Featured Indie Game
Frostpunk
By Yorch la Torch
Frostpunk is all about human resilience.Set in an alternate XIX century where a brutal winter has broken human civilization, the few survivors must cling to every bit of hope to keep society afloat. Frostpunk puts you in charge of managing every resource and scavenging to keep your people warm and healthy. Each scenario revolves around maintaining a coal-powered generator that produces heat to keep your citizens alive and the surrounding buildings functional. If you cannot keep your society warm, individuals may sicken and die.
The world of Frostpunk is brutal. Temperatures drop, resources are scarce, and hunters need to look for raw food. This is all orchestrated in day and night cycles that emulate work shifts. During the day, your people will gather resources, and prepare meals for others. At nightime they may rest, but only if you allow it at the cost of increasing your populace's despair.
Frostpunk is a combination of city-building, resource management, technological advancement, and societal governance. You decide how many workers will gather wood or tend to the ill. Will you focus on gathering food or scavenging for resources? Will you enforce 24-hour work shifts? Will you employ child labor? Will your medics become pragmatic when dealing with sickness, or will the terminally ill receive proper care, even if it means they become a burden on your resources?
While you ponder all these decisions, the game's hauntingly beautiful soundtrack, composed by Piotr Musiał, plays in the background. Each string note evokes hope, desperation, struggle, or inventiveness. It is one of the game's highlights and contributes to a memorable and moving experience.
Frostpunk's key feature is its ability to evoke emotion and moral dilemmas. The weight of each decision, the struggle of watching your people suffer, and the fleeting moments of triumph when you pull through a harsh storm—these are the experiences that stay with you long after you've finished a gameplay session.
On a final note, Frostpunk's tutorial immerses you immediately in the game. It is far from being a litany of words and mechanics you must learn. I find this valuable, especially for gamers with time constraints.
I highly recommend Frostpunk, particularly to all those late-30s to mid-40s gamers like myself who struggle to discover a good game to play in today's massive digital game market.
Frostpunk has a Game Value Score of 149. It is currently discounted at the PlayStation store. You can check more details at GVS