Games Like Frostpunk
Frostpunk is a dystopian 4x strategy game. Players have to contend with increasingly freezing conditions while gathering resources, exploring the world, and managing the hope and discontentment of civilians. It has a steep learning curve that tends to best cater to the min-max gamer. No games are exactly the same or offer the exact same combination of harrowing decision-making, resource gathering, and citizen management. But there are some games like Frostpunk in their gameplay or the harrowing decisions you have to make.
9 Games Like Frostpunk
Below are 9 games like Frostpunk on various platforms. We have also written a list of games like Frostpunk: The Board Game if you prefer plastic to pixels.
1. This War Of Mine
- Platform: PC, Mac, iOS, Android, Xbox, Playstation, Switch
- Release Date: 2014
This War Of Mine was the breakout game from the makers of Frostpunk. It’s a survival strategy game where the player takes on the role of a group of survivors during a fictional war. The aim is to stay alive until help arrives, typically 40 to 50 days into the story.
Upgrade your shelter, go on looting runs every night, and make tough decisions on who to help and whether to risk it all for the possibility of powerful loot.
It’s those genuinely difficult decisions, harrowing depictions of the situation, and the careful management of player character morale that makes this similar to This War Of Mine.
While the game is nearly ten years old, its gritty setting means the graphics don’t suffer. It is well worth a play if you’re into strategy and shelter games.
2. Fallout Shelter
- Platform: PC, iOS, Android, Xbox, Playstation, Switch
- Release Date: 2015
If you’re looking for a post-apocalyptic game world, look no further than the Fallout series of games. While most titles are role-playing games, Fallout Shelter offers something a little different. Rather than playing a vault dweller after they leave the vault, Fallout Shelter puts you in charge of a Vault-Tec vault and its residents.
In Fallout style, it is nowhere near as grim as Frostpunk, but there is resource management and you send vault dwellers out into the wilderness to scavenge resources, so there are similarities to Frostpunk.
It’s a simple game without many complexities, but it is a fun way to waste a few hours.
3. Surviving Mars
- Platform: PC, Mac, Xbox, Playstation
- Release Date: 2018
Surviving Mars has several similarities to Frostpunk. Rather than freezing conditions, you have to worry about oxygen levels so you will have oxygen generators rather than steam hubs.
But if you fail to provide the necessary oxygen, the result will be the same as if your colony had frozen to death. Your population also has specific requirements and traits, but Surviving Mars lacks the moral dilemmas of Frostpunk.
You do have to build, upgrade, and keep your population happy. There is a relatively steep learning curve because there aren’t really any tutorials, but once you get the hang of the mechanics, Surviving Mars is a lot easier than Frostpunk. If you do want a similar challenge, you will have to play on the hardest difficulty and ramp up the natural disasters.
4. Northgard
- Platform: PC, Mac, Android, Xbox, Playstation, Switch
- Release Date: 2017
Northgard is a Real Time Strategy game where players take charge of a clan of Vikings. It’s a great premise, especially if you like games like Age of Empires. And there is plenty to like about Northgard as you explore and expand.
Choose from 6 different clans in the base game, with more available in DLC packs. Different clans have different traits and there are multiple mythical beasts to battle.
There is also the threat of oncoming winter when food becomes more difficult to come by. The harsh winter carries a similar threat to the storms of Frostpunk.
There’s a good campaign story mode, but the game’s pacing can leave you sat idle for literally hours on end. If you’re on PC there are better RTS options, but if you’re on console, it is a decent option.
5. Anno 1800
- Platform: PC, Xbox, Playstation
- Release Date: 2019
Anno 1800 is a city builder and is the 7th title in a long-running series. Whereas the last couple of games took the series to a futuristic era, 1800 returns to its roots of a historical 4x city builder.
Anno 1800 is a tricky game, especially for series newcomers, and resource management is vital to your success. So, too, is trading and diplomacy. While there is no trading in Frostpunk, you can view your attempts to stop the Londoners as a form of diplomacy so there are similarities.
Managing your economy in Anno 1800 bears some similarities to the frosty aforementioned title.
6. Impact Winter
- Platform: PC, Xbox, Playstation
- Release Date: 2017
An impact winter is a prolonged period of cold weather caused by an asteroid or comet striking earth.
Impact Winter is a survival game that has the player managing a small group of survivors during an impact winter. The player takes the role of Jacob, the leader of a group of five survivors. Your group also includes a survival expert, an engineer, a cook/nurse, a computer expert, and a drone sidekick.
As well as building and kitting out your shelter, you can also progress each of the characters and give them certain specialties. Each specialty or skill you give a group member comes with advantages and disadvantages, so there are decisions to be made.
The game is heavily focused on exploration and is similar to This War Of Mine in that respect. It’s also a survival as you start with a deadline of 30 days before you’re rescued. And the cold is prevalent.
If you enjoy This War Of Mine, you will like the Impact Winter’s premise, at least.
But, on launch, the game was riddled with bugs, and while Mojo Bones has patched some of these, there are still some big problems. Also, while there is combat in the game, it is something that you will likely avoid. Finally, while you do have an initial 30-day rescue timeline, you can reduce this by earning Rescue Points. It takes away some of the desperation and feels odd.
7. Surviving The Aftermath
- Platform: PC, Xbox, Playstation, Switch
- Release Date: 2019
One thing that is prevalent in Frostpunk, other than snow, is suffering. The player has to deal with everything from forced amputations to the impending threat of being cast out into the hellish cold. Even if you make what feels like the optimum decision, everything can quickly come crashing down around you.
Surviving The Aftermath is a post-apocalyptic civ builder and it shares this feeling of impending catastrophe. It also shares Frostpunk’s feeling that your entire colony is permanently ill. You’ll face regular pandemics, water shortages, and attacks from hostiles.
Surviving The Aftermath isn’t perfect. It can feel slow and it suffers poor controls on console, which is common in console strategy ports, but it doesn’t make the experience any less painful. But, if you persevere, there is a good game waiting for you.
8. Rimworld
- Platform: PC, Mac, Xbox, Playstation
- Release Date: 2013
Rimworld is a top-down civilization management, city builder. It can feel a bit slow, but where Rimworld excels and where it is similar to Frostpunk is in the fact that your settlers aren’t perfect.
In Frostpunk, there are moments where workers essentially refuse to work, and your decision-making will impact your other citizens. Rimworld has similar mechanics. Banish a civilian because they’re ill and somebody might suffer an attack of guilt and refuse to work.
You also have some civilians who don’t socialize well, and not all civilians can perform all tasks, typically because they lack the education or knowledge.
It is this decision-making that poses the real threat in Rimworld, too. Everything might be going well. Resources are being gathered and buildings are being upgraded. But if one of your people has a full psychotic break, it will all come crashing down.
The game is on the slower side, and if you need 3D, great-looking graphics, Rimworld won’t be to your tastes. But if you want a game that places an onus on decision-making and where you will grow to love and hate your people as individuals, Rimworld is for you.
9. The Long Dark
- Platform: PC, Mac, Xbox, Playstation, Switch
- Release Date: 2014
The Long Dark is a first-person survival so its gameplay isn’t particularly like Frostpunk. Yes, you do have to collect resources, and while there is combat, the biggest threat comes from the cold conditions.
So, there are similarities. If you’re looking for something to sate your desire for whiteouts, The Long Dark will certainly quench that thirst. One of the reasons we’ve included it is because we love the game and feel it deserves more attention. But, you won’t be managing civilization and crafting is basic.
What’s more, if you don’t enjoy the start of the game, the rest will feel like an unbearable trudge, but if you don’t enjoy the game, well, you’re wrong.
