Screenshot: Endzone: A World Apart
I love city builder and population management games, especially when they break from conventional.
Frostpunk was a great example of a post-apocalyptic setting for a city builder, and playing it made me want more games where you control a group of settlers struggling to survive after the collapse of society. I always wanted to play one where you lead a group of survivors in a post-nuclear world,
Fallout style. While
Endzone – A World Apart doesn’t exactly fit
Fallout’s motif, it’s close enough that I feel like Preston Garvey would approve me helping this settlement of post-apocalyptic survivors.
Endzone- A World Apart has you take control of a group of survivors after a nuclear catastrophe. Radioactive fallout lands invisible on the ground. Society is shattered, and the ruins of the old world dot the landscape. You’ll have to have your settlers scavenge for supplies, build structures for shelter, and rediscover lost technologies to bear the weight of increased population. But to even get there, you’ll need to establish food and water sources that won’t irradiate your settlers too quickly while fending off droughts, sandstorms and radioactive rain.
Screenshot: Endzone: A World Apart
The world of
Endzone—A World Apart is not a wasteland. It’s full of trees and wildlife and dotted with mountains and lakes. Even so, radiation is a constant threat, settling on the ground, in ruins and generally everywhere you want to be. You can always go through the lengthy process of radiation removal/mitigation, though at first it’s probably best to just work around it--especially if it’s before your settlers have proper protective equipment to work around it. With the proper equipment and technology acquired, you can even start sending out explorers to dive into the ruins of the old world, as well as scrappers to make use of materials that you can’t easily produce in your town.
If you’re new to city builders or games where you have to manage a population against harsh environments, there is a tutorial that can get you started. If you’re a veteran of this type of game, the scenarios can challenge you, either to play differently or more carefully as you guide your settlers through a variety of difficult situations—or challenge you to achieve specific goals. Right now there are only a small handful of scenarios, but I’d really like to see a few more added in.
Screenshot: Endzone: A World Apart
Endzone—A World Apart is still in Early Access, and while it’s a fun game to play now, it can definitely use some balance updates. Time is already a strange thing in city builders, and in
Endzone, it’s extremely fast. Children grow into adults in the passing of only a few seasons—and it takes weeks to cut down an entire tree. It also feels like there aren’t that many technology options to choose from. Recently added is the ability to trade/barter materials with traders from far away towns—something that was sorely missing. But also a good sign that the devs are listening to community feedback.
According to
Endzone—A World Apart’s Steam Early Access page, it will be in Early Access for about a year, with potentially more development time added on as needed. The developers are actively working on the game, and taking community feedback—which is a good sign for healthy forward development. I’m excited to see how
Endzone ends up taking shape—it’s full of potential, and has already shaped up to be a solid city builder.
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