Download Buck Rogers - Countdown to Doomsday

Buck Rogers is a comic book hero of the future, from a distant past. It was during both world wars that Buck Rogers was born as another comic book hero. In fact most super heroes (like Superman, Batman, Flash Gordon…) were born in that time.

Buck fell into a coma only to reawaken in the distant future, where he fights to save Earth, which has been turned into a galactic dump during his absence. You’ve heard of these heroic efforts and wish to join Buck Rogers, so you join NEO, a team that fights to put the Earth back to its deserved position as the cradle of civilization.

In this role playing game you are one of the cadets who witness the attack of the RAMs, which wanted to destroy the NEO training facilities. Along with your fellow cadets who survived the attack and some disorganized troops left on the planet, you need to prevent a disaster and make sure further troops can be trained here and that an army which will eventually save the Earth can be forged strong enough.

You can select a team of players from various races. Each race has its own qualities (some can not become warriors, but they make excellent mechanics or medics, while others could become engineers, but that would be a waste of their leadership and fighting abilities). As with any RPG you get some experience points to distribute and much more to gain (and distribute later on in the game) in order build up your character.

In this respect the game is a typical RPG. The interface is also very familiar, so if you played other SSI’s role playing games you ought to feel right at home. The same goes for graphics and sounds. In fact, the game engine is the same as the one used for the Krynn games.

But there is off a difference. Buck Rogers is the first RPG game I actually played that is not placed in medieval or fantasy worlds. You’re not crawling through dungeons, you’re not exploring castles and you’re not in a mystical magical forest surrounded by dragons.

OK, it’s still not a realistic scenario, you’re in the future and in space, but it was a nice twist, to be able to fight with lasers, fly off the planet and explore metallic containers in stead of chests (never mind, there are chests I’d always prefer to games ;) if you know what I mean).

So all in all a solid RPG with nothing really new or revolutionary (gameplay wise), but still it had a fresh feel to it.