A
fter another year that
felt as if it’s hidden a
few extra years inside
of it, it’s the season to
be grateful that I’m
warm and cosy inside when outside
it’s anything but. Time for the game
that takes the meaning of winter
blues to a whole new level.
The very premise of Frostpunk
always made me apprehensive to
pick it up. It’s not just a city builder
about building, a management
sim about management. Instead, it’s
about compromising and watching
well-laid plans fail. As realistic as that
is, I just want my little virtual citizens
to be happy and whole.
On the outside, there’s no reason
for my instant attachment. Frostpunk
doesn’t let you zoom in closely to
your citizens. They’re just a bunch of
grey-cloaked Johns, Jameses, and
Marias, but they’re all equally worthy
of my attention. They’re modest, too.
They just want shelter, a place to
work, and a way to treat their sick.
I’ve built whole civilizations,
micromanaged the lives of tiny
humans and designed theme parks
with enough distance between food
stands and rollercoasters to stop
visitors from barfing immediately, but
this is a colossal task.A HARD DAY’S NIGHT
Frostpunk wields my citizens against
me by using them to demonstrate the
consequences of my actions. I will
never forget the man so terrified of
an amputation that he begged me not
to go through with it. He died as a
result of my actions. Not just a
number that blinked out at the end of
a hard day, but someone I built a
graveyard for and whose family could
only take a single day off to mourn
him. Elsewhere, a man gets up at
2am to build a street I’ve carelesslydecided on. When he falls ill, I feel
terrible. Not wanting to raise anyone’s
ire, I dole out medical posts like
candy and let people languish at
home whenever the temperature
drops to critical levels until I can
afford to keep everyone warm.
Although Frostpunk confronts
you with extremes, it makes me
wonder what being in a position of
responsibility such as this would be
like. It’s likely I would internalize the
issues of my constituents to the point
of paralysis. Every notification seems
to herald the arrival of a problem. If
this is what being a world leader is
like, I’m not surprised that little gets
done. I start to consider real-world
cases of people lacking the bare
necessities and the time it seems to
take to restore supply lines after a
disaster. Shouldn’t there be more
people who feel equally frantic to
help in these situations as I do now?
Frostpunk makes its position
clear—people should survive and
work together to create a space that
makes life worth living. It’s this
decisiveness I miss in real life. If
anything, Frostpunk has heightened
my conviction that sometimes you
need to look after the few to
understand the needs of the many.MALINDY HETFIELD
THIS MONTH
Trying to please
at -40 degrees.ALSO PLAYED
Mutant: Year Zero,
WandersongTrying to be a woman of the people in FROSTPUNK.
“You need to look after the few to
understand the needs of the many”
NOT WANTING TO RAISE
ANYONE’S IRE, I DOLE OUT
MEDICAL POSTS LIKE CANDYFrostpunk is, to put it
mildly, quite bleak.Medical posts will help with
the many injuries I’ve caused.EXTRA LIFE
NOW PLAYING (^) I UPDATE I REINSTALL I WHY I LOVE I MUS T P L A Y