Composer REACTS 😱 FROSTPUNK - The City Must Survive 

If you play Frostpunk and get to the end-phase of a campaign, this song is truly haunting; you've built your city, stockpiled your resources, zoned everything as perfectly as you can, handed out edicts to help survival as much as possible. The final phase *has no gameplay*. You *sit there*, waiting for your city to either survive the ultimate cold front, or fade into silence. This song is all that plays during the sequence. The anxiety you feel is palpable; you're not sure if there was more you could have done, more you could have made, better ways to have played.

When its -150° but your city runs on coal:

This part of the game is literally just about holding out and surviving a massive storm. There is nothing you can do to fight it. Nothing you can do to lessen its effects. The sheer power of nature has come to unleash its wrath upon you and you must sit there, keeping your city alive at all costs, while the temperature drops to well below -100°C and your city begins to come apart at the seams. All you can do is hold on, and wait for it to end. This song is nature telling humanity to lay down and die, but humanity refuses.

Sir, it's a miracle! The man who went looking for his daughter is back. He brought her with him! He says that he found her soon after leaving the city, but then they got lost and had to wait for a lull in the blizzard to find their way back. They are both exhausted and frostbitten, but very happy.

Frostpunk is a city building simulator but still managed to be one of the most intense gaming experiences i've ever had. Amazing game with an incredible OST.

Son: "Hi dad, I have a question. Why did mom name my sister Rose?" Dad: "Well son, a rose is your mother's favourite thing, so she named your sister Rose." Son: "Ah that makes sense, thanks dad!" Dad: "No problem... *Violin Section of the City Must Survive Song* "

Remember to throw the corpses of the children to the generator if necessary , the city must survive at all cost

the cold reach -150. your generator upgraded to the max. tents upgraded to houses. and people still freezing to death

One of my favorite game soundtracks of all time, the immersion is insane, it's as if you were in the city and felt the impending doom of the storm and struggle for survival

The music honestly makes it feel like the opening to an HBO or Netflix original

Went into a 2 hour frost punk session, came out 16 hours later. thanks dramatic music with zero words to tell you how long its been.

My interpretation of the falling violins that keep falling is that they're meant to represent the drop in temperature. Because when you think it couldn't drop anymore (See: when it's -120), it suddenly "goes up again" (aka it seems warm in comparison to what's to come) and THEN drops again. It just keeps dropping. and you don't know when it's going to stop

Frostpunk is a great city builder, but when this shows up? It fits perfectly.

„THE CITY MUST SURVIVE!” I tell myslef as I see the -150°C storm approaching the city full of sick, starving and scared to death people.

Close all doors and windows! Light up the last piles of coal! Hold onto your loved ones and prevail! THE CITY MUST SURVIVE!

The klaxons blare their shrill alarm, steam whistles screaming defiantly through the still air of the city; then the people scream too. The Coal mines empty of workers as fast as the Foremen orders them to, the engineers set the Automatons to automatically feed the furnaces, greasing their gears and praying it’s enough. City Watchmen call out and guide the citizens into their homes, before retreating to their own while they can. No drunkard dare step outside nor riot fill the street; Not this Night. The orphaned children lay huddled in corners of the Boarding house, and sickly patients stacked from floor to ceiling in the hospital draw quiet save the occasional moan or cough, the Doctors quietly turning to Prayer over Medicine.. The last of the Airships are stowed in their hangars, as the Hunters make safe their Zeppelin Steeds, and the City Beacon; shining aloft to guide the final Scouting party home; is hastily lowered from the sky as the last hint of blue is swiftly engulfed by Black; They won’t be coming home.. Doors slam shut, windows are shuttered, and every lantern, wood stove and coal furnace is alight tonight. As the Streets go dark, the Frost descends into the City like a Wrathful Biblical Spirit, and no amount of lamb’s blood over the doors will keep the Specter of Death at bay. Glass shatters from the instant chill, walls and shutters buckle and shake, as cold gusts force through every gap in every wall, no matter how small, piercing like knives regardless of how many blankets or Furs you hide in. The Captain feels his sweat freeze to his brow, even as he carefully watches every gauge and pressure check of the City’s Steam Core, it’s Iron Bulkhead glowing red hot, and streaks of yellow as it threatens to blow. Entire streets are buried in drifts of snow, those trapped in their homes soon find themselves as frozen statues clinging to dying furnaces. The heated Greenhouses buckle under the wind, killing all the irreplaceable crops instantly. The last automaton slumps in the street, spilling its final load of coal uselessly in the street as its clockwork limbs seize up. The Cleric says one final prayer for his congregation, all their drawn desperate faces looking toward him, pale, eyes unblinking and flecked with ice, not one of them draws breath. One Engineer braves the cold and stumbles to the City Core, his legs unfazed by the cold, as he lost them to frostbite months ago, only to Find the Core bleeding steam and pressure valves bursting, the Captain still valiantly sitting at his post, frozen dead at the Core controls, a hasty barely legible note scrawled beside him. ‘I tried” A flash of White in the Deafening Black, the final Breath as The Last City of Man… Dies.

