Jupiter Hell

My playtime is all on the GoG version.

If RLs had a big 3, the list would look like this - DCSS, Brogue, and JH. This is traditional RL gameplay distilled, and it if you have any interest in the genre, you should own and play this. Like your favorite metal band - JH is tight, loud, and authenticate.

Thank you for the years of joy, everything you have done for the roguelike community, and your continued support.

I truly appreciate y'all.

If you've played the DoomRL previously you know what you're in for. It's cruel, mean and a single mistake can cost you a run in a furious manner. Even a wrong decision early on can soft lock you from a win. I've failed at the final boss because I simply mismanaged a single magazine of ammunition causing to have nothing left in the final moments (and I knew where I'd gone wrong a level previously). As of this review I've attempted 94 runs and I've managed to finish 4 of them in total and I'm not even going to attempt the hardest difficulty.

Despite the unforgiving and at times unfair nature of the game I honestly just can't stop coming back. It's always fun to see what you'll get on a new seed or if you get some holy grail item that launches a run into the stratosphere (only to fuck it up due to a single case of arrogance).

Old school. No mouse even needed (its optional)
But a fun turn based tactics game

Fun take on the rogue-like genre. Or is it rogue-lite? I get them confused. Anyway, if you like turn based combat that feels kind of like an action rpg, dripping with b-movie atmosphere, this game is a lot of fun.

Nails my favorite thing about roguelikes: you can feel OP as f**k, even truly be OP as f**k, and you will die within two turns if you aren't treating every moment like it could be your last. If you have ever felt bump combat in a roguelike isn't interesting enough, you need to buy this game.

great on deck! this game also makes life worth living.

Very fun game, love the turn-based doom style play. Has a system to encourage making a build for a character through a very limited inventory and weapon/armor slots, along with a modding system giving a lot of variety.

Developer was also very helpful with an issue I was having.

Note for linux users: has some issues with glibc 2.41 right now, doesn't launch unless you fiddle with the libfmod.so (execstack -c libfmod.so), then for me it seems saves can crash on load unless you swap out libSDL for the system one and launch as opengl instead of vulkan. Not the dev's fault, glibc is breaking stuff.

It's slick and metal as hell.

2D Doom

Jupiter Hell delivers methodical violence for those who prefer their digital murder with time to think. The consistent 9/10 ratings suggest genuine quality, but also reveal our collective comfort with simulated slaughter when packaged as strategic entertainment. You'll enjoy it immensely while contributing to the normalization of violence as leisure—a bargain at whatever price point they've set.

Super fun pseudo real-time (time based turns so it feels similar to Pillars of Eternity when playing) rogue-like game. The one-liners are great and the levels and monsters you fight are interesting. The level up system and perks give it a lot of replay-ability with different builds for each character. 8/10 would recommend.

Almost gave up on the game when first started, got better for me once I read some things online ....just now finally got my first promotion so I'm on my way! Definitely a good game you get a lot of replayability for a few dollars and I think it should play well on my rog x havent tried yet tho.

Like Doom,and D and D put together! Great game!

I'm a big fan of turn-based tactics, card boards and rogue-likes and this game combines everything.

PS: I played original DRL when it was in early release. Great job!

Very cool roguelike!

Very fun to play game, enjoy every minute with it, but too hard for me :(

Its near pixels. Its Fast. Its slow. Turn Based without feeling like it. Totally random experiance EVERY TIME!
This is one o them games you'll play for 15 min or 3 hours.
Loving It!!

Final boss is just a massive HP sponge, if you don't have a boatload of medical items stored up you will just die before you kill it.

Doom as a traditional roguelike. Is good

.

My latest addiction - I can see myself putting quite a few hours into this gem. As a huge fan of the original Doom games (I was there 3000 years ago), and of traditional roguelikes, JH scratches an itch I didn't know I had.

Це кращій топ даун покроковий шутер!

