Reviews
[Review] ‘Jupiter Hell’ Makes Ripping and Tearing a Tactical Turn-Based Affair
When I first started playing PC games, DOOM II and X-COM were among the first things I got into, shaping my gaming tastes for years after. Now more than two decades on, I’m only just playing a game that combines aspects of the two? ChaosForge’s Jupiter Hell hopes to be better late than never as it finally emerges from Early Access.
Jupiter Hell takes on that tried and true method of trading on gaming nostalgia with modern conveniences. In this case, it’s a top-down turn-based shooter akin to X-COM, but set up both structurally and tonally, like the mazy corridor shooter of choice in the 90s; DOOM. oh, and it’s also a roguelike to boot.
It’s presented like a 90s game in so many respects, from the metal soundtrack, the admirably stubborn refusal to allow mouse control, to the old-school menu and UI text format. The key giveaway that this is a game from 2021 and not 1997 is that its relatively simple visuals have an atmosphere and style that would be tough to replicate in that era.
The brilliant tagline for Jupiter Hell reads ‘Like Chess. With Shotguns’ and rarely has such a brief description painted such an accurate picture. The unapologetic riff on DOOM’s setup (which is completely understandable as the game began life as a successor to DOOM: The Roguelike) sees the player put into the boots of a space marine fighting their way through demonic forces on Ma…Jupiter’s Moons. There are undead marines, monsters, and as you’d expect from this formula, there’s a lot of them…often at once. The key difference is that things are a little less frantic in Jupiter Hell thanks to the turn-based nature of its combat. It sounds like an odd combination, but ChaosForge has ensured that with practice, the seemingly awkward turn-based nature can become a flexible transition from fast-paced movement with split-second decision making to slowing things down when necessary, all still within the confines of a turn-based format.
It’s clear that this is where ChaosForge has focused its attention most. The smart gelling of a shooter with turn-based mechanics ends up feeling almost natural when it flows right, and that’s a huge credit to the developer. Mapping everything to the keyboard works really well. Neat touches such as being able to throw a dropped grenade instead of just picking it up get you out of plenty of jams, and adds a touch of flair to combat I didn’t expect. While tricky to remember at first, reloading as a turn feeds into the strategic flow of things quite nicely.
It actually meant I found myself swapping between weapons depending on how many turns it would conceivably take for a particular fracas. Using cover helps to open up your options and give you a breather, and is entrenched in the turn-based mechanics of positioning your marine up against a wall (indicated by a green bar) and seeing what differences that made to your chances (displayed in the top right corner is hit chance percentage and the like). As I mentioned, it takes a little getting used to, even for someone who’s savvy to the inner workings of games like X-COM, but it’s a pretty successful partnership of styles overall.
It does appear to need a little more fine-tuning to ensure that switch in pace isn’t always jarring, however. At times, button presses simply didn’t register as something in the game clearly tried to catch up. Small freezes can mess up your strategy, and that’s aggravating when you’re up against a wall of hell and one wrong move can send your run spiraling into calamity and death. If you’re going to get gibbed by space demons, it’s a lot more palatable when it’s your own fault.
While I’ve focused on the turn-based aspect of the game a lot so far, the real hook for Jupiter Hell is that it’s a roguelike. The essence may well be DOOM’s corridor shooting, but there’s also the need to be cautious and pick the right kind of build for your playstyle. Want to be a shotgun-toting bringer of death? Sure, Jupiter Hell lets you embrace that, even if it does go out of its way to push you into trying new things whether you want to or not by only providing certain ammo on certain floors.
What the roguelike template also brings is variety and uncertainty. The thrill of understanding and then conquering the unknown is part of the fun. The story of any given run goes through some variant on the rollercoaster ride of coming back from near-death situations thanks to a timely explosive barrel in the right place, and then getting caught with your pants down and your ego out because you thought your firepower was going to be too much for the demons to handle.
Yes, you can eventually get a good idea of what to expect, where to go, and what to avoid, but Jupiter Hell keeps things surprising in the smaller moments where your choices can flip the fracas in a different way. No matter how much you might know better about going into an area that’s a death machine, the temptation to do it anyway for potential rewards can easily override common sense.
Jupiter Hell will be a refreshing spin on a classic for some, and the best of a bad situation for those mourning the loss of DOOM: The Roguelike. Some technical grumbles aside, its straightforward, no-nonsense approach to turn-based roguelike shoot n’ loot works well, and provides a compelling game to either dip into for an hour here and there, or lose a few days to.
Jupiter Hell review code for PC provided by the publisher.
