When a terrorist group almost managed to destroy the world, humanity's only option was to survive underground, with little to no resources and afar from the light of day. According to the game's lore, this happened in 2021... and if you ask us, anything could happen in the Covid-19 era. A century and a half later, a group of survivors dares to leave the comfort zone and will do whatever it takes to regain the right to live on the surface of the planet. Now, their fate is on our hands, but rebuilding everything from scratch and repopulating the world will prove a challenging task.

Although you can start a free-build session with no hazards and still enjoy it, we found the best game mode is of course Survival, especially in higher difficulty settings. You start with a group of people and your main objective is to provide them with water, food, and shelter while also making them feel useful and loved. At first, everything seems easy; you build a jetty and assign some people to collect water, you send some people to get wood and scrap, and you scan the area before deciding what your best source of food is. Then, it's time to start producing tools and protective gear from recycled products all the while building some houses so your people can start a family, etc.

Droughts are a big obstacle and affect your food sources and water reserves. Sandstorms damage your buildings, and raiders are ruthless if you don't have a defense system to repel them. Radioactivity, however, is the worst of all your problems for various reasons; food and water poisoning can lead to death, but there's an even bigger issue: infertility.

Maybe your little sprout of civilization looks promising, with educated kids, dozens of working people, enough water and food, and a lot of facilities and fancy buildings. If all your females are infertile because of the radiation levels, though, your days are certainly numbered...

Endzone: A World Apart also features several scenarios where you must revert a situation or survive specific unfavorable conditions. These are great for those who are still learning the basics, or players who just want a few objectives for a casual round. Regardless of playable modes, this is a game where a little distraction could easily become the beginning of the end, so you must be prepared for everything and anything. You can approach the same dilemmas in many ways, but even if you lose it all, it's hard not to find the will to come back and try again, learning and improving from your mistakes.