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Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday

Review

This tactical RPG challenges you to lead the NEO rebels against the RAM superpower in a post-apocalyptic solar system.

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday was developed and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) and released for MS-DOS in 1990, the same year as the original Commodore 64/Amiga versions.


							Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday cover
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About Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday

The game is a science fiction role playing experience where players manage a team of six operatives for the New Earth Organization. This group is a resistance movement on a future Earth that has become subservient to the RAM superpower, which extracts the planet's resources from its base near Mercury.

Characters are created by selecting from various professions, including Warrior, Medic, and Engineer, and from several races such as Human, Martian, and Venusian. The narrative context involves the protagonist, Buck Rogers, a cryogenically preserved soldier from the past, awakening to this new political reality and aligning with the NEO cause.

Gameplay involves multiple navigation layers. Travel between planets occurs on a top down map of the solar system where space combat can occur. Upon landing, exploration shifts to a local map and then into first person for specific buildings or hostile zones. Turn based tactical combat is presented from an isometric viewpoint, with characters moved as icons across a battlefield.

The setting depicts a colonized solar system where former Earth colonies have shifted the balance of power. The player's party, as new NEO recruits, is trained and then deployed into this conflict. The game's mechanics and interface share similarities with other role playing games of its period, despite its futuristic theme.

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday Screenshots

10 images
Strategic Simulations, Inc. presents... (notice how the company logo is much smoother than other SSI games...futuristic approach it seems)
The 25th Century Buck Rogers
Countdown to Doomsday - Main Menu
Character creation: Standard AD&D protocol - Select race, class, reroll stats, distribute skill points, etc.
Main Menu
Character creation: Choose character icons.
Earth is in trouble...
Rookies just before their first important mission.
Welcome to Salvation! Primary Headquaters of the NEO Resistance, this is the base of your operations and starting port to furture adventures. Oh, most services here are free!
This is your commanding officer, waving you farewell on your first mission. Later on, you will report to him for every mission.