PLANET APOCALYPSE Review: The End Is Coming Whether You’re Ready Or Not

Planet Apocalypse is a board game in which the end of the world is the beginning of your troubles. Heroes aren’t always at the ready when evil awakens, and players in this hellscape will direct the few individuals left who are willing to fight—and sacrifice their lives if necessary—in order to push back the onslaught of Hell’s minions and the Lord who commands them.

A 2020 release from Petersen Games, Planet Apocalypse is expansive. The base game gives 1-5 players a taste of the end-times, and subsequent expansions deepen the gameplay with more scenario maps, heroes, minions, and Lords. 

Designer Sandy Petersen and artist Keith Thompson have created a fantasy-horror universe where demons are invading Earth. It will take the combined efforts of several heroes to battle these demons, from the weakest larvae to the fourth circle of hell that brings truly terrifying creatures into the world of men.

It’s a big box and it’s a large-scale fight as the tower-defense genre welcomes another cooperative experience. Sandy Petersen has given us a whole host of plastic miniatures and a veritable horde of dice. Let’s see how it all comes together.

STORY

Usually, tales of the apocalypse reflect on the failings of man. How we weren’t prepared. Humanity didn’t prevent climate collapse. We couldn’t avoid a nuclear holocaust. Plagues ravaged a world that was ill-equipped to deal with the invisible threat.

Rarely, though, do you encounter a story that deals with inevitability rather than fallibility. 

The governments and the people of Planet Apocalypse were ready for the end. The invasion of Hell was prophesied, but we were ready. Warriors were trained. Magical gates were blocked or guarded. Humanity was prepared.

What went wrong?

The gates were closed and the warriors were ready. So Hell just opened gateways into the world through the warriors themselves. The ones best trained to combat the apocalypse were the ones who transported the demonic legions to Earth. And no matter how much the nations strived to avert disaster, it arrived.

The end is near. Now the story of Planet Apocalypse begins.

GAMEPLAY

The adventure functions as a cooperative game and a tower-defense game that rotates between three phases until the game ends. The three phases are the team phase, during which the group will assess their status and prepare for the next surge of demons, the hero phase, when the group sallies forth to whittle down the forces of Hell, and the enemy phase, when surviving demons and new arrivals fresh from the underworld surge through the map in an effort to overwhelm the heroes. 

Players must defeat the Lord. It’s the only way to win and they’ll have to make it past a lot of demons in order for that to happen. But if they bide their time and don’t engage, the Lord will simply advance closer to the end of the map. If the Lord ever arrives in the start area, or if the Doom tracker ever reaches 13—signaling the inexorable push of the demons—then the players lose. 

Petersen Games does an excellent job of preparing players for the experience. The rulebook includes a sizeable glossary to provide an understanding of the demonic terms and gameplay mechanics used throughout the game. The explanation of the game phases is straightforward with plenty of detailed examples to study prior to playing. And the last part of the booklet contains both a thorough FAQ section and an in-depth look at the playable characters and the strategies that players should consider when using them. 

It’s well-done and it gives players the necessary information to get started and the right answers to keep them moving quickly through the game whenever they get stuck and need clarification.

If you’re unfamiliar with the tower-defense genre, then the gameplay in Planet Apocalypse might seem obtuse, but it’s relatively easy to pick up. Essentially, the demons—and the Lord—will move along a predetermined path. If the demons ever make it past the heroes and the defensive perimeter, then Doom advances and defeat looms ever closer. If the Lord ever makes it to the heroes’ starting location, the game immediately ends. The goal of the players is to ensure that the Lord perishes before advancing too far, but they must also thin out the demonic forces that also threaten the safety of the world.

This is a cooperative game, so all of the players will be working as a team to pursue victory. The demons are tough, and the Lord is monstrously strong, so it will take everyone combining their strengths and shoring up their weaknesses in order to have the best chance of winning.

