Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice review - "Your mobile device is frozen"

• The Frostpunk story in mobile form
• Build a city, manage survivors, and meet demands
• You'll fall behind so rush to pick up the slack

When it comes to adding a mobile entry to a series, there are a few routes you can take. The standard is just to make the same one, but smaller and more casual. It seems that Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice has gone the interesting route of recreating (more or less) the first game but for the mobile platform thanks to the efforts of Com2uS.

As expected, it's a 3D city-building management experience emphasizing survival. It's chilling to look at, which is odd since mobile gaming is a pretty cosy activity, but that can be overlooked if it can stand alongside its predecessors.

What is Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice?

Whenever you create a universe, you're free to plop down stories that take place at any time and any location you feel fits the story. In Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice, it may be going for a parallel story of sorts. The setting is a version of the world in the late 19th century where a second ice age suddenly hit and decimated the world.

Cities were shut down and abandoned, many people froze to death, and the survivors banded together to search for salvation. They lost many of their numbers while wandering, but eventually came across a functioning coal generator.

With that, they decide to base their entire society around a piece of technology built in one of the most inconvenient locations possible.

Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice is cool

Considering the huge scale of the first two in the Frostpunk series, it's quite impressive how much Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice was able to translate to the mobile world. It maintains the tone and vibes of the other titles while still feeling compact. Even with all the UI elements and pop-up icons, you feel the icy severity of the situation. Things may move slowly, but you can't let your guard down or all of a sudden you're out of fuel. It does have some idle elements, but it's very clear that you need to be a very proactive leader and manager.

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That being said, this one always has something for you to do. There will always be requests, and resources will be dwindling, requiring you to harvest more or build more facilities. Despite being a management sim, the cold never stops, and while you're collecting what's needed to build something you need to grow, people are starving.

There are places where automation can handle some of the tasks, but the important things don't happen unless you're directly involved. Collecting, harvesting, producing, gifting, and signing are just a few of the jobs you need to attend to if you want people to like you - oh, and if you want to survive.

The chilling side of Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice

It would be very easy to critique and comment on this by comparing it to others in the series, but Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice should be judged on its own. The first judgment comes in how the mobile gameplay conflicts with the tone of the setting. This is a very serious scenario you find yourself in, but with all the icons popping up and pleasant glowing UI, it tends to take you out of that. In a way, that is the nature of mobile, to be light and casual, but in this case, the matchup may not be the best.

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You know what else is not the best? People and their demands. Meeting the demands and requests of the people in your city is a big part of your job, but they appear almost too frequently. There is motivation to complete as many as possible for the rewards, but it can quickly start to feel like you're constantly spinning plates on a rocking horse in a tornado. To top it off, if you're unable to fulfil their requests or need the resources that they're asking for to help the city, then your approval rating drops.

Following the approval train of thought, it also likes to keep you in a state of "never good enough". It's the nature of sims like this to make you feel like you're never ahead, but this is a mobile game.

This is something that I want to open up for a few minutes and put away now that I've made even a bit of progress. Whenever you step away, you come back just to realize everything has sunk to new lows. Some things can be fixed somewhat quickly, but most require you to build more stuff and by the time you're done, things have gotten worse so that you need to build more.

Seeking Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice

Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice is a 3D city-builder and management sim about trying to help people build and survive a brutal ice age. The atmosphere and visuals come through well on the mobile platform and keep you very active whenever you decide to pull up your city. 

However, with everything that you're expected to do and constantly being on the edge of doom, it starts to feel more like doing work than playing. But sometimes, it's not all fun and, well, games - they're serious business about fighting the cold, survival, and finding a way beyond the ice.