Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday
released on Dec 31, 1990
It's 2456. Earth is under the control of NEO now, but the shadow of RAM is still present. Occasional attacks by RAM military are explained away as "acts of overanxious officers and "unfortunate lapses of judgement." NEO scrambles to rebuild a shattered planet and build the forces required to fend off the RAM attack it feels is inevitable. "Buck Rogers!" The name is everywhere. "Buck Rogers and NEO victory at Gauntlet- Vid at eleven." The Video Network News, people talking on the streets of old Earth, even in the furthest asteroid outposts--Buck Rogers and NEO are everywhere. There is a feeling of hope now. After years of domination, RAM no longer holds old Earth, and NEO is finally able to make a real stand against the corporate behemoth. Victories, real and exaggerated, boost NEO confidence daily. NEO ranks are swelling with new recruits -young people who never before felt they could make a difference. Your team is assembled from those ranks. Each member has made his or her way to Chicagorg with plans to join the war against RAM supremacy. Each has visions of great victories, glory, and lasting fame--like Buck Rogers.... To play Countdown to Doomsday, you must make characters and band them together into a team. The team must have a variety of talents and skills to survive and finally succeed.
Reviews View More
Solidly enjoyable sci-fi gold box rpg and a pretty good console port (albeit with some things simplified/cut for space). The short run time of around 10 or so hours ensures it doesn't wear out its welcome. Has a straightforward plot that takes you across various planets and a number of optional sidequests.
It can be easy to land yourself in a bad spot so keeping a backup save from before the start of a mission is advised. The game boasts a pretty good number of decisions and skill-checks that can alter how scenarios play out, mostly in the form of granting you rewards for passing checks or making the "right" choice, but occasionally with some brief divergent gameplay paths.
Like many older rpgs there are a handful of skills with limited use (looking at you 'library use' and 'rocket repair') and others that are practically mandatory, but your 6-man party offers enough flexibility you should be able to easily cover everything you need and then some.
Combat is simplistic early on due to the mostly ranged nature of combat minimizing the effectiveness of positioning, though this becomes more necessary later on as aoe explosion attacks become more and more prevalent among enemy types. Plus there's a variety of different grenade types with varying effects.
Not an all time great, but a game that's easy to enjoy and could easily serve as a great introduction to older crpgs for those curious but that struggle with some of the more complex or esoteric games in the genre.
It can be easy to land yourself in a bad spot so keeping a backup save from before the start of a mission is advised. The game boasts a pretty good number of decisions and skill-checks that can alter how scenarios play out, mostly in the form of granting you rewards for passing checks or making the "right" choice, but occasionally with some brief divergent gameplay paths.
Like many older rpgs there are a handful of skills with limited use (looking at you 'library use' and 'rocket repair') and others that are practically mandatory, but your 6-man party offers enough flexibility you should be able to easily cover everything you need and then some.
Combat is simplistic early on due to the mostly ranged nature of combat minimizing the effectiveness of positioning, though this becomes more necessary later on as aoe explosion attacks become more and more prevalent among enemy types. Plus there's a variety of different grenade types with varying effects.
Not an all time great, but a game that's easy to enjoy and could easily serve as a great introduction to older crpgs for those curious but that struggle with some of the more complex or esoteric games in the genre.
Grilka's leg itches for a moment.
Grilka notices a slowly spreading rash.
Grilka gets a splitting headache.
Grilka suddenly keels over.
Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday doesn't try to hide its TTRPG roots. Thanks to its extremely rudimentary UI and use of text to communicate pretty much everything that goes on, it plays and feels very much like a TTRPG campaign. And thanks to the power of human imagination, a game that communicates via text rather than in-game graphics can be a very effective experience if the writing is strong enough.
Grilka suddenly awakens screaming, eyes unfocused. Grilka attacks.
(after the battle) Jurgen's leg itches for a moment.
And much of the writing in Countdown is very, very strong. The quotes above are taken from an early mission where you are exploring a derelict ship with no human survivors, security robots and monstrous aliens are trying to kill you, and meanwhile something unseen and terrifying is happening to your party - the narrator breaks off from his usual flowery writing style, and the minimalistic descriptions of your symptoms really turn up the sense of tension.
When I was a kid I wasn't a fan of the game because its presentation was so primitive compared to nearly everything else I was playing at the time. The tilesets are nearly identical, there's very little graphical detail onscreen, and the music, while not terrible, sounds amateurishly arranged seemingly exclusively on a stadium organ. The two times I played it as an adult? I had an absolute blast saving the inner solar system with my ragtag bunch of NEO recruits based on sci-fi characters, real-world personalities, and personal friends.
Unlike many of its contemporaries whose dungeons (no matter how well-designed) boil down to "open some chests, find and beat the boss", Countdown really leverages on its writing to create missions that feel organic and natural. Nearly every room you enter at the very least yields some flavorful worldbuilding or useful information. Occasionally you get more significant events or choices to make: when you successfully infiltrate a base and are being given the VIP treatment by your enemies, when do you blow your cover (if at all?) Your objectives will determine how you should act in these situations, and thankfully - whether to gather information and remain undetected, escape captivity on a pirate ship, or storm an enemy base to rescue an ally - these goals are always clear.
