YORKTON - When a game arrives and the mail stub has the weight at more than seven pounds you know it’s going to be a mammoth game.
As it was we had heard Frostpunk – based on a video game – was something of a table hog, and at seven pounds it certainly requires room.
The board is rather normal in scale, but there are a lot of boards tracking food, and weather, and the cold and a bunch of other things.
Put simply there are a lot of ‘moving parts’ here, which initially seemed rather daunting, but give the designer Adam Kwapiński a huge pat on the back in how he addressed the varied elements.
To begin with a game turn is broken down into nine ‘segments’ which really takes the complexity down to a series of bite-sized steps which are quite manageable.
The game plays up to four and when playing with four each player is assigned a ‘perssona’ and that person is basically tasked with keeping track of some of the various tracking boards, again a brilliant approach because it allows a player to focus their attention on a smaller area rather than trying to track everything across the expansive table .
In specific terms, “in Frostpunk: The Board Game, up to four players will take on the role of leaders of a small colony of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world that was hit by a severe ice age. Their duty is to effectively manage both its infrastructure and citizens.
“The core gameplay will be brutal, challenging, and complex, but easy to learn. The citizens won’t just be speechless pieces on the board. Society members will issue demands and react accordingly to the current mood, so every decision and action bears consequences.
The players will decide the fate of their people. Will you treat them like another resource? Are you going to be an inspiring builder, a fearless explorer, or a bright scientist? Is your rule going to be a sting of tyranny or an era of law and equality?”
So, if you like games that are all flowers and smiles – avoid Frostpunk.
If winning is important – avoid Frostpunk.
This game is dark and gritty and deadly.
Yes you are going to watch your colony freeze to death. If they manage to stay warm they starve. Keep them fed and warm and they die when the core explodes.
“Frostpunk is a slow march to oblivion, that I loved at every step,” said Meepler Adam. “It is a co-op game, where you trying to survive to see the next day in a frozen hellscape where resources are limited, and it only gets colder. There are multiple ways to lose the game, all of them depressing in a vacuum, but when playing with people it’s easy to laugh of freezing to death, or overwhelming sickness or the countless other ways you lose them.
“The key to a good co-op game is knowing you are going to lose and lose often, but having gameplay that is compelling enough that you want to try again. Frostpunk does this very well, and while the game does have a lot of moving parts, it does a good job of simplifying those parts, so the game mechanics never feel overwhelming and bog down the player experience. This game is not for everyone, it is long, there are a lot pieces and the theme is dark and depressing, but none of that matters because it turns out slowly freezing to death is a good time.”
Yes, in theory you can survive a scenario, but you know the next day in game time death will still be knocking.
This is climate change realized at its worst, and it’s frankly scary.
But, if you like co-operative games where every little action you take ripples through game play, and the challenge is ginormous, well stop reading this and just buy Frostpunk.
We were aware this would be something special as it comes from the same creators as This War Of Mine, a dark and dreary classic we quite enjoy.
“Frostpunk is an interesting board game that offers a unique experience,” said Meepler Jordan. “The game is set in a frozen, post-apocalyptic world and challenges players to lead a struggling society to survival in the face of harsh conditions.
“The game mechanics are well thought out and perfectly capture the desperation of the situation. Players must make tough decisions and balance the needs of their people with the limited resources available. And while there is always a slight sliver of hope, it feels like you're constantly choosing the least worst way to lose. Speaking of, there's six different ways to lose and only one way to win.”
It looks good too.
“The artwork and design of the game board and components are very nice, adding to the overall experience. The game takes up a lot of room on the table, and looks complicated but the gameplay is broken down into multiple steps that streamline the experience,” said Jordan. “The plastic generator model in the centre of the board looms over the settlement, and dropping coal pips into it to see how stressed it is and if it's going to explode this turn adds more tension to the game.”
And since winning is hard and there are multiple scenarios, once you get this beast to the table you will want a few game sessions devoted to this one.
“The game's replayability feels high, as there are different scenarios and strategies to explore and new challenges to face with each play-through,” said Jordan. “Overall, Frostpunk leaves me wanting to come back for more. It is a challenging and engaging experience that will test your decision-making skills.”