As someone who grew up with winter storms that I loved listening to, those little moments of tension relief are like the lulls in the wind that you get to hear every ten or so minutes, the wind gives a brief lull and then starts howling again. Its like you listen to the storm breathing in the song.

I won’t ever forget my first city. All I could do was watch as my city slowly died out with this song playing. It was slow. But horrific to know I could have done better. I should have been more strict and pushed my people to survive.

this song feels like an arduous march. where if you fall, you die and those with you WILL leave you behind, as they can't spare the strength to carry you, its as simple as that. haunting, truly.

You can imagine the firemen screaming at the shovelers to keep shovelling coal while the engineers are trying to tease out every bit of warmth from the Generator without making it explode… And the stockpiles dwindle rapidly…

Such a damn good game. You can really see how easy it is to turn into a dictatorship or authoritarian regime

I remember when I first got to this stage of the game, with that track on a loop. I had failed six times, and far too many set backs to be counted. I had managed to save up some coal, the health care infrastructure is absolutely overwhelmed, and dwindling food storage that already had little left, and the worst part was that it was just the beginning of the end. I saw that all I had to do, was get it past two weeks, just last two weeks. I understood in order for the city to survive I needed to triage the sick, so the strain on my medical infrastructure would at least lessen, and to make all the left food last as long as possible, I had to turn off heating in places where it was way to frozen and open up the cookhouses for the last time so they would cook up all the raw food that was left. At first it seemed as it was enough, but discontent kept growing, as the sick skyrocketed in numbers, I had to execute one of the people, it wasn’t the first time, but this made me question myself, if I had done this instead of that, I wouldn’t have needed to sacrifice this many people in the name of survival, but I was the only one who could have gotten them this far. I needed to fear monger for a little while longer until everything goes back to normal. The bells kept ringing as the death toll kept on getting bigger, a realisation came even if the city survives there will be to little amount of people to even enjoy it, but there was nothing I could do about it now, all I can do is wait. Then there was a riot in the city, asking of me either to build another infirmary, or to treat all of the sick, of course it was problem that I couldn’t ignore and it was a pretty sizeable group, but I couldn’t address it either, so I had to dispatch the guards, of course this wasn’t optimal, but I didn’t have the resources to build another infirmary, and the sick weren’t going to disappear no matter what, they had to go back to work and stop slacking of. As time passed I was losing hope that my city would survive, the already low supplies were getting lower, with coal being an exception, as it was falling visibly slower. I know I could have done better, I could have done everything better, but I definitely could have done worse like those other six times, but the question was: what exactly could have I done better? As I pondered about that, many people died, it made me feel guilty, I wanted to say that it wasn’t my fault, or that there wasn’t anything I could have done, but the fact is there was something I could’ve done, and in turn it meant that it was my fault, only if I knew better what I was doing, or had known what was going to come of it, or even what was going to happen. At the end I could have only blamed no one else, but myself. The end of the storm was near but death was nearer, with temperatures dropping to -150°C, starving, cold, and gravely sick people, pulling threw the coldest storms, surviving on shear will and spite, surviving against all odds and pushing threw the hardest times. I was honestly surprised how they managed to survive this long, with the frozen shut infirmaries, but the end was near, and we’re on humanities last hair, the last city on earth, just a little while longer, and we could see the end of the finish line, we were so close, and we survived, but not without a cost. Over a hundred and seventy people died, doesn’t seem that much but all of us were the last humans, in the last city, on the frozen wasteland called earth, with about 67 left, and in the end there was a question, was it worth it?

