As I sat down to play through the tutorial for Days of Doom, I had to ask myself – is Atari back? With the recent release of the anniversary collection and the loving playable Karateka game it feels like they are making the right moves. So far, they are leaning into the nostalgia from their past but with Days of Doom they have published an original title. So, is Atari back? The answer is a warm ‘kind of’.
The apocalypse wasn’t the end of the world. Just the one we knew. Enter the Days of Doom, a post-apocalyptic tactical RPG roguelite that challenges players to reach Sanctuary, a place of promise and respite in a world of colorful chaos. Starting with a small cast of survivors, you’ll chart a path to reach your ultimate destination, encountering threats, including zombies, raiders, and even zombie raiders! Along the way you will need to recruit a ragtag band of heroes to protect your growing community and fight your way forward. Discovering how to best utilize each hero’s unique abilities is the key to success in Days of Doom’s turn-based combat. The odds against you may seem insurmountable, but if you use your heroes’ abilities strategically, upgrade them, and add new abilities along the way, you might just make it. No two runs are ever the same, which keeps you at the top of your i9bet game, and makes Days of Doom inherently replayable
- Platforms: PlayStation 5 PlayStation 4 Nintendo Switch Xbox Series X PC Xbox One
- Initial Release Date: Sep 21, 2023
- Developer: SneakyBox
- Publisher: Atari
Set in a zombie apocalypse, the player takes control of a group of survivors that are trying to make it from their tiny settlement to a mythological place called ‘Sanctuary’. This means going across a procedurally generated map with random encounters and fights to go through. The player can move freely between any two connected points but each move costs petrol that must be replenished through fights, purchasing it at traders, or through luck on choices in the random encounters.
The fights themselves are turn based strategy element with the player in control of their team. There are a variety of different classes from the tough melee Fighter to the frail but devastating Watermancer. Each unit has their own set of skills, and specials (that have cool downs) and 2 Action Points to spend each round. The enemies themselves range from mindless zombies, to hulking mutants, all vividly rendered in a hand drawn cartoon style, with the bloated zombies being particularly evocative in their gross shambling.
As fights are won, resources are gained and characters level up, there are also runes and extra items to collect. Items are one-off items that can be used such as mines, bombs, or even pieces of meat. Runes are passive abilities that can be slotted into one of each character’s three slots to supplement their skills, giving them the ability to hit twice with a 1o damage penalty, or imbuing attacks with certain element abilities for example.
There is a roguelike element to the run, if all characters die, or the truck runs out of petrol the run is over and the player can spend the meta-currency on upgrades to their settlement. The upgrades give the player an edge in going back into the zombie wasteland.
I really enjoyed my first few runs of Days of Doom it felt like there was a clockwork puzzle with the fights, trying to block the path of enemies with my bruisers, and detonating environmental hazards to give my attacks more power. There were also difficult choices to make, go to the event ahead and hope to get something good, or settle the fight that was going to reduce my team’s health but provide much need fuel?
Visit https://discovergame.uk/