Jupiter Hell is out now on Steam PC.
You’re Dead to Me, the new Gen-Z horror film from director Juan Pablo Arias Munoz, bills itself as a love letter to ’90s horror classics, and it launches into that vibe immediately with an opening sequence clearly modeled on the opening of Wes Craven‘s Scream. It’s either gutsy or foolhardy, but right away, you get a sense of the film’s ambitions.
The problem is that when you come at something like Scream, you better not miss, and for all its well-cultivated ’90s horror vibes and its efforts to become something singular along the way, there’s a lot about You’re Dead to Me that misses. This is a movie that wants to be at least half a dozen things at the same time, and while it’s got solid visuals, a game cast, and lots of bravado, it’s simply spread too thin to make any of its ideas satisfying.
Indy (Siena Agudong) and Brynn (Jessica Belkin) are best friends, bonded by their shared struggles with loss (Brynn’s mother is gone, as is one of Indy’s sisters) and the feeling that they’re the only people in their high school who truly understand one another. When we meet them, they’ve opted to stay away from the traditional high school celebrations and host a “Too Pretty for Prom” party at a secluded mansion owned by Brynn’s absent father. It’s a chance to grow closer and celebrate their way, even if the only other guest is their mutual friend Jordan (Conor Husting) and everyone else seems to have opted for prom.
But the vibes are soon squashed. While Indy and Jordan try to work up the courage to give Brynn some bad news about their post-high school plans, a classmate turns up dead, reigniting speculation that a serial killer is operating in town. Throw in a deranged neighbor (Denise Richards) who won’t take no for an answer, and it feels like the walls are closing in on the trio, particularly as Indy starts to have visions she can’t explain tied to her sister, Brynn’s mother, and a room she’s never seen before.
A slasher and weird visions? Yes, and here’s where You’re Dead to Me starts to play with its true tribute to ’90s horror, helped along by co-writer and producer Terry Castle, daughter of William Castle, who helped get those Dark Castle remakes off the ground at the turn of the Millennium.
This is a movie that isn’t satisfied to simply be a slasher, playing within the firmly established bounds of that subgenre. It wants to be a slasher and a psychological drama and a possibly supernatural piece of Gothic horror, with notes on internalized misogyny and conformity sprinkled in along the way. There are classic slasher sequences with lots of suspense, but there are also wild dream sequences full of quick cuts, jittery frame rates, and jump scares, all eventually centering around Indy and the transitional phase of her life where the film begins.
She’s on the cusp of college, of a new life full of possibilities, but she feels beholden to the people who got her there, to the support system she’s leaving behind, and, of course, to her best friend. Her mental state is reflected in the often chaotic nature of the film, and when You’re Dead to Me is playing within these bounds, helped along with dreamy visuals and genuine tension, it’s working.
But somewhere along the way, that sense of chaos starts to grate against the audience, and You’re Dead to Me starts to drag under the weight of its own ambitions. It’s clear that the hybrid subgenre mash-up of the story is meant to render it unconventional in both the slasher space and the psychological horror space, but that can only take you so far before the film needs a narrative around which it can coalesce. The core has to stay strong, and for all the style points it racks up along the way, the movie just can’t hold on to that emotional tether that keeps us hooked to the end, in part because it wants so badly to keep us guessing that we lose all sense of direction.
I’ll give you an example: At one point, a teenage boy in the year 2025 answers a phone call from another teenage boy who simply says that he’s sending a link. A phone call just to say “I’m sending you a link.” Why? Because the film has established, in the proud Scream tradition, that when the phone rings, a killer might be calling, so the phone needs to ring to keep up suspense. In another scene, a character sits up and swears she hears something, and as we in the audience hear a very audible human scream, she says she hears “footsteps.”
Characters who come and go may as well have “Red Herring” stamped on their foreheads, and the film spends so much time building up lore and backstory that it barely leaves room for slasher chases and spectral nightmares. Then, when the spectral nightmares do come, we’re left unsure what’s real anymore, until the third act finally, sort of, explains why it all feels so disjointed. It’s a movie that aims at deliberate obfuscation and misdirection, but just ends up confusing.
Which is a shame, because there’s a lot of talent on display here, and I don’t just mean with the visuals. The young cast is earnest and exciting, the premise is interesting, there are flashes of really solid storytelling in the script, and the kills, when we get them, actually work.
If this film had picked a lane, or even two lanes, and tightened up its thematic concerns along the way, it might be something much more satisfying. As it is, it’s an overstuffed mess, but at least it’s an interesting one.
You’re Dead to Me is available on Digital and VOD on July 7.
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