Impressive Frostpunk 2 gameplay trailer features footage captured with a Radeon RX 7900 XTX

Last year, 11 bit studios announced that it was partnering with AMD and would work closely with them to integrate and leverage Radeon technologies in its upcoming games on PC and console. This includes FSR 3 and frame generation, which led to 8K gameplay footage of The Invincible running on a PC equipped with an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU.

As a developer, 11 bit studios is known for creating thematically rich, dark, and engaging experiences with hard choices to make - personified with its brilliant post-apocalyptic city builder and sim Frostpunk. Set in a new ice age and a frozen dystopian world, players were presented with making hard choices about who to feed, whether to put children to work and choosing the look and layout of civilian housing.

The combination of narrative and city-building was original and groundbreaking - like a twisted version of Sim City or Cities: Skylines. A critical success, 11 bit announced Frostpunk 2 a while back, but today, we've finally got our first look at gameplay.

With the story now set in the immediate aftermath of an ice age, the focus shifts to rebuilding society - with the same bleak tone that made the original such a memorable experience.

As a Steward in Frostpunk 2, you will oversee an ever-growing metropolis and be required to carefully weigh the needs and demands of its society. Your people are concerned with the fate of their children and crimes on the streets. They complain about unhealthy squalor, escalated by industrial growth, but need places to work. And what if you cannot afford to reward their toil with food and shelter or take care of their health? You can't please everyone, and when radical factions start rising, it only takes a tiny spark for the boiling tension to blow up.

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And it looks fantastic, too, with more detail, more buildings, incredible particle effects, lighting, and art direction. The trailer also hints at some new mechanics, from a more established legal system to deeper control over laws and the type of society you want to build. However, as this is still Frostpunk, there's less than zero chance of creating a utopia.

All gameplay footage seen in the trailer was captured on a Radeon RX 7900 XTX. The game is on track to launch in the first half of 2024 - available on day one for PC Game Pass and then later for Xbox Game Pass with the Xbox Series X|S launch.