When a game arrives and the mail stub has the weight at more than seven pounds you know it’s going to be a mammoth game.
As it was we had heard Frostpunk – based on a video game – was something of a table hog, and at seven pounds it certainly requires room.
The board is rather normal in scale, but there are a lot of boards tracking food, and weather, and the cold and a bunch of other things.
Put simply there are a lot of ‘moving parts’ here, which initially seemed rather daunting, but give the designer Adam Kwapiński a huge pat on the back in how he addressed the varied elements.
To begin with a game turn is broken down into nine ‘segments’ which really takes the complexity down to a series of bite-sized steps which are quite manageable.
The game plays up to four and when playing with four each player is assigned a ‘perssona’ and that person is basically tasked with keeping track of some of the various tracking boards, again a brilliant approach because it allows a player to focus their attention on a smaller area rather than trying to track everything across the expansive table .
In specific terms, “in Frostpunk: The Board Game, up to four players will take on the role of leaders of a small colony of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world that was hit by a severe ice age. Their duty is to effectively manage both its infrastructure and citizens.
“The core gameplay will be brutal, challenging, and complex, but easy to learn. The citizens won’t just be speechless pieces on the board. Society members will issue demands and react accordingly to the current mood, so every decision and action bears consequences.
The players will decide the fate of their people. Will you treat them like another resource? Are you going to be an inspiring builder, a fearless explorer, or a bright scientist? Is your rule going to be a sting of tyranny or an era of law and equality?”
So, if you like games that are all flowers and smiles – avoid Frostpunk.
If winning is important – avoid Frostpunk.
This game is dark and gritty and deadly.
Yes you are going to watch your colony freeze to death. If they manage to stay warm they starve. Keep them fed and warm and they die when the core explodes.
“Frostpunk is a slow march to oblivion, that I loved at every step,” said Meepler Adam. “It is a co-op game, where you trying to survive to see the next day in a frozen hellscape where resources are limited, and it only gets colder. There are multiple ways to lose the game, all of them depressing in a vacuum, but when playing with people it’s easy to laugh of freezing to death, or overwhelming sickness or the countless other ways you lose them.
“The key to a good co-op game is knowing you are going to lose and lose often, but having gameplay that is compelling enough that you want to try again. Frostpunk does this very well, and while the game does have a lot of moving parts, it does a good job of simplifying those parts, so the game mechanics never feel overwhelming and bog down the player experience. This game is not for everyone, it is long, there are a lot pieces and the theme is dark and depressing, but none of that matters because it turns out slowly freezing to death is a good time.”
Yes, in theory you can survive a scenario, but you know the next day in game time death will still be knocking.
This is climate change realized at its worst, and it’s frankly scary.
But, if you like co-operative games where every little action you take ripples through game play, and the challenge is ginormous, well stop reading this and just buy Frostpunk.
We were aware this would be something special as it comes from the same creators as This War Of Mine, a dark and dreary classic we quite enjoy.
“Frostpunk is an interesting board game that offers a unique experience,” said Meepler Jordan. “The game is set in a frozen, post-apocalyptic world and challenges players to lead a struggling society to survival in the face of harsh conditions.
“The game mechanics are well thought out and perfectly capture the desperation of the situation. Players must make tough decisions and balance the needs of their people with the limited resources available. And while there is always a slight sliver of hope, it feels like you're constantly choosing the least worst way to lose. Speaking of, there's six different ways to lose and only one way to win.”
It looks good too.
“The artwork and design of the game board and components are very nice, adding to the overall experience. The game takes up a lot of room on the table, and looks complicated but the gameplay is broken down into multiple steps that streamline the experience,” said Jordan. “The plastic generator model in the centre of the board looms over the settlement, and dropping coal pips into it to see how stressed it is and if it's going to explode this turn adds more tension to the game.”
And since winning is hard and there are multiple scenarios, once you get this beast to the table you will want a few game sessions devoted to this one.
“The game's replayability feels high, as there are different scenarios and strategies to explore and new challenges to face with each play-through,” said Jordan. “Overall, Frostpunk leaves me wanting to come back for more. It is a challenging and engaging experience that will test your decision-making skills.”
