Frostpunk
No matter how dire and depressing Frostpunk made me feel, I for some reason keep spreading this false sense of hope to get more wood.
Frostpunk is a city-builder with a nightmare narrative. As of this review, there are 3 playable campaigns each with their own stories, strengths, and weaknesses. It reminded me of Starcraft 2's campaigns where each faction would have a different end goal. I've played through each campaign fully twice providing an engaging gameplay loop that is difficult to put down. The development tree is full of upgrades but as leader of your society need to prioritize and decide what your people need. Making decisions that hold no real-world weight has never been more difficult. Your ability to create laws is where a majority of variety comes in the gameplay. Building up a faith that turns into a full-fledged religion or specializing in propaganda and control of information. There is no lack of branching upgrade paths.
When looking back, Frostpunk was easily one of my favorite gaming experiences of 2018, when given a prompt, I found myself constantly checking my morals to the point where for each playthrough I created a code of ethics. If you are interested in a narrative-driven city building experience, look no further than Frostpunk.
