Set 30 years after the original game, Frostpunk 2 tasks players to take on the role of a leader in an alternate history early 20th century in order to build and manage a city during a catastrophic, worldwide volcanic winter that almost completely destroyed human civilization while making morally and politically controversial choices to ensure its survival.

[2] In addition to the main story campaign, the game also features a sandbox mode named "Utopia Builder".

[8][needs update] In 1886, New London survives the "Great Storm" that followed the collapse of the British Empire, prospering under the leadership of "the Captain".

After 30 years of rule, the Captain is dying, New London is overcrowded, and the Generator - the coal-fired steam engine that has provided heat and power to the city - is running out of fuel.

In the prologue mission, a band of wanderers settles in the remains of an oil-fired Dreadnought train and uses its furnace to make camp before a "Whiteout" storm.

The population starts to further divide into factions, jockeying for power in a newly-formed Council to impose their vision of the future on the city.

Regardless of the action chosen, the game ends once the player succeeds and resolves the conflict, or fails and the city collapses into anarchy.

An Epilogue cutscene summarizes the effect your choices had in the city, as well as the life of Lily May, a child born when the Generator was re-ignited, and who is a teenager by the time of the civil war.

[9] While the original game was about enduring and surviving an apocalypse, the sequel focused more on keeping a city prosperous, building for a better future, and adapting to a new set of challenges and circumstances.

[3] Stokalski added that "Frostpunk 2 is really about this observation that we can only come together so far to overcome the obstacles in front of us, and that ultimately the biggest enemy is always human nature".

[17] By September 24, 2024 (four days after global launch on PC), the game had sold more than 350,000 copies and had already recuperated its development and marketing costs.