Jupiter Hell, the spiritual successor to a Doom roguelike, comes to Steam Early Access next week

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Jupiter Hell is basically Doom, if Doom was a top-down, turn-based roguelike—and set on Jupiter instead of Mars, obviously. In fact, it's the spiritual successor to Doom, the Roguelike, shorn of any references to its original inspiration. DoomRL wasn't exactly authorized by Bethesda, and you can't go around calling your game "Doom" if you don't have some kind of legally-binding agreement in place that allows you to do so (DoomRL is now known as DRL for the same reason).

Anyway, a 2016 Jupiter Hell Kickstarter for £60,000 ($75,000) was successful, and three years later it's just about ready to go live on Steam Early Access.

The Doom name is gone, but the core gameplay elements are still there: You're stuck on a base on an alien moon, kitted out with guns, guns, more guns, and a chainsaw, and surrounded by demons, zombies, and exploding barrels. It's also much prettier than its predecessor, with reflective surfaces, dynamic lighting, and an eye-pleasing attention to detail.

But in place of balls-out action against increasingly dangerous Hellish hordes, you've got an RPG progression system with unlockable abilities, randomly generated civilian sectors, military bases, and mining colonies, and permadeath.

We played a pre-release build of Jupiter Hell in May and despite the very non-Doom-like perspective and pacing, it sounds like a very intense experience: Monsters are mean, ammo is tight, health is scarce, and, you know, that whole permadeath thing, which adds a certain tension to the experience.

The Steam Early Access release will go live on August 1. A price hasn't been announced, but we said in our preview that it was expected to be lower than the beta release on Itch.io (no longer available), which was going for $40.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.