Super Energy Apocalypse Walkthrough

Think about this: a parched territory, a desolated piece of land that looks a lot like the place where animals stay hidden during the day... fearing they might pop like a kernel of corn. Weird, heh? Even weirder is the man who chooses to live in this kind of place. Maybe that human is proud, self sufficient, primal and rugged. Or rather, he's just plain 'insane in the brain' as Ice Cube puts it!

Super Energy Apocalypse - this is a real-time strategy / tower defense game hybrid that comes with an environmental conscience. Created by Lars A. Doucet, this game does a good job of capturing the grittiness of the Texas wilderness... and adding a new challenge that I doubt any Texas native or resident has faced: zombies from the left, right, and center! Fortunately, the setting of the game is NOT Texas of the frontier era but rather a hypothetical New Texas republic that would be formed in the near future. In this game, modern technology is your ONLY hope for making it out alive... BUT at the same time, it's your greatest limitation.

If you are wondering why that is, read on. Instead of living on blood and flesh, the zombies in this game thrive in pollution of all sorts - it could be trash, smog, nuclear waste... as long as its pollution, it's edible and tasty for the zombies. For the first couple of stages, you could get by with your dirty and pollution-causing fossil fuels. HOWEVER, as you go further into the game, you definitely want to go for something that's friendlier to the environment and something that's 'awful' to the taste of the zombies.

If this is your first time playing Super Energy Apocalypse, I would highly recommend that you start the game at the very first Level. The in-game guide, Dr. Ananastasia Wurstwagen, does an excellent job of walking you through the ins and outs of the game... without making it feel like it's a tutorial. Together with Ananastasia Wurstwagen, you will travel through the apocalyptic New Texas countryside. With her, you will build up your defenses against the zombie invasion in an effort to save the last remaining human fortress, and all the while, you need to make sure you clean up otherwise the zombies would find your base and everyone else inside it even more enticing!

Every new location would add another level of complexity in your arsenal of defenses. New locations will also give you new sources of energy, and NOT just new BUT cleaner too! This would allow you to pump out cleaner power and fuel. HOWEVER, keep in mind doesn't mean it will be as efficient as the dirty, polluting, and good old petrol. You need to find a good balance between keeping it green (no, not the green you are thinking of) while having efficient energy sources.

Just like other tower defense games where much of your time is spent on gearing up for the incoming zombie wave and where you have no control over your defenses' targeting mechanism, planning in Super Energy Apocalypse is VERY important. I dare say that this is the critical strategic element... taking greater importance than the battle itself. Remember, the zombies only come out at night so you should use daylight carefully.

The REAL twist and challenge that elevates this game ahead of other tower defense games is the balance - you need to clean up yourself after a battle. If you leave waste lying around the area, it will cause pollution. As I have mentioned earlier, zombies feed on pollution. This sets in motion a nasty feedback cycle: when the zombies chew on the waste, they grow stronger. When they grow stronger, they will destroy more of your buildings, which turn into waste and... I'm sure you know what happens next. This cycle goes on and on and on, and if you don't do anything about it, it won't be long before your defenses are overpowered. Along with that, putting up many defenses in your encampment without upgrading your fuel and energy sources will produce too much smog. Again, this will significantly strengthen the zombies.

The developer - Lars A. Doucet, has also created and hidden a little resource management game within Super Energy Apocalypse. Energy comes from many different sources and the sources abundance varies from one level to another. You can set your trucks to run on any of these fuels. Each of these four fuels vary in terms of efficiency, cleanliness, and each depletes a different source - it could be fossil fuel, natural gas, energy, or good. The same thing goes for your defensive towers as well. If you want to survive the zombie onslaught, you better learn how to make these energy systems and fuels play nicely together. You will need all of them to win the hardest levels.

Summing things up, Super Energy Apocalypse is a quirky, fun, and nicely balanced game. It's VERY unique... a testament to Lars' creativity. It has random bits of funny conversations, intricate resource system, upgrades, and everything else in between. There's no tower defense game like this one. Give it a shot and see what I'm talking about!