A massively unique game from my perspective. Its all about figuring out how to be the quickest and spongiest sod on the bloc as you push further and further into a Doom 3 style hellscape!

Spiritual successor to DoomRL. No unlocks to find here, no metaprogression. Only your knowledge, decisions and a bit of RNG luck in the run will let you improve from run to run.

Thought-provoking 2d gunplay with RPG elements. Great soundtrack, immersive atmosphere, insane replayability (via challenges and trials). Really makes you think before you choose an action. I like the difficulty tiers as I think mowing down enemies on easy is lame. You can choose your own path, in many different ways. One of my all time favorites.

Been meaning to dive into this for a while….. only played a bit but very fun and I could tell it’s jammed full of crunchy content. Will update but hours at review low because I just forgot. Mad at myself because what I did play was amazing and very deep. Really love the overall look- an example (see: Teleglitch) of not needing 70 people working on 3d models and mocaps to make a cool looking game.

Ye

I'm usually not very into roguelikes but this game bangs so far. Very fun build system and engaging permadeath system that makes success rewarding. Would recommend for any fans of turn based combat

Though I suck at it and don't appreciate some dimensions of the gameplay, I'm still giving this a solid thumbs up. Don't think it would be possible to create a more refined blend of Doom and Rogue. Feels like something old-Blizzard would have made; game is freakishly well polished. Just be warned that regardless of your class or build or weapons, success invariably requires using some very specific tactics, which might feel cheap or lame depending on your mindset.

Only technical complaint is some weirdness on Steam Deck in between episodes; hopefully devs can address in the near future.

8/10 It's Doom as a roguelike and it's a hell (hah, pun!) of a lot of fun.
Excellent atmosphere from both the graphics and metal sound track.
Very unforgiving on anything but easy, but that's to be expected.

actual rougelike

Love this game but after re-installing it twice insists on making me pass a tutorial that is unplayable. No on screen notifications or text that tells me what the fuck I am supposed to do, menu UI that I somehow open only shows half of the UI itself so I basically can't pass this unscippable tutorial and play the game. What?

Yeah, no, it's not a tutorial, I disabled it in the main menu, but the game itself does not show the full UI. Well, fuck me I guess

Okay no, it's a fuck ass Radeon card that tries to ruin my gaming experience. I take everything back, this game is perfect

I want to give this a negative because I'm very sure what I don't like about it, but I still do enjoy playing enough that it's hard to do so. In a numerical system, id give it a six or seven out of ten, because what it does well is done really well. It just isn't quite there for me.

Jupiter Hell is basically a remake of DoomRL, a now-ancient ASCII rogue like from the era in which those were very popular games.

What it does well - the AI is actually really good, like, turn based tactics game kind of good. It will flank and pull back and do some pretty clever stuff for a rogue like.

The music is excellent and the visuals are really well done - you can easily forget you're playing a turn based rogue like and get yourself killed by in attentively holding the walk button down.

You are essentially playing a game that could be built and run in Excel, grid and numbers based, but you definitely forget that when playing. As a whole, the vibe is great.

Its also either much easier than DoomRL, or the excellent UI just makes it that much easier to play. I'm not sure which, but this is an extreme positive - DoomRL could see you run out of ammo less than a minute into a run, not a lot of fun in a game built around ranged combat. I've yet to run out of ammo in Jupiter Hell, even on harder settings (though you definitely need to work at it more there), which means even a terrible run can last long enough to not feel hopeless.

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Here's why I either don't like this game as much as I should, or we all like it more than we should:

The AI is actually horrible. Maybe I need to play more, but it feels like sometimes enemies will be rather clever, flanking, using cover correctly, whatever. Other times, they walk straight at you one after the other and basically just let you kill them all. You'd think this would be intentionally differing enemy AI, but I'm not sure it is.

Roguelikes, and turn based games, for me, are all about the skin of your teeth moments - you're cornered, almost dead, outnumbered, whatever, but somehow, via abilities, items, or whatever, you pull yourself out of it. That feels *good*.