Planet Apocalypse can be played as a solo experience, but it’s great at bringing players together to fight as one. The haunted and determined heroes all have their virtues, but it will take more than one to overcome one another’s flaws. 

A part of the fun is determining how best to approach the particular Lord and fourth-circle demons, as well as the lesser enemies and the legion that organizes them. It’s always a tough fight and players will frequently lose.

Heroes are also weaker at the beginning of the game. Their dice pool is small and the dice that are used are weak. One ability and one flaw are present at the start, but stronger abilities are locked behind a character system that will require players to upgrade their heroes in order to have a chance against the stronger minions and Lords.

Developing your hero into a stronger fighter and coordinating with the other players is essential. Without any hidden objectives or possible traitors, Planet Apocalypse is a game where players are confident where the enemy is and what they need to do in order to win.

The apocalyptic battle takes place on a huge map. There are a lot of demons. Each hero is different. Lords and fourth-circle demons pose formidable challenges to the heroes. Legion characteristics and the cycle of despair will threaten the safety of the players. Invasion tokens never stop advancing. All of these factors come into play. But, thankfully, the complexity in Planet Apocalypse is never overwhelming. The sequence of play is simple.

Phases progress quickly. The team phase will have players recruit new troopers, heal themselves and others, earn gifts to empower their heroes, and perform any special actions. The hero phase will have players decide the order of attacking, moving, setting ambushes, and any other special actions. The enemy phase will advance the despair tracker and lord tracker, initiate enemy combat and movement, and trigger new waves of demons.

An exciting part of Planet Apocalypse is figuring out your timing. Understanding when to do something is just as important as being capable of doing it. Just because you can move a hero and confront the demon Lord doesn’t mean you should. It might leave your defenses vulnerable as lower demons push toward the start area. Then again, attacking smaller hosts of demons might not be as important as fighting the demon Lord if the Lord has come dangerously close to the start area.

Questions like these will force players to work together and plan for the best approach. 

Tactics will only get you so far, though. Sometimes, you’ll have to rely on luck. And that’s where combat rears its demonic head. Heroes and demons attack using dice. As low as a d4 and as high as a d12. The number rolled must exceed the toughness of the hero or demon being attacked in order to hit. Stronger demons boast a higher toughness, requiring better dice and better rolls to land a hit. 

And the demon Lord is the toughest opponent in the game. Naturally, players will need to be prepared before fighting the boss. That means increasing health, dice pools, and getting your courage and luck—the two currencies of the game—ready for combat use.

Gaining courage, spending luck, rolling dice, positioning troopers for an ambush, revealing invasion tokens, killing demons, upgrading your heroes, fighting the demon Lord in Hell Time—the supernatural perversion of reality outside of space and time. It’s all part of this big conflict in Planet Apocalypse.

VISUALS

The visual horror reflects the ill-fated journey of the heroes and the visceral manifestations of hell on earth.

Bleak box art hides the waiting horrors of the plastic miniatures. Larvae, gryllus, fiends, cacodemons, fourth-circle demons, and Lord Baphomet. Not to mention the wily men and women who have decided to stand up to the impending doom.

The dirt-stained neutral colors and deep blacks of the outer box are contrasted with the purples, yellows, greys, reds, and blues of the demon miniatures.

Maps feature a combination of satellite imagery and fiery devastation, as well as the infestation of demonic landscape on Earth. Heroes look like haggard travelers and fighters who have held onto some of their belongings from the past while scavenging other possessions since the invasion. 

It all fits the theme quite well, the miniatures are sturdy, and the box design allows for all of the miniatures to nestle in their places while storing the rest of the game components.

One thing that does bear mentioning is the size of the game box. It’s monstrous. Just a giant compared to so many other games. And the design of the inserts leaves a lot of wasted space. So it could be a good bit smaller. With the likely addition of expansions, even more space will be needed for Planet Apocalypse on the shelf.