When a game arrives and the mail stub has the weight at more than seven pounds you know it’s going to be a mammoth game.
As it was we had heard Frostpunk – based on a video game – was something of a table hog, and at seven pounds it certainly requires room.
The board is rather normal in scale, but there are a lot of boards tracking food, and weather, and the cold and a bunch of other things.
Put simply there are a lot of ‘moving parts’ here, which initially seemed rather daunting, but give the designer Adam Kwapiński a huge pat on the back in how he addressed the varied elements.
To begin with a game turn is broken down into nine ‘segments’ which really takes the complexity down to a series of bite-sized steps which are quite manageable.
The game plays up to four and when playing with four each player is assigned a ‘perssona’ and that person is basically tasked with keeping track of some of the various tracking boards, again a brilliant approach because it allows a player to focus their attention on a smaller area rather than trying to track everything across the expansive table .
In specific terms, “in Frostpunk: The Board Game, up to four players will take on the role of leaders of a small colony of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world that was hit by a severe ice age. Their duty is to effectively manage both its infrastructure and citizens.
“The core gameplay will be brutal, challenging, and complex, but easy to learn. The citizens won’t just be speechless pieces on the board. Society members will issue demands and react accordingly to the current mood, so every decision and action bears consequences.
The players will decide the fate of their people. Will you treat them like another resource? Are you going to be an inspiring builder, a fearless explorer, or a bright scientist? Is your rule going to be a sting of tyranny or an era of law and equality?”
So, if you like games that are all flowers and smiles – avoid Frostpunk.
If winning is important – avoid Frostpunk.
This game is dark and gritty and deadly.
Yes you are going to watch your colony freeze to death. If they manage to stay warm they starve. Keep them fed and warm and they die when the core explodes.
“Frostpunk is a slow march to oblivion, that I loved at every step,” said Meepler Adam. “It is a co-op game, where you trying to survive to see the next day in a frozen hellscape where resources are limited, and it only gets colder. There are multiple ways to lose the game, all of them depressing in a vacuum, but when playing with people it’s easy to laugh of freezing to death, or overwhelming sickness or the countless other ways you lose them.
“The key to a good co-op game is knowing you are going to lose and lose often, but having gameplay that is compelling enough that you want to try again. Frostpunk does this very well, and while the game does have a lot of moving parts, it does a good job of simplifying those parts, so the game mechanics never feel overwhelming and bog down the player experience. This game is not for everyone, it is long, there are a lot pieces and the theme is dark and depressing, but none of that matters because it turns out slowly freezing to death is a good time.”
Yes, in theory you can survive a scenario, but you know the next day in game time death will still be knocking.
This is climate change realized at its worst, and it’s frankly scary.
But, if you like co-operative games where every little action you take ripples through game play, and the challenge is ginormous, well stop reading this and just buy Frostpunk.
We were aware this would be something special as it comes from the same creators as This War Of Mine, a dark and dreary classic we quite enjoy.
“Frostpunk is an interesting board game that offers a unique experience,” said Meepler Jordan. “The game is set in a frozen, post-apocalyptic world and challenges players to lead a struggling society to survival in the face of harsh conditions.
“The game mechanics are well thought out and perfectly capture the desperation of the situation. Players must make tough decisions and balance the needs of their people with the limited resources available. And while there is always a slight sliver of hope, it feels like you're constantly choosing the least worst way to lose. Speaking of, there's six different ways to lose and only one way to win.”
It looks good too.
“The artwork and design of the game board and components are very nice, adding to the overall experience. The game takes up a lot of room on the table, and looks complicated but the gameplay is broken down into multiple steps that streamline the experience,” said Jordan. “The plastic generator model in the centre of the board looms over the settlement, and dropping coal pips into it to see how stressed it is and if it's going to explode this turn adds more tension to the game.”
And since winning is hard and there are multiple scenarios, once you get this beast to the table you will want a few game sessions devoted to this one.
“The game's replayability feels high, as there are different scenarios and strategies to explore and new challenges to face with each play-through,” said Jordan. “Overall, Frostpunk leaves me wanting to come back for more. It is a challenging and engaging experience that will test your decision-making skills.”
