Endzone - A World Apart
Preview
Entertaining Existentialism
EA SCOUT the last line of defense for buying on Steam's Early Access
by Nathan Rowland
previewed on PC
Making a difference
Having the opening dialogue spoken by a young girl, railing against the failures of previous generations, paying the price for destroying the world before their time. But now, eager for their chance to make things right is an extremely salient narrative drawing a direct comparison to such activists as Greta Thunberg and the climate change crisis the world is facing today. Its a compelling basis on which to situate a survival strategy game. And Endzone - A World Apart is all about survival, at the most granular level.
It bears many similarities to Banished with its town management systems as well as a steep learning curve to the uninitiated, with a complex web of systems in place determining the health and condition of both your town and its individual residents. Thankfully, the game provides a comprehensive tutorial, unlike Banished, which covers the majority of the games systems and unique building chains. It is still a lot of information to consume over the course of three hours, so its hard to describe it as a tutorial and instead as an introductory scenario. What the tutorial does not do a great job of is explaining is the meaning behind its jargon. Some game effects and building functions can get particularly in-depth and obscure in their purpose i.e. rain collectors contaminating the land should they become clogged with irradiated water. Mentioning these off-handed in the tutorial amongst lengthy monologues can become cumbersome to understanding the multitude of mechanics that the game offers.
Stop and Go
Yet, Endzone is far quicker in pace to other strategy titles, should you effectively organise your settlements progression. Early resources can become abundant if carefully managed. Yet, it is equally easy to run before youve learnt how to walk. If you do not pay close attention to your resource chains, you can soon find yourself stretched too thin with supplies and, short of demolishing most of your demanding buildings, you will spiral towards a social collapse in your settlement as longer campaigns will present increasing challenges in the form of deadly environmental effects (radiation, toxic rain, sandstorms & droughts).
Its not the prettiest game either. I had the same issue with Rise of Industry: 2130. Choosing a post-apocalyptic setting seems to limit developers into having an unattractive wash to their games colour palette. Titles like Frostpunk did well circumventing this by creating a good tonal contrast between the harsh blues and blacks of unscouted territory and the dense snow and the warm oranges & reds of reclaimed territory and its burning fires. I feel its almost a necessity that strategy games like Endzone need to be very aesthetically pretty or I wont enjoy poring through its menus and systems quite as much.
Armageddon wasnt built in a day
The game can either by played in a scaling survival mode setting, with sliders adjusting map size, the availability of natural resources and in general, how easy it will be for your settlers to navigate their environment. Seven scenarios are also currently available, tasking you to complete goal-oriented objectives to win in its own themed world. These choices range from: discovering all variations of plant-life as part of a bet to creating a settlement that lasts 250 seasons and establishes the new centre of the world as a result. These scenarios do some good to vary up the structure of construction and the rate of challenges that youll face, but I still find the variety of deadly conditions lacking. Once youve got an effective routine going amongst your community, defeat isnt really that likely. That being said, more systems are clearly coming with the developers introducing a decree system in September and who knows what in the months beyond. Theyve also included a neat feature to copy the seed of your map so you and a friend can play alongside each other on the same ground, so to speak. Its not the most elegant of multiplayer experiences, but its not nothing.
Finally, the developers have a roadmap available on the main menu, where you can see what game systems are currently in place, what is being developed in the current month and whats on the horizon. Its a level of transparency which is very much appreciated in early access titles, as I often feel many titles struggle with the stigma that such a moniker infers.
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Recommend
There are no guarantees - but we'd bet our own money on this one. If you're going to take a chance with yours, odds are good this one will deliver.
