Doomlings

Doomlings is a competitive card game where you try and expand your traits from the beginning of life to the world’s end through the cards you play. The person with the most points at the end wins.

The Ages deck is pulled from once a round while the Traits deck is where you draw cards for your hand.

Was this game sent for review or self-purchased?: This game was sent for review by the Doomlings team!

In two sentences, what do you do in the game: On your turn, you’ll draw a card and then play one, doing any applicable action on the bottom. Some cards affect all players, a single opponent or only yourself as you play strategically to gain the most points.

Some cards like “Brute Strength” on the right change your hand limit (gene pool) if played but also provide a good number of end game points (4). You sometimes have to decide if the benefit is worth the adverse affect.

Have we played any other titles by this publisher?: This is the only game by Doomlings LLC but their website features many expansions and Doomlings content.

The memory card let’s you discard/stabilize (refill your hand) while Symbiosis is more for the long game to give this player points for their smallest color pile(s)

What was surprising about this title: The game has a nice pacing to it. It is a fairly quick game, but it has substance, so each sequence feels meaningful. The different events that pop up also provide slight shifts in how drawing, collecting, and playing cards may work for a round so there’s always something to spice things up.

A gene pool of 2 as indicated by the upright number. This player is focusing a lot on red cards.

How likely is this to return to the game table?: Very likely. It is easy to introduce to new gamers or experienced gamers. The game is engaging from the first round which we enjoyed.

Game length: 20-45 minutes but more likely somewhere in the middle. Of course, different player counts can also affect the length potentially.

Example of a hand for someone with a card limit (gene pool) of 5

Language Barrier Playability: Doesn’t work for a language barrier. There would be a lot of translating because the game relies on language at the bottom of the cards. Even if someone were to translate all the public cards, you’d have to sacrifice strategy by revealing your hand to translate the cards you could play.

Artwork: Cute, colorful, emotive spheres are the heart of Doomlings. They look kind of like web comic art. Most of the card design is a colorful trim around a cartoony circle. However, cards like the Catastrophe or Prosperity cards feature full color background scenes that are gorgeous. The backs of the cards are all beautiful rainbow-y designs and the cards that tell you how large your gene pool (hand) can be feature different rainbow gradients for each player. There are a lot of lively elements to the design, which is perfect for a game about expanding life/traits from the beginning until the end of time. All of the various art choices are brought together beautifully on the holographic box cover.

There are many varying actions that cards can have once played depending on their bottom text.

This is going to sound a little advertise-y but it is something we found interesting because there aren’t a lot of games with extra merch. The Doomlings store takes the art a step further and has released pins, stuffed animals, playmats, shirts, and other various memorabilia for the game. The plushies are really cute. Seeing those kind of brought the idea of these being little creatures to life a little more.

Quality: Good. The cardstock is good quality, and the box is sturdy also. There are not many components in the original game to judge beyond that, but really, that’s all you want from a good card game are cards and a box that will last.

Strategy: Somewhere between light and medium. We often say with card games that it is the luck of the draw, and that’s here too, but the variety of cards that come up allow you to strategize a little more extensively. You can choose to play more offensively or defensively with many of the cards. Sometimes you can take away traits from others. Or you can play abilities that will benefit you immediately or at World’s End in the final round. Having these options made it feel like the strategy had more weight.

The catastrophy and prosperity cards added interesting twists

Instruction Manual: Great. It is easy to start gameplay from the instructions, and there was no confusion when reading the rules. The manual goes into enough depth but doesn’t overly repeat itself.

Organization: Really good. The cards fit well in the box, AND there is a cardboard box placeholder, so you can add expansion content later. We really love games that account for expansions because, as all gamers know, it can be a struggle to have to keep your expansions all separate. This was a very thoughtful organization choice.

Final thoughts: This game is very fun. To be completely transparent, because we had seen it so much on social media and in popular retail stores, we thought it was going to be more of a basic card game but it was so much richer in content and strategy than we originally anticipated. There is even more content, but even the base game has a lot of replayability. This is a really nice game to start off a game night with family and friends.