Imagine you’re Mr. House from Fallout New Vegas, safely tucked away in the basement of the Lucky 38, silently influencing the events of the wasteland. You have a settlement to protect. You always want to expand and consolidate your power. This, in essence, is the experience of playing Endzone 2, a post-apocalyptic strategy game where it’s your job to guide a resurgent civilization from the rubble of global annihilation back to prosperity. Like Frostpunk, you’re pressured by the demands of basic survival. But there’s also a hint of Cities Skylines, as you grow your townships outward and create complex transit and trade routes. At the same time, Endzone 2 is a unique take on the city builder and strategy genres, and if you haven’t played it so far, the new update is a perfect excuse.
Immense storms, earthquakes, and solar flares have destroyed the entire planet. As the overseer of a small group of survivors, you begin Endzone 2 on the knife edge of oblivion – gather what you can, keep your people alive, and provide them basic sustenance and rudimentary houses. If you can keep going long enough, the strategy game begins to open up. Rather than being rooted in one place, you can take to the road in a reinforced RV, and scour the landscape for other possible settlement locations.
You might also discover ruins and relics that provide upgrades, boosts, and other vital resources. This is Endzone 2’s biggest twist on the formula. Although your main focus is constructing a connected network of towns and villages, you can also get behind the wheel and go on independent quests, named Expeditions, where you might encounter narrative beats and puzzle sections.
Originally released back in August, the free new Endzone 2 update expands the city-building game with a new explorable area, which comes complete with its own Expedition. The opening section of the game has been completely reworked to more comprehensively introduce the mechanics and the story, and there are numerous tweaks and bug fixes for almost every aspect of the simulation.
The radiation system has also been fixed. Rather than growing steadily and hampering all your efforts, radiation is now easier to combat, especially if you’re equipped with protective clothing and stay away from the hottest areas.
This update is just a tee up for December, however, when Endzone 2 will get a new trading system, hunting, and fresh missions and characters. If you want to give it a try, Endzone 2 is also available for its cheapest price ever at $18.74 / £15.74. You can get it here.
Alternatively, try some of the best survival games, or maybe the best RTS games available now.
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