Judgement: Apocalypse Survival Simulation Review

The Basics

Hell has literally broken loose, and unfortunately, it's spilling out all over earth. A relaxing camping trip turns into a scene from a horror movie as demons and devils straight from the 9th circle begin to appear across earth. Welcome to the new world. Welcome to the hellscape. Welcome to Judgement: The Apocalypse Survival Simulation.

Story & Flow

There's not much story outside of the description above, and you don't really even need that much. You take control of a few survivors just as the gates of hell open up, and while no one really knows what is going on, you do know that earth is most likely screwed. There is some talk of waiting for the military to come and rescue you, but your survivors quickly realize that you must overcome the worst on your own if you hope to survive. 

Although Judgment does have combat, it's a building sim first and foremost, and you'll do a lot of it, with things like base building, resource management and technology advancement taking up most of your time. You'll need beds to rest your weary survivors (stats and effectiveness goes down when your people have a bad case of the sleepies), cabins to house your beds, research tables etc. in, barricades and walls to create choke-points and slow the advancement of the demonic hordes, resource gathering points and more are all things to take into consideration. If you build your gardens or mining points far from your cabin, you are going to spend way too much time walking to and fro, so you have to think critically (and tactically) about where you build. Everything fits nicely on the square grid, and the overhead angle with the ability to zoom allows for easy viewing from an aerial perspective, but also enough depth to not totally be top down.

The combat is a fairly simple but mostly fun affair, and how you fare largely depends on how well you've outfitted your survivors, who and how you choose to fight, and how you use your people. You have to know when to hold and when to fold, as they say, and running like a coward can keep you alive when you are outmatched. Your survivor begins with random traits, a mildly customizable look and one of five professions: Survivalist, Fighter, Occultist, Engineer or Priest. Their profession determines what tasks they're good at and their individual skill tree, i.e. Engineers build, Fighters fight, Survivors can quickly collect things, etc. Knowing which survivor to place in which specific role is key.

The maps are randomly generated, as are your survivors, but you usually start in a forest, and you'll have to chop down trees, mine stone, draw water from wells and scavenge from scrap piles and abandoned camps to expand. Later on, you'll be able to mine for metals and other more "advanced" supplies, allowing you to craft higher-quality items and a wide variety of structures. You'll build clubs, bows and arrows and more to defend yourself against the demons, and when you get your "the demons have sighted you" warning and a countdown to conflict begins, it's a heart racing blast to start locking down your camp, crafting more weapons and prepping, all while cursing yourself as you realize the vulnerabilities you've left open.

Resource management falls into several categories, mostly food, water, scrap, research, and occult. From there you have various subsections of items that are added to your inventory, like wood, clay, stone, different types of food, and other building materials. In order to make anything, you must first have the requisite resources, which leads to a lot of chopping down trees to turn them into planks, to turn them into shacks, so you can house an occult research station, so you can cure lycanthropy, etc. It's a good idea (pretty much crucial), to always have your survivors doing something, even if it's just chopping wood. There's nothing worse than having your glorious building plan (or desperate bid to survive an impending demon attack) derailed because you have 6 fewer wood than you need and one less stone.

Technology advancement unlocks new things you can make, such as new weapons or tools in order to get better quality resources. You can make different gear for your different survivors, and also level up their skills to be better at a lot of things, from combat to cooking, which is crucial when foraging new areas or when random events pop up. These events range from traveling traders to demonic scouting parties, and you have to be ready for anything, especially when permadeath reigns supreme. Putting together the right team for the right job and sending them out to scavenge can net you big rewards, but you also run the risk of one of your team coming back with something sinister.

Graphics & Sound

I would liken the color pallet of JASS to be gritty-realistic. Since it takes place out in the wilderness there are a lot of greens, browns and shades of red. Visually the game is built on a grid with a top down perspective, allowing for clear and concise placement of objects and buildings. However the zoom and variants in the sprites of the game are diverse enough to not feel too clunky or claustrophobic.

The audio quality is also very atmospheric, giving a haunting vibe that lingers in the background and never feels too intrusive.