Apocalypse Run!

Review

Are you ready for a holiday in the US of A? The one-million-dollar question is, in which state would you start your once-in-a-lifetime journey? For me, I think south; maybe Florida.  Decision made, flight ready and bags successfully stored overhead, the journey begins. All fairly normal. But you won’t believe what happens next?  The apocalypse!  Mid-flight! Surprisingly, we manage to arrive at our destination airport, where we’re holed up for two entire weeks. We finally get to leave the airport and are immediately greeted by a really strange fellow named Dysentery, claiming to be the new master of the land. This guy is really nasty; no ballot votes were needed for his election.  Your holiday has been cut short, and you’re now in the middle of Apocalypse Run!

Apocalypse Run! is a roguelike strategy game developed and self-published by Neurowocky on the 20th of November, 2023, on the Steam platform.

The game consists of three chapters: The Airport, The Drive-In, and another one that I haven’t reached yet. I was really concerned during chapter one; as it seemed that I was dying rather quickly.

But before we get to that, let’s rewind to where you land for your holiday of a lifetime. You are at the airport, and you must create a party of four to start your doomed adventure. Then, you choose your cars. Well, cars and upgrades cost credits, and when you start the game for the first time, you won’t have many of either. You’ll accumulate credits by completing achievements while playing the game. Each time you complete an achievement, you’ll receive an additional credit.  You’ll die fairly quickly in your first few runs, and that is probably because of a few things, one of them being that Dysentery will catch up with you within six turns (are we having curry tonight? Just kidding!). There are two ways you can get rid of Dysentery: one is by playing poker (but you’ll need a straight flush – ha ha), and the other is by fighting him.

The game is presented in two ways: one will be the map of the USA, and the second is the battle, which will be on a small grid-style setup. So, when you start the game from the airport (chapter one), you’ll start your run from the south of the USA. In each turn, you must select one of the two accessible locations. Whichever location you choose, there will be one of many events waiting for you; it could be a fight, it could be a hanging, or it could be a broken-down bus, to name a few.  In each case you have a minimum of three options: leaving, investigating or intervening.  If you choose to intervene, a poker game will await you.  For example, in the case of a hanging, winning at poker will enable you to save the poor individual about to be hanged.  If you lose, they’ll die.  You’ll have some fun with these events, as some of them are quite amusing. Keep in mind that you can always decide to leave without doing anything, which sometimes is the best way to deal with an event.  

As mentioned, battles are set up as a grid. Each car will have a certain number of activation points to use per turn for movement and attacks. What I particularly like in these fights is that the driver and the front passenger will be equipped with a weapon. Depending on the car, you could have a weapon on your roof or on the back of the car. It is quite fun. But be aware, you might lose one or two of your companions if their car or bike (oh yeah, you can ride a bike too) is destroyed. To complete chapter one, you must reach Portland, and do so with as many individuals as possible (four would be great).  You will need these characters in chapter two. You might need to brush up on your American geography as you will have a couple of challenges to overcome on the way.

I must say that even though the game is quite funny right from the first chapter, I was not impressed with the fact that my partner in crime, Piston Smashed™, and I kept dying rather quickly.  Happily, after waiting a while before giving the game another go, a new patch had been released and this imbalance had been rectified.  What a relief! This allowed us to finally progress to chapter two, which is where you begin to see the real potential of the game (and the poker game gets harder, too).

The graphics are fun, and the soundtrack is really good. If the apocalypse comes with that sound, there is nothing to worry about. It's quite a funny game, and I like the different people/factions you converse with and fight against.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com

Apocalypse Run! Steam Store Page