Also, the miniatures and the game board could be scaled down to reduce the footprint as well. Some gamers might not mind at all, but for someone who keeps a lot of board games at the house, it’s a design flaw that I wish had been considered more carefully.

But, at the end of the day, Keith Thompson has created the grotesque, the unsightly, and the frightening, all of which makes for an engaging descent into the depths of Hell.

REPLAYABILITY

There are two sides to the replay-value debate for games like Planet Apocalypse. The base game provides two maps, one Lord, two fourth-circle demons, and six heroes. That really means that you have two distinct gameplay opportunities with the Invasion and Doomgate maps and those two adventures can be attempted with numerous hero combinations.

That might sound like enough for some players because the game is hard and you will likely not win every encounter, meaning each map is a challenge to overcome. 

However, once you beat those two maps, once or twice each, you might feel that there isn’t much left to do.

From that angle, there isn’t a strong replay value built into the game.

At the same time, if you buy expansions, then the variability increases drastically. Each new expansion offers new maps, new Lords, new heroes, and new ways to play. After a while, Planet Apocalypse grows into this behemoth where any time you play, you can pick between a wide field of scenarios with different enemies and unique heroes.

Considering it from that perspective, there is a very high and tempting replay value. But you’ll have to shell out the cash for the expansions. 

Backers that supported the game on Kickstarter and already have all the expansions will not experience this difference in gameplay, but those who don’t have the game yet will have to consider that aspect of the board game.

It’s a toss-up—it could be a really big and expensive game for your group that doesn’t last long or it could be the gift that keeps on giving with all of the demons and heroes your heart could desire.

WHAT IT COULD HAVE DONE BETTER

I’ll return now to some points I’ve made along the way.

This game was designed with expansions in mind. That’s not always a bad thing, but it does mean that the base game may not have the longevity of other games in your collection and that can be frustrating for an expensive game that takes up a lot of space. And I’m not saying it’s a great game that the designers wanted to keep working with. I mean, the best version of this game is one where a player has most or all of the expansions that were designed from the beginning. The rulebook for the base game even includes component lists for the expansions, rule references for demons that aren’t available in the base game, as well as FAQ responses, hero summaries, and demon indices that don’t apply. For a big game like Planet Apocalypse, I would want something that is a little more reliable on its own. Having to consider expansions so quickly after getting the base game can be a disappointing experience.

And the idea of getting expansions for Planet Apocalypse is exacerbated by the size of the game boxes. The first one is massive. It will dominate an entire shelf in my collection. So, the prospect of more boxes makes me anxious. This is a game that will crowd out other games, take over the office, drown the dining table, and infiltrate into your bedroom to soak in the tub.

It doesn’t have to be, though. Decrease the size of the miniatures and game components, reorganize the box inserts. All of that could dramatically shrink the game.

Also, the game difficulty will alienate some gamers. Coming from a video game background of Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and extreme difficulties, adversity does not bother me. I’m fine to lose a game, study what went wrong, and try again. And some of the people I play games with feel the same.

But plenty of people don’t like to lose. Or they don’t enjoy it happening frequently, which is an entirely possible outcome in Planet Apocalypse.

Know your preferences before diving in.

VERDICT

Sandy Petersen has built something really fun here. Cthulhu Wars was not a one-time hit. The game designer has continued to build interesting games with lavish horror themes. Lovecraftian monsters have been replaced by waves of demonic creatures. 

You’re not defending a tower here. You’re defending the planet. Against total annihilation. The heroes we all counted on are dead. It’s up to you.

If you enjoy cooperative games where victory depends on smarts, perseverance, and a little bit of luck, then Planet Apocalypse is something you should check out. If you have the cash or determination to accrue all of the expansions, then this can be a really special gaming adventure for you and your friends.

The big-box game has some flaws, but it really excels in challenging gamers to confront a problem head-on and see if it’s surmountable. There are demons, there are miniatures, and there is a world worth saving. What are you waiting for?