Advert: This game was gifted by Doomlings. All opinions are ours and our reviews are always honest.

It’s time to speedrun evolution: from the inception of life to the end of the world! Let’s dive into the world of the cute and quirky Doomlings!

👥 2 to 6 players
⌛ 20 to 45 minutes
🧠 10+ years

Gameplay overview:

Doomlings is all about playing colourful quirky traits that will give you the genetic edge to face the world’s end and beat out your opponent’s scores! 

On their turn, each player plays a trait card from their hand to their own personal trait pile in front of them. Some of the traits have special effects like playing, stealing, swapping and discarding other traits. Some have special scoring conditions. Some just have chonky points. And some are ‘dominant’ traits that your opponents can’t mess with – but you can only play 2 of these in a game.

Each round, a new age is revealed giving a new rule for that round (some good, some not so good!). Or a CATASTROPHE is revealed instead – and these are definitely not good! Three catastrophes are shuffled into each third of the age deck, so you never know when a catastrophe is going to hit. When the third catastrophe is revealed, the world (and the game) ends. Instantly. Kaboom. Time for players to resolve any relevant ‘world end’ effects from their trait pile, the world’s end effect itself, and score up.

Our thoughts:

When I saw the colourful box and funny traits I knew I’d love Doomlings! It’s not exactly the same as Unstable Unicorns, but it gives me that same kind of vibe. And while I knew I would like it, what really took me by surprise was that Matt likes it too, and even has a favourite card! (It’s The Prepper, by the way).

The traits are funny and often cute. How many of them you have in your hand depends on your ‘gene pool’ size, which can be affected by ages, catastrophes and other traits. And I really liked the addition of ‘colourless’ traits. A lot of card effects – ones that specify an action with ‘any coloured trait’ of your choice – don’t affect them. I’m also a big fan of ongoing ‘event/encounter’ style gameplay, so I love flipping the new age card to see what fortune or misfortune awaits us.

Doomlings is as random as it looks, so forward planning is limited and gameplay is mainly reactive, mitigating whatever disaster or player shenanigans is happening. Or trying to play the best traits before some random Age event makes you discard your hand. I’m someone who can struggle when there’s constant punishment (bad events/player meanness) and no real way to prevent or defend against it. But I don’t get that feeling with Doomlings because randomness is the whole point! Just lean into it and enjoy the ride. Everyone is in the same boat, everyone is getting messed with – very rarely has someone ran ahead with points when we play. And it also helps that Doomlings is a quick game, so if you aren’t doing well it’s over before you know it. 

There’s a lot of player interaction and messing with each other. In a 2-player game, that obviously means messing with the other person, but with more players the mischief is shared around. We didn’t feel any one person was ganged up on – unless it was the rare case someone was doing much better than the rest, in which case that’s fair game!

This review is for the Doomlings base game. There’s lots of other boosters and expansions you can add into the base game to shake things up; they look amazing and we’re looking forward to exploring them (and reviewing them too!). BUT the base game is great on its own, so don’t feel like you need to invest in more unless you want to.

What we like:

• Cute, quirky aesthetic – the sarcastic colourless traits appeal to my Eeyore personality.

• Fun and quick gameplay, with very little brain power needed. There’s some in-the-moment planning, often reactionary, but no long-term strategising needed.

• Perfect to play as a palate cleanser between other games, to top or tail your game night, or just squeeze in a work break. Although it’s very more-ish so don’t be surprised if you want to keep playing!

• There are expansions and booster packs you can add into the game to add variability, but you can just as easily enjoy the base game on its own.

Considerations:

• It is a very random game – random Ages, random catastrophes, random trait cards you get, random world’s end condition. If you can enjoy unpredictability, it’s great fun. Otherwise you might get frustrated.

Final verdict:

If you can lean into the randomness, and like games with a lot of player interaction, then Doomlings is definitely worth checking out! It’s been our go to game when we want something quick and strategy light, like if we’re short on time or what a quick break between other games. Although we enjoy it so much we always end up playing ‘just one more’!