GIMME SHELTER

BUILD YOUR OWN CITY FROM THE ASHES OF DESTRUCTION

- CHERYL MULLIN

IN April 2020, just as the world was plunging deeply into the Covid pandemic, Endzone: A World Apart went into early access.

This was a city builder with a twist. Rather than creating a community of light and life, you were tasked with building a post-apocalyptic settlement from the ashes of a nuclear disaster.

In the grip of lockdown, players could put hours into a time-intensive game like this, but on the other hand, it could prove a little bleak as we got to grips with "the new normal".

With its Fallout-esque looks and surprisingly challenging gameplay, it proved to be a fairly solid little game scoring a none too shabby 72 out of 100 on Metacritic.

The full game was released a year later, and in 2022 it made the leap from PC to consoles - and you'd be forgiven for thinking that's where this game's journey would end.

So I was intrigued when I spotted Endzone 2 on a list of games heading into early access last year after a successful kickstarter campaign.

Developer Gentlymad Studios has taken what it learned from A World Apart and attempted to create a more rounded and fleshed-out experience.

While your goal remains the same, to rebuild in a world almost wiped out by a cataclysmic disaster, it instantly feels different from the first game.