Jupiter Hell has none of those moments. It has some badass feeling moments, like the first time you have every enemy in the map walk into your guns for no reason, but once you get a feel for the game, success feels less like it comes from being clever, and more from just having already fought that enemy type once and knowing what to do. Once you've successfully dealt with an enemy, if you were paying attention, it's often not really much of a threat anymore. Most of "dealing with new threats" comes down almost completely to just looking at them and using the appropriate gun for their weaknesses. A few are defeated via positioning. Really, the game makes itself seem hard by design - it gears you up to get into some fast paced, rock n roll action, and will kill you lots for playing that way. But if you go slow and take your time, it's actually pretty hard to die sometimes.

There's not a lot of tension, accordingly, and most of the choices feel more like "do I stand here and shotgun anyone walking around the corner, or back there and use my pistol?"

Similarly, while the abilities make your dude more killy, they are basically all passive and don't really feel like tools for your use.

In the end, Jupiter Hell feels less like the turn based tactics/rl hybrid it's trying to be, and more like a puzzle game. It's still a really nice puzzle game, but I can just tell it's unlike to turn into a 100+ hour plus time suck for me like most RLs or TBTs I play. Get it at $10 or $15 on sale and I don't think you'd be able to fairly complain much.

Absolutely awesome. An exceptional example on how to make an FPS turn based roguelike. Balanced, fun, fast, no bullshit demon slaying masterpiece.

Hard as hell but fun.

I liked the game. Quick sessions, crowds of enemies and a clear goal are a plus
Cons: The gameplay is incredibly repetitive. At some point, the first levels stop surprising - every time you do the same thing.
I would like more variability at the initial stage of the game
The game is an excellent representative of classic roguelikes. I recommend everyone to try it

Great game with fun builds, interesting unique items, and more variety in gameplay than meets the eye. Animation smoothing for fast inputs and a bitchin sound track make for a really addictive experience.

Superb. Runs great on the iMac and one of few games comfortable to play on Apples bonkers, tiny, default keyboard. Music is spot on. Superb, fast-moving turn-based shooter. Nails its' early 90's aesthetic. The gravelly, 80's action hero voice work is beautifully tongue in cheek macho without the script ever getting offensive. Hell, it's good.

Probably the best game ever made. Perfect for time-poor gamers who can't invest 200 hours in a story and just want to dip-in, have some fun, check-out and know it will be there when you come back.

Oh this game did me raw; real raw; raw like health code violation raw. The optimization, randomization, and replayability are the spices that flavours this permadeath game. Normal mode in this game is like Ultraviolence (Doom 2). Jupiter Hell is unforgiving to mishaps and poor preparation as the game pile on hordes upon you as you progress (level and diifficulty-wise).
The variety of weapons, play style (class perks), and tidbits of pop-culture reference (namely Doom), is the painkiller to numb the loss of a "good run".

The art style and music is pretty good, and the campy voice over is the literal cherry on top of this review.

Yes

Nothing really to add with this review that hasn't been said before. If you liked the aesthetic of Doom and the game play of Rogue chances are very high you'll like this.

Solid game, i will play this for decades to come.

Turn based Doom FTW!

Excellent fun. Doom aesthetic, awesome weapons and mods, turn-based glory. Recommended highly especially when on sale.

I'm impressed. This is a super fun and quick roguelike with a lot of soul. Gameplay is smooth, music is nice. High reccomend for roguelike fans.

One of the more accessible traditional roguelikes to get into. Very cool. Seems like a no brainer to get if you have any interest in DOOM or RL's ;)

Jupiter Hell commits the cardinal sin of any rogue-like: it has no real depth.
It gets boring quickly and there's a lot of unrealised potential here.
The soundtrack is pretty good if nothing else.

The perfect sit back and drink a coffee game, once you set up mouse and num pad controls.
if I could make a game, it would probably be something like Jupiter Hell.