Some would call this boss fight music. But there is no fight. There is only a boss. And there is nothing you can do except batten down the hatches and keep your hand firmly frozen to the overdrive lever

This entire track is genius. The string section is a variation of the opening theme of the game, when you start building your city. It's contemplative and filled with expectation: "What will you do?" Then, at the end, after you've had to make all sorts of horrible decisions to keep the city alive one more day, it returns saying "What have you done? Was it worth it?" And, like other commenters pointed out, this plays during the final crisis, where a humongous storm falls down on the city and you can do nothing but endure it and pray that all you did to prepare was enough. Even those tension releases you pointed out fit into this: it's your city faltering. It's those moments where you fall down to one knee and wonder "can't I just give up?", only for the tension to start building again as you clench your fist and keep walking. You can't give up, the city must survive.

Whats great about the Frostpunk OST in its whole is theres a few leitmotiffs that happen in various songs and all portray a different emotion, either by dread, somber, hopefullness, existentialism. Its a worth checking out in whole.

Anyone can react to the song but it will never be as impactful as the first time you hear it while playing the game.

This track comes at the final event for the city where a super cold storm threats to wipe your city and the last of humanity. The whole section its intense since you are on your last food reserves, coal and the power plant its on overload....your citizens are struggling and dying and may riot. Any wrong step and your city its doomed. Its a very fitting track for the whole situation. I loved it every second

The music of the final exam

I'm in America, so I used the Fahrenheit option. Around -190 is when the storm lightened slightly. And then it dropped. And kept dropping. That was the most helpless I'd ever felt in a game, unable to stop a natural event from happening. It finally stopped at -234°F, but those 5 secodns felt like 5 hours. There was nothing I could do. The amount of futility the storm hits you with in the few hours of -150 C/-234 F is insane. Even with a fully stocked city, there's a thought that resurfaces constantly that screams, "You will die." In those 5 seconds the temperature drops, you have no idea how far down it will go. I've nevrr feared the cold before I heard The City Must Survive and suffered thrigh those few hours early morning.

Survival at any cost. That is the message I hear when listening to this. Piotr Musiał did a great job at putting what I feel like would be the emotions of every single person in your city as they try to wait out the freezing storm, not knowing their own fates and hoping they are prepared for a storm they stand no chance against alone. I don't know the terms for things like this but I like how it has low notes that sorta jab with each second to build tension with each second that passes. It fits the game. At this point when this song starts playing, you cannot do anything. All that could be done to prepare for the storm was already done and all that is left to do now is to watch as the final boss that is the Earth itself slowly rips away at everything you built. Will they survive? Will they die? Only time will tell, and I feel this song does a great job at focusing on the passing of time and building the tension as the strain on the city itself also builds. I cannot wait for Frostfall 2 to release to see what kind of masterpiece I hope it will be. Especially the music.

Holy wow I was not expecting... that! Gonna need to check the composer for sure

i like to think of the violins as humanity, the bass as the cold, the bass.... the cold hammers down constantly, overtaking everything, but every single time the strings, humanity, is at the end, pushing through the storm

Sad that nobody seems to look at Into the Storm as a companion piece, or really look at it at all. It's also a great song and is quite important as a general representation of the state of things.

I didn't realize I needed an electric guitar cover of this song before I saw you do it.

Turn up the overdrive! The city must survive!

No one has done it, at least not done it well. Please cover this song with that guitar. I NEED to hear those descending strings and bass trombone through that guitar.

I think the best way to explain how the music goes is at the beginning. Feels like a warning that there is an impending doom coming that you cannot prepare yourself fully and then it dies down and then when it hits the top Mark again in a sense. That's when you the player start tries to fix all your your Cole buildings and your hot houses and then as the music goes on it just feels like so much dread has entered the room but there's just a gleaming bit of Hope that you could make it but you don't know cuz tension and panic is tinkering at every single interval. At least that's how I interpret it

This song give me goosebumps, holy shit!

Even with the most upgraded stuff in the game... You still have to run the furnace on overdrive and risk blowing it up to keep the houses from freezing.

Hands down the best music I have ever heard in my life

The Shepherd, the best song of frostpunk

That accent that you keep pointing out? That's the Generator thumping away, keeping your citizens alive.

Solid reaction video to an amazing piece of music. Addutional respect for the Meshuggah album in the background ^^

Thank you for reacting to this song, absolutely the most memorable moment of that game was when the final countdown begun and that (what I can only assume was) violin solo came on that shit blew me away, I love this song.

