouts have changed the world, giving it a clean slate with which to write a new post-apocalyptic part of its story. Despite the noose of oppression again starting to tighten on a society that is struggling for life-preserving supplies—and increasingly bothered by inner squabbles after recent events—the world is once again facing an era of possibly prolific expansion.

Most notably, however, people changed. And once they feel like they’ve tamed the frost, and the bonding survival instinct has faded, their human nature will come into play, driven by ambition that could spiral The City into the fall.

“Frostpunk 2 is still a game about the City and its society,” states Jakub Stokalski, game Co-Director and Design Director at 11 bit studios. “But this time the inner turmoils, sparked by rising social differences, mean that players will be facing new kinds of threats that are beyond the bare survival from the first game. We still use that postapocalyptic, frozen setup, to tell a meaningful story about human ambition, societies striving for their ideas, and the consequences of hard decisions which are not always respected by everyone. Because ultimately, what can end us is not nature itself - it's human nature.”

This one is high up on our list of city-builders, offering a very different slice of simulation compared to something like the upcoming Cities Skylines II.

For more on Frostpunk check out our review of the first game and our review of the recent boardgame adaptation.

Related: Frostpunk Review

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Related: Frostpunk: The Board Game Review

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