Frostpunk 2: Breach of Trust Review

It’s really hot out right now. As I write this review, my air conditioner is working so hard that if I run it and my gaming PC simultaneously, the fuse they’re both hooked up to will blow. Across the US, temperatures are unseasonably high. Europeans are currently suffering from one of the worst heat waves in recent memory. Climate change is real, and it's affecting the entire globe as you read this.

Unlike a few years ago, it’s easy to imagine Frostpunk 2’s dystopian alternate history as a very real possibility. And even though the game’s second expansion, Breach of Trust, focuses less on the weather and more on weather-related phenomena, it’s extremely relevant. The DLC isn’t the best way to play Frostpunk 2, but in spite of its frustrating difficulty spikes, it’s worth purchasing to commiserate about rising temperatures.

Unlike in base Frostpunk 2, Breach of Trust saves you the trouble of building a colony from scratch. You’re given control of New Edinburgh, which all things considered, is as close to a utopia as it gets in the frozen world. Built next to an active volcano, you don’t have to devote all your energy to keeping your citizens warm. Instead, your focus is on contending with earthquakes and various other environmental hazards. You’re also forced to deal with one of your colonies that went rogue, and a new set of factions.

Despite Breach of Trust minimising the importance of one of Frostpunk 2’s main mechanics, and changing small aspects of others, it’s still just more Frostpunk. Punishing, satisfying, and incredibly depressing, the DLC is effectively the same as the base game. It simply gives you a new set of crises to survive. The ever-present worries of feeding and housing your citizens still exist here. But, assuming you’re mildly skilled at city builders, they’re easy enough to deal with. The catastrophes you deal with, though, are seldom of your own creation.

That’s Breach of Trust’s greatest strength, and greatest weakness. Even by Frostpunk standards, it’s brutally difficult. A single natural disaster can end your run, so you always need to remain vigilant about stockpiling supplies for when the inevitable happens. If an earthquake hits your warehouses, though, you’re just kind of screwed. It feels almost random whether or not you’ll make it to the end of the DLC’s five-hour-long story. 

From a gameplay perspective, Breach of Trust is frequently frustrating. It continually tests your skills, and occasionally throws problems at you that no amount of planning can prevent. The DLC isn’t for the faint of heart, and whether that’s your cup of post-apocalyptic tea is up to you. However, the same isn’t true for the narrative, which is deeply unsettling. The expansion’s story itself isn’t anything to write home about. It's another bleak, well-written story from 11 bit studios.

But the way its mechanics interact with the game’s themes as a whole are where the expansion shines. Your city is hit by disasters unpredictably. All you can do is hope you don’t get ruined, then try to clean up the mess. How you play politics after a chunk of your population gets wiped out and how you rebuild vital infrastructure are real-world issues that the base game only touched on. Breach of Trust puts those issues front and centre, and makes it impossible not to see the non-fictional parallels the developers were obviously trying to make.

‍Breach of Trust is still a tough sell. It’s expensive for what it offers, and you’ll only get the most out of it if you’re already invested in Frostpunk’s lore or gameplay systems. Although the DLC’s mechanics differ slightly from the base game’s, it’s essentially more of the same. The expansion is meant for people who mastered Frostpunk 2, and are willing to put up with some annoyances for a rewarding experience that delves deep into a hot-button issue. Like stepping outside during a heatwave, Breach of Trust can be exhausting. But if you enjoy introspection alongside a serious challenge, there’s plenty of both here.