DOOMLINGS OVERVIEW

• 2-6 Players
• Recommended age: 10+
• 20-45 minutes
• RRP: £25.95 (Order HERE)

Doomlings is a light-hearted, strategic card game set on a doomed planet where players compete to evolve the most resilient species before the world ends. The objective is to score the most points by playing Trait Cards to build your species before the third Catastrophe ends the game.

PLAYING THE GAME

The game consists of four different card types:

• Trait Cards – Represent characteristics of your species and are the main source of points.
• Age Cards – Introduce new rules or effects each round.
• Catastrophe Cards – A subset of Age Cards that disrupt gameplay and signal the approaching end.
• Gene Pool Cards – Indicate your hand size limit and help manage card flow.

Gameplay is fairly straightforward: each round (or “Age”), a player flips over an Age Card, which sets the rules for that round. Then, each player takes a turn by playing a Trait Card from their hand to the table, followed by drawing up or discarding down to match the number of cards allowed by their Gene Pool. The next round begins with a new Age Card being flipped, and the cycle continues.

Adding urgency to the game are the Catastrophe Cards, which are shuffled into the Ages Deck. Each one introduces different effects, frequently negative, and when the third Catastrophe is drawn, the game ends. The Ages Deck contains 9 Age Cards and 3 Catastrophe Cards, meaning players have a maximum of 12 rounds to accumulate points.

And that’s the basic core of the game.

Of course, there’s a bit more depth to it. Trait Cards interact in various ways – providing bonuses for colour pairs, imposing penalties on opponents, etc. However, much of the strategy seems to rely on intuition rather than encyclopedic knowledge of the cards. Heck, as the rules themselves suggest: “Play something cute, try some things, and trust that the cards will help you find your way.”

This approach makes the gameplay flow smoothly throughout, and while there are certainly strategies and tactics that can be picked up through repeated playthroughs (getting as many colour types, ideally pairs, onto the table is generally considered a solid idea, for example), there are enough chaotic elements to ensure that things can shift fairly rapidly from turn to turn, meaning that Doomlings is great for those who like their card games on the lighter side.

SCORING

The big part of the game comes when the third catastrophe is drawn and everyone tots up their points to see who actually wins. And herein lies my only real niggle about this game – how tricky it can be to keep track of the scoring along the way!

Given the plethora of different modifiers, bonuses and penalties that can be dealt out, it frequently becomes almost impossible to know how you’re actually doing, leading to a lot of “yeah, this is probably a good move” hail mary heaves. I appreciate that this slightly chaotic approach is probably a key selling point for a lot of people, and there’s definitely a sense of drama when the numbers are finally added up, but on a personal level, I’m more of a fan of being able to see how I’m doing prior to the grand reveal.

I’m also not 100% impressed with the online score calculator, which seems like a great idea in theory but in practice relies on a lot of sums being done in the players’ heads (or on paper) then being plugged into the app to total them up. It definitely makes the whole process easier, don’t get me wrong, just not quite easy enough, y’know?

COMPONENTS

The cards themselves are of a sufficiently high quality, with bold, bright colours and easy to read fonts.  You also get one “shiny” card per box, which I don’t think serves any additional purpose other than looking cool. But in that respect, it certainly delivers…

The box is also well designed, making it easy to tuck the various bundles of cards into their own specific area, meaning that – outside of a hefty shuffle – the set-up time for this one is kept pleasingly low. There’s also a neat area for “future doomlings” that you can slot any expansions or boosters you buy into. Nice touch.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Full disclosure: we only played the game with two of us, and while it was certainly an enjoyable experience, I get the distinct feeling that things would become a lot more entertaining and (enjoyably) chaotic with more players, up to a total of six.

The game itself is a fun, snappy fair with the sheer variety of cards and abilities offering up a wide option of tactics and approaches, and it’s rapid-fire enough that it’s not going to dominate your entire board game night if you’re trying to fit in a few different games.

There are also a ton of different expansions, including new varieties of Doomling,  booster packs, more ‘shinies’ and all manner of cash-saving bundles.  Check out the Official Doomlings Store for more details.

Overall, there’s a heck of a lot to like about Doomlings, and while the tactic depth is a little questionable, the accessibility and overall ‘fun factor’ makes this an easy game to recommend adding to your rotation.

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The writer of this piece was: Craig Neilson-Adams (aka Ceej)
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