Playing Frostpunk sometimes is like reading a historical account of some fatuous, ineffectual king who failed upward into a position of power. “Idealistic but impractical, he invested heavily in schools. But the children stopped being able to write when their fingers fell off due to frostbite.” Compared to the constant, escalating crises of Frostpunk, every other city management game feels like Farmville. And as well as being a brilliant exercise in humility, it’s also a useful way of learning to say no to people. Or ‘yes’, if the question is ‘should we keep working even if it kills us’. It sounds grim, but Frostpunk is so good that you’ll suffer this and more just for a scintilla of success.
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