Doom: The Board Game

Doom is a board game developed by Fantasy Flight Games based on the popular first person shooter computer game. It is a combination of cooperative and competitive; as several players work together to defeat the scenario while one player acts as the invaders and tries to defeat the marines.

Anyone that has played Descent from Fantasy Flight Games will find Doom to be very easy to learn, because they both use mostly the same mechanics. In fact, Doom seems to be a bit more streamlined and the game play can go quicker because of that. I often refer to Doom as Descent-light.

Components

As with most products from Fantasy Flight Games you get a fair amount of stuff with the game. You get a rule book and a scenario book. The scenario book contains 5 pre-made scenarios. You get 4 reference sheets that the players get to use. These sheets show the various invaders that the marines can face and the weapons that a marine can use. The game also comes with 66 plastic miniatures, which include the 3 marine player figures and all of the invaders that the marines can face. There are 6 custom dice that are used in the game as well. There are 84 cards, 66 used by the Invader and 18 used by the marines. There are 58 interlocking map pieces that can be used to create custom maps, as well as the scenario maps included with the game. There is also a ton of different marine and Invader used prop pieces and tokens. As with most Fantasy Flight Games you are not hurting for bits.

Mechanics

Competitive/Cooperative: As mentioned in the introduction the game always has 1 Invader and up to 3 marines. This means that the 3 marines will work together to work against the Invader. The Invader wins by defeating the marines and the marines win by getting through the scenario without allowing the Invader to win. I personally find this mechanic very interesting and have enjoyed in multiple FFG games.

Variable Player Powers: The marine cards are actually skills that can be added to customize the marine players, giving each unique skills that assist in getting through the game. This mechanic helps to make the game different each time it is played.

Modular Board: This is another mechanic that helps make the game different with each play. As stated above, the game comes with 58 interlocking map pieces. This allows for custom boards to be created and new scenarios to be invented to keep the game fresh.

Dice Rolling: The game comes with custom dice that are used for invader and marine combat. The dice determine if ranged attacks are successful and how much damage is potentially dealt on a successful attack. The dice also determine if ammo is spent or not. It adds an element of randomness to the game but in this case I think it works.

Resource Cards: The Invader player has a resource deck that allows him to use special rules to stop the marines and spawn more invaders. There is less resource management in Doom than there is in Descent. In Descent you need to spend threat to play your resources. This adds to the length of the game because you have to determine whether to play the card or discard it for extra threat. In Doom, if the card is in your hand you can spend it. So there is less decision making about what to do with the card.

Scenarios

The 5 pre-made scenarios are a lot of fun, although they seem weighed in favor of the Invader player at times. There is also an expansion for the game that includes a few more scenarios. This is one area that Descent has over Doom. There is official software and an online database for user created scenarios in Descent. Doom only has one officially created scenario, but no official software to create scenarios and no online database either. In fact, there is a good chance that there will not be any more expansions for the game either; while Descent continues to get new expansions. There are a few user created tools for creating scenarios though, so at least the user base is trying to support themselves.

Overall Impressions

I enjoy playing Doom. It is a streamlined version of Descent and a game can be completed in 1-2 hours instead of 4-6 hours. There are several unofficial and official variants that can help fine tune the game if you do not like the game straight out of the box. If you know Descent, you pretty much know how to play Doom and you will just need to learn about some of the new special abilities. If you are a fan of Descent or the Doom computer game, give this one a shot.

I personally recommend the game and would have no problem breaking it out if asked to play a game.