Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday is a cult Sci-Fi adventure RPG developed and published by Strategic Simulation Inc. in 1990. The game also ported to several different platforms, such as Amiga, Commodore 64, and Sega Genesis.

The universe of Bak Rogers is quite extensive and at one time made a significant contribution to the popularization of space adventures, both for comics and television, as well as for future fantastic works by various authors. But even if you do not want to go into all the details of the universe, the plot of this game is fully self-sufficient and is quite capable of existing separately from the main story.

The action of Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday takes place in 2419, and in order to appreciate the full extent of what is happening, we need to return to the past (into our real past, not in the game), and specifically - in 1928. It was then that the Artist Philip Nolan drew his graphic novel called “Armageddon 2419 A.D.”, the main character of which was a former soldier Anthony Rogers (later nicknamed “Buck” Rogers). Rogers himself, according to the plot of the novel, was born in 1898, went through the First World War and after its completion he worked for the American Radioactive Gas Corporation. Exploring unusual phenomena in an abandoned mine in Pennsylvania, Rogers fell under a collapse and, breathing in an unknown radioactive gas, fell into a state of suspended animation, in which he lay under the rubble for as long as 492 years. Waking up in 2419, Rogers discovers that during this time the orders on earth have changed quite a lot ...

Well, the backstory of the "Armageddon 2419 A.D." I told you. Now, the story of Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday comes into play, the main plot of which revolves around a long war between the inhabitants of Earth and Mars. And more precisely, between two groups: the New Earth Organization (NEO) and the Russian-American Corporation (RAM). The militarist organization RAM, relying on the power of genetically modified soldiers, has been besieging the Earth for many years. In turn, NEO rebels led by Buck Rogers (who led the resistance thanks to his skills) are leading a rather successful partisan movement, located in secret bases, both on the surface of the planet and in orbit of the Earth. After many unsuccessful attempts to take over the planet Earth, RAM begins to develop a new project, code-named "End of the World". And it is up to you to figure out: what is it and who is behind all this?

After that, in fact, the game begins. Having created your own team of six fighters, you go to enroll in the NEO organization as recruits. Buck Rogers instructs and quickly brings you up to speed (by the way, you won’t be able to play for Buck Rogers himself - in the game he acts only as an NPC), after which the base is attacked. The armed forces of RAM carry out a massive bombardment and land stripping squads ... I will not tell you what happens next, you will find out everything during the game.

Now directly on the gameplay of Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday. The rules are based on the board game "Buck Rogers XXVC", which is partially similar to the AD & D system (quite a bit). If these words are "empty sound" for you - do not worry, now we will consider this moment in more detail.

When creating a character, you must first indicate his race. There are six of them in the game: Earthman, Martian, Venusian, Mercurian, Tinker and Desert Runner. And also indicate the character class, choosing one of five possible: Pilot, Medic, Fighter, Technician, and Rogue. Each race has its own set of advantages and disadvantages over the rest. This is expressed in the form of maximum and minimum values ​​of primary attributes. There are seven primary attributes in total: strength, dexterity, endurance, intelligence, wisdom, charisma and technological effectiveness. The eigenvalue of each attribute or a combination of several affects eight (8) basic skills and thirty-eight (38) additional skills. I won’t list everything, because there are a lot of them: here is the control of a spaceship, repair, and combat skills ... there is even such a thing as etiquette! In general, a list of skills for resolving absolutely any conceivable and inconceivable situation that can happen to you in the game. Having distributed all the necessary points, you must give a name to your character and choose a unique icon for him from a number of possible ones. The selected icon will personify this team member in a turn-based combat mode (so that it can be easily distinguished from the rest).

The game can immediately seem quite complicated: "a bunch of different buttons!", "It is not clear what and where to click?" etc. But I assure you that this is not at all! If you will, I’ll introduce you a little to the course of things, and you yourself will see that there is nothing complicated here.