USD ($)
EUR (€)
I have been a fan of Doomlings for quite a while now. In the category of easy-to-play family games that you can play quickly, with quite a few players, you can do a lot worse.
The end of the world is upon us and it is up to you, me and the other players around the table to create a species that will outlast disasters and the trials and tribulations that come with the coming apocalypse. So, grab some friends, round up some family members and meet me at the end of the world for fun, frivolity and a little bit of take-that!
Gameplay
The Setup
Doomlings can be set up in under a minute, which is great for quick games with the family and is essential for games of this weight class. Give all players a Gene Pool card, five cards from the main deck and separate the Birth of Life card and the Catastrophe cards from the other Age cards. Then create three piles of Age cards with three ages in each. Add to these cards a Catastrophe, one in each pile, shuffle each one and stack them on top of each other and you are ready to rock.
The Loop
The object of this game is to have the most points at the end of the world. Throughout three eras, you must play trait cards from your hand, avoid Catastrophes and outwit your opponents.
The first thing you do in a round is flip a card from the Era deck. The first, as in all games, will be the Birth of Life card, which sets your initial gene pool size. After that, various events, ages and catastrophes will alter the game state and generally annoy people, which is always fun!
I found starting each round with a slight change of rules and a possible amendment to your gene pool size kept things fresh and made sure players never got too comfortable.
The Gene Pool
There are various cards and age effects that alter the size of your gene pool. Which is just a thematic way of keeping track of your hand size. At the end of your turn, you ‘stabilize’ which just means discard or draw cards until you get to your hand size, or in the case of Doomlings, your gene pool size. Managing your gene pool size in Doomlings is vital. We all know that more cards equals more choices and therefore, more power.
Playing around with your gene pool size is fun and it's certainly a thematic way to track how many cards players should have.
Traits
Your hand is made up of weird and wonderful 'trait’ cards. Everything you could need to get your species to the end of the world is here. Fleshy Scales will protect you from having traits removed and cheek pouches will allow you to draw more cards. Your hand is full of weird and wonderful things that change the game in uncanny ways, not to mention, give you more scoring opportunities. Just watch out for your pesky opponents trying to ruin everything.
Among the trait cards are ‘Dominant traits’, these traits are the biggest and flashiest of the traits, can never be stolen or moved and will sometimes get you big piles of points. You can, however, only play two per game, so you must choose wisely and get ones that fit the style and substance of your species.
Taking a Turn
On your turn, you must play a trait card from your hand. Traits will have a score, a colour and sometimes an effect. These effects do all sorts of things from increasing your gene pool to giving you more scoring opportunities. When you play the trait, you execute the ability and perform its effects. At the end of your turn, draw up or discard down to your Gene Pool size. The variety of trait cards is vast, especially with all the expansions available.
Once everyone has taken a turn, you will flip over one of the age cards. It will either be a catastrophe, which will start a new era or a standard age card which will manipulate the game state for the following round. After three catastrophes the game will end immediately and the game will go to end-game scoring.
Components
Doomlings is just a pile of cards, these cards are, however, from a presentation standpoint, lovely. I think they could be made of better card stock and have a linen finish to make them last longer but from an artwork and design perspective, I think they fit the bill.
Each card has a lovely little cartoon trait on it, the symbology is clear and concise and they are all vivid and brightly coloured. I love seeing new traits and the little characters that have been designed to portray them.
The Overlush Expansion
The Overlush expansion for Doomlings is a massive, booster pack-based addition to the base game that has over 170 new cards, more than 130 new traits, 40 plus new ages and even new rarity tiers for the cards. Not only that but the cards include cross-colour interactions and new card manipulation mechanics.
The Overlush box comes with 4 booster packs, which is 60 cards and with a fair few holofoils included. While I am not a massive fan of this method of getting new cards, you do get a few cards for your money and a large amount of ‘special’ cards.
Overlush is a good addition to the base game, with some interesting mechanics and ways to manipulate the game state. The art is lovely again, with some uncanny traits and characters included.
Final Thoughts
Doomlings will not be everyone's cup of tea. It's a bit too take-that for some with stealing each other's cards and messing with each other's tactics but as long as you know this upfront I think it's a fun little time-waster for either end of a game night or a bit of fun with the family. My kids certainly love it but this type of game is their bread and butter.
The art on the cards is superb and really fits the theme of the game. The Overlush expansion, while I don't agree with booster packs is a good way to improve your card collection and freshen up the game with more mechanics and characters.
Scores:
Zatu Score: 80%
Artwork 4
Complexity 2
Replayability 3
Player Interaction 4
Component Quality 2
You might like:
Lovely artwork.
Messing with your friend's strategies and tactics is always a laugh.
A simple ruleset.
You might not like:
Cards are not the best quality.
Take-that mechanics are not suitable for all game groups.