How did it come to this? Public executions are being made in the name of a divine ruler. Propaganda hangs from buildings. None of us in our right minds would implement these regimes, and yet in Frostpunk I did. What drove me there? I didn't suddenly lose my mind; I did it because it was better than the alternative. I did it to survive.
Like developer 11 bit Studio's previous game This War of Mine, this is where Frostpunk exists, on the edge of coping, where you're always put between a rock and a hard place. You never make a decision in the game from a position of comfort - a mixture of dwindling resources and ever worsening cold ensure that. You never have quite enough. You think you're safe and then something happens to wrongfoot you, be it a scripted event or the temperature plummeting again. It's a heart-pumping scrabble for survival, a thrill I've never felt in a city builder. As I hung on towards the campaign's end, I genuinely held my breath.
In Frostpunk you're in charge of building the last city on a completely frozen Earth, and you're up against it from the off. The temperature is -20 degrees and you need to find coal to keep your generator stoked for warmth, wood to build shelters for your people, and food to feed them. Around you lay piles of coal, wood and steel, and you assign groups of people - workers or engineers - to gather them.