Frostpunk 2

watched a guy stream it the other night. seems VERY different from the first one in a lot of ways, but in a good way. i'll get it but i wont pay full price for it

More of a survival game with rts mechs from what I remember

Well I picked it up and played through the campaign. It's not a bad game, but I liked the original Frostpunk significantly better.

My main gripes are around the base building process and social aspect.

I really don't like that you just place large districts that then fill themselves out as compared to the original that was much more citybuilder like. I liked building a tight city with high specificity as opposed to just plopping down large districts here.

The other complaint is its tilted way too far toward managing the four factions. Essentially the environment has become just the background you are guide through as you desperately try to keep your four kids from ripping the house apart, and I don't like that. I much more enjoyed FP1's balance of environment first and social mechanics behind that.

These are 100% subjective though. It's a fine game if you enjoy those mechanics. I'll probably come back around to ir when DLCs hit, but won't spend much time in it inbetween.