The game also has its share of weaknesses, some small and some large. It handles the poison status in the most asinine way, treating it as a one-hit KO that keeps the affected character down for at least 2 fights. It's one of the naggiest games ever, repeatedly telling me YOUR TEAMMATE IS DYING!! right after I've tried and failed at first aid several times. Its character creation and stat/skill system seems to be lifted entirely from the tabletop ruleset and is entirely too complex for what the game is trying to do, leading to some very opaque mechanics and needless decision paralysis. But all those are excusable as long as the combat is pretty good (it is), the exploration is rewarding (it is), and the writing is strong (it is... for most of the game!) Turns out the real "Countdown to Doomsday" was the countdown to release date on a tight development schedule - that's the only explanation I have for the markedly weaker writing in the back half, culminating in an extremely lackluster final mission with rooms and corridors devoid of any flavortext and progression walled behind extremely phoned-in fetch quests. The Doomsday machine alluded to in the title goes down with a fart rather than a BOOM and it's kinda disappointing really.
This is a game I wish for a remake of, unrealistic as it is. Having it run on the engine of something like Shadowrun Returns would be amazing! As it is, it's a flawed game but a very strong one, unique in many ways in the Genesis library, and deserving of much more appreciation. I can't believe how few plays this has - if anyone reading this has an itch to replay a classic Dragon Quest or Phantasy Star, maybe give this one a try instead. Half an hour should be enough to know if it's for you or not!
Grilka notices a slowly spreading rash.
Grilka gets a splitting headache.
Grilka suddenly keels over.
Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday doesn't try to hide its TTRPG roots. Thanks to its extremely rudimentary UI and use of text to communicate pretty much everything that goes on, it plays and feels very much like a TTRPG campaign. And thanks to the power of human imagination, a game that communicates via text rather than in-game graphics can be a very effective experience if the writing is strong enough.
Grilka suddenly awakens screaming, eyes unfocused. Grilka attacks.
(after the battle) Jurgen's leg itches for a moment.
And much of the writing in Countdown is very, very strong. The quotes above are taken from an early mission where you are exploring a derelict ship with no human survivors, security robots and monstrous aliens are trying to kill you, and meanwhile something unseen and terrifying is happening to your party - the narrator breaks off from his usual flowery writing style, and the minimalistic descriptions of your symptoms really turn up the sense of tension.
When I was a kid I wasn't a fan of the game because its presentation was so primitive compared to nearly everything else I was playing at the time. The tilesets are nearly identical, there's very little graphical detail onscreen, and the music, while not terrible, sounds amateurishly arranged seemingly exclusively on a stadium organ. The two times I played it as an adult? I had an absolute blast saving the inner solar system with my ragtag bunch of NEO recruits based on sci-fi characters, real-world personalities, and personal friends.
Unlike many of its contemporaries whose dungeons (no matter how well-designed) boil down to "open some chests, find and beat the boss", Countdown really leverages on its writing to create missions that feel organic and natural. Nearly every room you enter at the very least yields some flavorful worldbuilding or useful information. Occasionally you get more significant events or choices to make: when you successfully infiltrate a base and are being given the VIP treatment by your enemies, when do you blow your cover (if at all?) Your objectives will determine how you should act in these situations, and thankfully - whether to gather information and remain undetected, escape captivity on a pirate ship, or storm an enemy base to rescue an ally - these goals are always clear.
The game also has its share of weaknesses, some small and some large. It handles the poison status in the most asinine way, treating it as a one-hit KO that keeps the affected character down for at least 2 fights. It's one of the naggiest games ever, repeatedly telling me YOUR TEAMMATE IS DYING!! right after I've tried and failed at first aid several times. Its character creation and stat/skill system seems to be lifted entirely from the tabletop ruleset and is entirely too complex for what the game is trying to do, leading to some very opaque mechanics and needless decision paralysis. But all those are excusable as long as the combat is pretty good (it is), the exploration is rewarding (it is), and the writing is strong (it is... for most of the game!) Turns out the real "Countdown to Doomsday" was the countdown to release date on a tight development schedule - that's the only explanation I have for the markedly weaker writing in the back half, culminating in an extremely lackluster final mission with rooms and corridors devoid of any flavortext and progression walled behind extremely phoned-in fetch quests. The Doomsday machine alluded to in the title goes down with a fart rather than a BOOM and it's kinda disappointing really.
This is a game I wish for a remake of, unrealistic as it is. Having it run on the engine of something like Shadowrun Returns would be amazing! As it is, it's a flawed game but a very strong one, unique in many ways in the Genesis library, and deserving of much more appreciation. I can't believe how few plays this has - if anyone reading this has an itch to replay a classic Dragon Quest or Phantasy Star, maybe give this one a try instead. Half an hour should be enough to know if it's for you or not!