Jupiter Hell is basically Doom, if Doom was a top-down, turn-based roguelike—and set on Jupiter instead of Mars, obviously. In fact, it’s the spiritual successor to Doom, the Roguelike, shorn of any references to its original inspiration. DoomRL wasn’t exactly authorized by Bethesda, and you can’t go around calling your game “Doom” if you don’t have some kind of legally-binding agreement in place that allows you to do so (DoomRL is now known as DRL for the same reason).
Anyway, a 2016 Jupiter Hell Kickstarter for £60,000 ($75,000) was successful, and three years later it’s just about ready to go live on Steam Early Access.
The Doom name is gone, but the core gameplay elements are still there: You’re stuck on a base on an alien moon, kitted out with guns, guns, more guns, and a chainsaw, and surrounded by demons, zombies, and exploding barrels. It’s also much prettier than its predecessor, with reflective surfaces, dynamic lighting, and an eye-pleasing attention to detail.
But in place of balls-out action against increasingly dangerous Hellish hordes, you’ve got an RPG progression system with unlockable abilities, randomly generated civilian sectors, military bases, and mining colonies, and permadeath.
We played a pre-release build of Jupiter Hell in May and despite the very non-Doom-like perspective and pacing, it sounds like a very intense experience: Monsters are mean, ammo is tight, health is scarce, and, you know, that whole permadeath thing, which adds a certain tension to the experience.
The Steam Early Access release will go live on August 1. A price hasn’t been announced, but we said in our preview that it was expected to be lower than the beta release on Itch.io (no longer available), which was going for $40.