Frostpunk

I thought this was going to be a depressing hard choices simulator, which kept me away for a long time. When I finally gave it a shot I was surprised at how much it's about endurance, hope, and human ingenuity. It's definitely not easy, but you can not just survive but thrive. (It's kind of a shame that once you thrive the game basically plays itself, but you can consider that a reward.)
Can you imagine... living in a society where people are willing to work together to do what is necessary to survive a world-threatening climate disaster?

What a hard, stressful and frustrating game.
Recommended.
On a more serious note, I originally thought this was a city builder, but it felt more like a resource management puzzle game. You have to gather coal, wood, steel and food in order to make sure that your population stays warm and fed. This might sound easy, but before you know it everyone is suddenly starving or ill (or both), and if they get too angry or lose all hope then they'll be coming for your neck (meaning game over).
The reason it feels like a puzzle game is that each scenario starts out being very challenging for the first couple of days/weeks, but once you "crack the code" and get off to a decent start, the game pretty much plays itself.
My only complaint is that in the game it is possible to send out scout expeditions to look for resources or survivors, however some of the locations that you come across have a 50/50 chance to either give you some much needed resources, or kill your scouts (meaning you also lose all the resources they were carrying). You can of course choose to ignore those locations, but on the hardest difficulty they're very much needed, and unless you're willing to risk losing the game on the spot there's really only one solution - save scumming.
Other than that I definitely recommend Frostpunk as long as you're NOT looking for a calm and relaxing game.

Bought this on a whim as it was massively discounted! Started playing at 1am, thinking I'll just check out what this game is about quick before bed... It's 7am and oh my lord! That was INTENSE!
I can't believe I survived it all, the drama of this game is surreal! Was totally locked it by the story and the mission! Would buy again, even if it wasn't discounted, would be worth every penny! Will definitely be sinking more hours in. Now... time for bed... Phew.

The Circle of Life
- Children mine coal.
- Coal keeps the generator running.
- Generator keeps children warm.
- Children stay warm enough to keep mining coal.
10/10 Would create an infinite energy source again.

Little Timmy came to us as a refugee, got put into the coal mines on a 24h emergency shift and died.
All in one day!
What more could you want?

I like to play this game in the winter and open up my window to let the cold in so that i can feel 10% of the discomfort that these people feel everyday. The game is great, it’s a hard, stressful and frustrating. "THE CITY MUST SURVIVE" i tell myself while making the most morally abhorrent decisions. 11/10 will make the children work 24hrs shifts in coal mines again.

Imagine complaining about the lack of prosthetic fingers available on the market after surviving a mass-extinction event where you are only one of a few thousand living organisms left on a now-frozen Earth.
Devs completely understand mankind. 11/10.