I have a love-hate relationship with roguelike games. If I find a really good one, I’ll forget that I have ever had any issues with the concept. However, when I play a bad one, I curse the fact that the roguelike style game has become so ubiquitous.
Days of Doom is a roguelike turn-based post apocalyptic tactical RPG. Your goal is to drive across the wasteland in search of Sanctuary–fighting all sorts of zombies and bandits along the way. There are also random events that allow you to gamble in hopes of finding something useful–and shops where you can buy and sell items, and acquire new heroes. And every single damn thing this game does has been done better. That’s not the bad part. The bad part is that when I think about the best roguelike turn-based post apocalyptic tactical RPGs, Days of Doom wouldn’t even be a consideration.
Okay, that might sound a little harsh. Days of Doom is competent. That is–it’s not a bad game. However, it’s not a very good game–and it’s not a game that’s particularly worth your time. I mean, it works on a technical level. I didn’t run into any crashes when I played. But it’s so middling that I find it hard to even write about. The entire world is a cliche, and not presented in a particularly novel way. And the actual gameplay is frustratingly boring.
Combat encounters are slow, and while there is a bit of strategy involved in getting through them, I found myself trying to rush through them in hopes of getting to some actually interesting content. There are melee focused characters, and others that can support others–and none of that matters because it’s just not very fun.
Days of Doom suffers the most in its gameplay loop. And that’s something that’s broken on such a fundamental level, the developers would have to overhaul battle pacing, the campaign map, and much more to elevate Days of Doom beyond its mediocrity. It doesn’t help that Days of Doom is priced as a AA title, and it’s not even worth half that. It’s so uninspired and by-the-numbers that it’s almost a shame that time was wasted in its production.
I know people worked on this game, and they certainly can put together a video game. It starts and everything. If you’re reading this review and think that I don’t know what I’m talking about and that Days of Doom is great: please, share your opinion. If someone can get some joy out of Days of Doom that’s fantastic. But this bitter old reviewer just couldn’t find the fun.
A Steam key was provided to us for this review.
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