Frostpunk 2 Preview and Q&A – Developers Explain Focus on Politics, Praise AMD FSR 3

wccftech.com:

It's been over two years since Frostpunk 2 was announced by 11 bit Studios. Finally, the Polish developer invited Wccftech and other outlets for a press preview conducted remotely. The presentation began with a pre-recorded look at the new Utopia Builder.

The developers clarified the sequel takes place around thirty years after the events seen in the first game. Having survived the worst of the Great Storm, 11 bit Studios wanted to explore what came next. In Frostpunk 2, the scale will be much bigger, as what might have been the whole city after a successful playthrough of the previous installment is now just the central district of a burgeoning metropolis.

Not only will players get to build several districts, but the time scale is also going to be much wider, going up to years over the course of a long playthrough. As a result, the whole economy had to be adjusted to work on a supply and demand system.

That's not to say resources won't have to be well-managed. It is entirely possible to bungle it up and struggle with cold, hunger, and disease. However, the focus in Frostpunk 2 is more on the society side.

Since the Great Storm, two groups have risen with opposite mindsets: the Engineers, who value industrial and technical solutions to the city's problems, and the Foragers, who survived outside the cities and are skeptical of relying on technology to solve their problems. When players build the Research Institute, they'll be able to side with one or the other community in the so-called Idea Tree. For example, the Foragers would like to produce more food using human waste, while the Engineers want to use chemicals to make the soil more fertile.

Each community will have a reaction to the player's choices as a leader.