Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice Review for iOS

Winter is in the air (at least theoretically – I live in California so it’s currently 65 degrees and sunny), and what better way to celebrate the start of December than with a frosty city builder sim? Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice is a new mobile port of the beloved 2018 city survival game, which I played on the iPad. The premise is simple but compelling: a new ice age is sweeping across the 19^th-century world, forcing people to build settlements in the wilderness, arranged in concentric circles around a single towering generator. After a brief tutorial in which citizens of your new settlement walk you through the game mechanics, the controls are in your hands.

Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice follows in the footsteps of games like Diablo Immortal and SimCity BuildIt, taking an existing game and modifying it for a mobile environment, with all the advantages (free to play) and disadvantages (microtransactions and ads). This means that the playstyle ends up being quite different on iOS than on PC or console, to the point that many players of the PC game have described Beyond the Ice as a totally different experience. I can’t speak to that, since I haven’t played the original, but given how different the Diablo and SimCity mobile apps were from their respective base games, I can understand it.

Speaking of SimCity BuildIt, I went through a phase last December where I played it obsessively on my iPad (my beloved SimCity 4 couldn’t run on my computer anymore), and I have to say that the playstyle of Beyond the Ice is very similar. There’s a lot of grinding for resources, constantly tapping the screen to collect coal, wood, food, and consumer goods that you can trade with your townspeople for more interesting items. Resources take a fixed amount of time to generate, so there’s a certain amount of waiting for the countdown clock to tick down until you can collect your goods. Fortunately, there’s usually other things you can be doing at the same time, like upgrading your buildings, laying out new roads, and putting up resources for sale in the trading house. It’s up to you how to divide your time, and it’s fun to come up with strategies to maximize your resources efficiently.

For me, the most frustrating part was getting ahold of enough shillings, one of the in-game currencies. Shillings are generated by building dwellings and collecting taxes, but they generate slowly. When you have a long list of buildings to make, roads to upgrade, and settlements to expand, it can be agonizing to watch your bank account tick up by one or two shillings when you need closer to 100 or 150.

Unless, of course, you spend real-world money on “supply packs,” which can consist of shillings, materials, and resources – the more money you spend, the more you get. Enter the dreaded microtransactions. I will say that I didn’t feel compelled to spend any money during my playthrough, and you can enjoy the game without the supply boxes. However, I’ve seen other reviewers talk about how the fascinating ethical choices of the original Frostpunk have been boiled down to how much real-world money you’re willing to spend in Beyond the Ice, which is a shame.

Now that I’ve spent a while talking about the shortcomings of the game, let’s move onto happier topics. The graphics of Beyond the Ice are stunning (except for some of the supply box graphics, which have an overly glossy AI-generated look), and the wintery art style is perfect for this time of year. Living in California, I don’t get many opportunities to experience the ice and snow, so cranking up the in-game heat and listening to the virtual winds howl was a lot of fun. The atmosphere is moody, cold, and a bit steampunk, with beautifully painted cutscenes that play when you level your city up or reach an important milestone. The graphics are smooth with almost no lag, and the idea of a circular city is quite innovative compared to the typical grid layout. You do get occasional pop-up ads, and I wish there was a way to hide the chat feature, but for a mobile game the HUD is pretty well laid-out. Looking at screenshots of the original PC/console game, I think they did a solid job of adapting the controls for a touchscreen.

Overall, Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice is a fun way to kill a few hours on slow December nights, losing yourself in the immersive winter world and watching your circular steampunk city grow and develop before your eyes. I don’t know that I would play it long-term, and fans of the original game will likely be unhappy with the microtransactions and emphasis on timed resource-grinding. But it’s decently put together, and I can definitely see myself checking back in from time-to-time to upgrade my buildings and maybe pass some new tax laws.

6/10

You can download Frostpunk: Beyond the Ice via the App Store and Google Play.

Related: Reviews by Ian Robinson-Lambert

Ian Robinson-Lambert

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I've loved video games ever since I started playing Mario Kart on my parents' Wii back in seventh grade. These days, you can find me playing a mix of historical RPGs and horror (shout-out to Assassin's Creed and Resident Evil). I also love a good puzzle, and of course I still have a soft spot for the Super Mario series!

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