Jupiter Hell Review – Intense and Atmospheric Nostalgia

Jupiter Hell is a turn-based shooter by ChaosForge and published by Hyperstrange on Steam. The game released v1.0 on August 5, 2021 and I didn’t expect to enjoy this game as much as I have. The game’s cinematic trailer got me initially attracted to the game and the roguelike nature had me coming back for more each run. Another thing that attracted me to Jupiter Hell was the fact the main character voice actor is none other than Commander Shepard himself, Mark Veer. Only this time he’s has bad ass as Duke Nukem with his well-timed comments. You can adjust the profanity in the game’s options. Ever wanted to hear Commander Shepard get angry and mouth off at the Reapers? Play Jupiter Hell and turn the profanity to max – it’s hilarious. The user interface has also been designed such that it looks like you’re playing on a small CRT screen. I love this throwback to the forgotten era of those huge bulky monitors we all had in the 80’s and 90’s.

Jupiter Hell is an unofficial sequel to ChaosForge’s 2002 game called ‘Doom, the Roguelike’ (rebranded as DRL in 2016) which was a top-down grid-based roguelike that had character levelling and traits. Set on the moons of Jupiter, Jupiter Hell retains all the key elements from DRL and dials the notch up to 10 with better graphics and sounds, great gunplay as well as stealth and cover mechanics. I particularly like the traits system as it shows a clear pathway to mastery level by highlighting the pre-requisite skills to target first. I recommend working out which mastery you want to go after and then go straight for those pre-requisite skills. You never know which level may be your last.

It would be easy to be turned off the game if you only give it 5 minutes. There’s no mouse control, only keyboard or controller. It’s turn-based and isometric grid-based movement and you need to move in the four axis of movement, there’s no diagonal walking. It reminded me of the old King’s Quest and Police Quest days where to go diagonal, you had to press down/left quickly. As you make a move, whether it be moving forward one square, reloading your weapon or using a medkit, the enemy also moves. Thankfully the tutorial does a great job of teaching you the game mechanics, how to pick up weapons and ammo, and most importantly the limits of inventory space.

You’ll see weapons and ammo dropping from enemies a lot, and my first tendency was to pick up everything like I do in RPGs. However you simply stand over a weapon and hold down shift to compare it to your current weapon. There’s no currency in Jupiter Hell so no need to horde items to sell them later. A pistol is a pistol, until later when the colour of the pistols, armour and other items indicate a higher grade of that item. A red pistol may be better than your standard one, but it may just have more ammo in the clip as opposed to doing more damage. Or a blue piece of armour may just have more durability but less protection. Reloading isn’t automatic so be sure to reload after each fight.

This is a roguelike and perma-death looms over every run you do. I played the game on easy and my first run ended after 24 minutes 19 seconds. You are shown a summary of your run where ‘Inferno Darkness, level 4 Scout, killed on Strongroom by a exalted soldier’ (grammar straight from the game). I survived for 1035 turns and killed 44 enemies. I can’t play Inferno Darkness again, so it’s best to use names you’re not so attached to when playing a new run. My second character, Sgt Feathersword, is still alive after clearing the Callisto and Europa zones completely and is raring to go on the moon of Io.

Although you can just rush through to find the next elevator and progress to the next level, I enjoyed exploring every corner of each procedurally-generated level and clearing all bad guys and monsters. You’ll also come across loot crates where some will contain ammo, others have weapons/armour and there are also green health crates. There are occasionally interface contraptions that will allow you to unlock vaults on that level, and if you have some multitools on hand, you can do things like purge all visible enemies, or disable poisonous gas, amongst other options.

The heavy metal soundtrack perfectly suits the gunplay and exploration you’ll experience in Jupiter Hell. Guns range from pistols, shotguns, automatic rifles, to rocket launchers and chainguns. There are melee weapons too with a combat knife and trust chainsaw for good rip and tear measure. I liked the different look and feel of the various moons you visit keeping exploring each moon fresh. You can certainly see and feel the Doom influences but also how they’ve set out to create their own universe and beastiary to go with it.

There are other games modes outside of the story mode if you want to change up the gameplay loop. Trials let you customise and mod your own challenges to beat and Arena has you defending against wave-based attacks. Endless mode lets you explore fully randomised levels without episodes or branches to see how deep you can get, and Classic mode removes the story and special levels from the game. Whilst I’m just happy playing story mode, I’m glad there’s options for all roguelike fans.

Overall, Jupiter Hell stands as a loving homage to the roguelike classics while forging its own intense, atmospheric identity. With its engaging turn-based mechanics, memorable voice acting, meticulous level and trait system, and satisfying gunplay set to a pounding metal soundtrack, the game offers both nostalgia and innovation. Its multiple game modes and deep replayability ensure that each run is a fresh challenge, making it a must-play for fans of the genre or anyone seeking a rewarding, adrenaline-fueled experience in the far reaches of space. Jupiter Hell is out now on Steam.

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