Only on my actual playthrough of the game did I finally clock that the entire arrangement is supposed to be a take on Nature vs Industry. The string ensemble taking plenty of cues from Vivaldi's winter and representing the storm/wind, the deep and bassy brass being the counterpoint of this raw coal burning blot on the landscape trying it's very best to be heard through the strings. The intro is heavily string dominated with the brass growing into the piece before we get the excellent call-response around 2:49 and the polyphonic fight at 3:10. Eventually nature wins completely in the finale (final section of the game is impossible to heat your city, just waiting for the storm to pass over). Really incredible piece and I love when the story it tells is so clear as long as your ears are open!

Cool Video

Honestly I bought frostpunk for the soundtrack, but I stayed for the game.

I still vividly remember sitting and staring in slack-jawed panic as the storm approached its peak and I saw *even more* temperature drops upcoming. This music is part of what of what made that emotional crescendo in the game so impactful, and even now years later it never fails to give me goosbumps.

the city must survive! Otherwise, why did I work in the mine 24 hours a day, eat sawdust soup and obey the captain? [good analysis of the composition, thank you, I liked it]

I love how composers can translate stories into music.

This is a pretty accurate depiction of Britain when the price of insulation went up

your butholl puckers when this song plays. all you work and preparation comes to this point. you work that you ha6ve enough coal to keep people from freezing. the number of people who get sick rises. the an in the peak people refuse to go to work through terror of the end

my favourite part of the song is that one violin (think it's a violin) that plays 2 notes repeatedly but in a way that sounds like a hospital's EKG (the machine that beeps in tune with the patient's heartrate) as to me it seems to invoke the feeling of it being the city's heartbeat

Cool mention about accents, you helped me a lot to understand a music! Thanks a lot! And your gouitar ic cool too

Really hope he does team fortress 2 one day because it genuinely has amazing big band spy jazz type stuff Mixed with like electric guitars, Enio Moricone and Theremins He could do “The calm” and “The Medic”

When the City Builder game has a Final Boss.

Let's go to eat sawdust soup and mankind in moonshine 😋

2:16 yes, pretty cool. -150C to be exact

This is the boss music of Frostpunk

I recommend “the end of war” from the hoi4 battle for the Bosphorus soundtrack

i bought frostpunk after seeing markiplier play it, the intro of the main storyline gave me goosebumps and still does, that narrator has real skills

I... didn't knew i need an electric guitar cover of THE CITY MUST SURVIVE... please more.

Omg yes finally

Wow the city must survive is A. Is there an S? Man, this song always gives me goosebumps everytime i hear it. I can't get used to it

I play this song every time I have to walk to the bus in bad weather-- to remind myself the weather could be worse

That guitar at the end. We need a full cover of that ASAP. The Captain demands it.

What I love about that song is how mechanical it feels.

When you saw rain drop in blizzard and realised is CO2 not water !!

this makes you shit your pants while you're playing

Plz react to Reab's Lament (God of War Ragnarok ost)♡

after this one, Iron Harvest main theme (Overture For A New World) is necessary!

Discontent falls Hope rises

Oh ! That so cold .

Boss fight

That violin is -150.

can u react tp lost ark sountracks? damw for arkesia and astalgia of phantasm

This composition is a masterpiece When it kicks in you know shit is bad and its going to get a lot worse Legit gave thousands of people PTSD as it kicks in and the citizens screams in panic, then the temperature swivels down to an infernal -150C' and you can almost feel the hellish blizzard of the storm from the screen as mother nature proceeds to absolute devastate everything... except that crazy gigachad who went to save his daughter and miraculously came back in the middle of the inferno (at least in my game)

-150C is cold enough for the air to begin to break down into its constituent components, and the snow becomes dry ice rather than frozen water; in fact you're not far off from oxygen becoming liquid form at that temperature. Thermometers cease to be useful as the ethanol inside them freezes solid. To go outside unprotected even for the briefest moment would guarantee a painful death as your lungs would be destroyed by the cold air and the blood in your heart becomes cold enough to stop the organ functioning. Even a modern spacesuit would only make a short venture of a few minutes survivable, and no suit you could make with Victorian material science would be good enough to protect from temperatures like that. That's the level of cold that your citizens are subjected to in the last storm. That's the chill that the city must survive.

Russian politicians be like: Western Europe be like in the next upcoming winter. General Winter is coming. Flee to Russia, winter is coming. THEY F ACTUALLY MEAN IT LOL F...