Frostpunk 2: Fractured Utopias DLC Review (PC)
Summary: Unfortunately riddled with bugs when it comes to it's DLC-exclusive Tales, Fractured Utopias is a bit of a letdown in some areas. Still, if you're looking for more systems, menus, and some new replayability for what Frostpunk 2 already is when it comes to it's factions, it's a worthwhile update.
3.4
Frostpunk'd
Frostpunk 2 had a rough start, not living up to expectations, dealing with performance issues, and being riddled with bugs – it was quite a departure from the first game. I’m a fan of all of 11bit’s works, and Frostpunk was one of them. And I, similarly, had reservations for this sequel. My main criticism for Frostpunk 2 has been the fact that it lacks a narrative. The original Frostpunk’s strength was, in the end, the variety of campaigns and challenges you can tackle. Frostpunk 2 only has its main campaign, with no fully tailored campaigns added yet, if you don’t count the Utopia mode’s “Tales”.
Frostpunk 2’s first DLC, more than a year later, and none of its previous updates adding any more campaigns, is somewhat of a letdown for that reason. At the same time, that is not this expansion’s task. Fractured Utopias expands on Frostpunk’s Utopia mode, the experience the developers intend players to spend the most time in: building a city with different challenges or Tales attached, and seeing if you can accomplish your goals. If you so wish you can keep playing endlessly, but Utopia mode always felt like it had an ending point to me. Tales, especially the newly added ones with the DLC like the “Plague” tale, add quite a bit of variety. However, the Tales added with the new DLC and update carry a lot of bugs – regrettably. Despite the extensive testing 11bit is known to do for their projects, Fractured Utopias carried quite a few game-breaking bugs that sour the experience.
Fractured Utopias itself intends to add more depth to all the factions that can pop up in a playthrough of Frostpunk 2, giving each one a specific skill tree with new housing appearances, new buildings, mechanics, laws, and story events for each one. It adds on to the factions and lets you build towards each one’s version of a “Utopia”, letting you enact it when all requirements are completed. But as a whole, it does little to break the mould or deepen the game in a meaningful way. Fractured Utopias is a welcome add-on and adds more replayability and depth to your city, but that’s about it.
Fractured Utopias also adds two Tales, the Doomsayer tale and the Plague tale. The Doomsayer tale will have a faction of Doomsayers enter and try to destroy your city, similarly to a familiar faction from Frostpunk 1. And the Plague tale will have a disease possibly infect your city, with districts ending up contaminated and where you may have to quarantine folks, and develop a vaccine. The latter I enjoyed quite a bit – but towards the end I was handed a game-breaking bug that had me reload a save from hours before to hopefully avoid it. The Plague tale is stricken with quite a few bugs, which is unfortunate for this DLC as it’s been cooking for a while.
Final Thoughts
All in all, Fractured Utopias will add some variety and replayability to your playthrough. If you love looking at a built-up city, you’ll certainly enjoy the skyscrapers, arenas, forward operation posts, and more faction-specific structures that all get added with this update. But its lack in quality when it comes to bugs has me feeling a bit miffed by the end of my playthrough. I was expecting more narrative depth, dilemmas, and more, which Frostpunk has been lacking with its factions. Instead, we get an update and add-on to existing mechanics, which doesn’t break new ground at all. 11bit have an immaculate track record to me, but Frostpunk 2 remains a difficult bump in the road for them, unfortunately. I look forward to what their next expansions can offer, though. Other than that, this Captain will keep looking out over their Utopia.
About the Author
Lander Van Poucke Lander is a passionate gamer from Belgium with a flair for the dramatic. Valuing storytelling & narrtive in games, he favours single-player games, RPG's & fighting games for their lore and vast character rosters.
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