Days of Doom from Atari and Sneakybox is a challenging post-apocalyptic turn-based roguelite in which zombies, reptilians, and crazy raiders stand on your path toward Sanctuary. Check our Days of Doom review!

 

Days of Doom from Atari and Sneakybox is a challenging post-apocalyptic turn-based roguelite in which zombies, reptilians, and crazy raiders stand on your path toward Sanctuary. As Days of Doom says once you start to play, the apocalypse was not the end of the world, just the one we knew. Within all of the chaos, the promise of finding peace and a proper life behind the gates of Sanctuary is what manages to keep most people going. Your group could be considered heroes in this new world, even if they’ll eventually include some raiders aiding you.

Once you’re ready to go, the game kindly asks you if you’d like to play or skip the tutorial. I suggest you take on the tutorial since this will allow you to learn all of the basics so that you’re not caught off-guard. Combat resolves in turns. Each of your units will have a pair of Action Points to perform actions as needed. That means that you’ll need to spend Action Points to move a character from Point A to Point B. You’ll also need to spend Action Points to be able to attack an opponent. For example, one of your units has an ability called Swing, which allows him to take a big swing with his weapon, dealing damage to enemies around it within one cell. Once your units have decided what to do during their turn, it will be the turn of your enemies.

Enemies also get two Action Points during their turn to either move or use some skills. You’ll have to decide if rushing towards an enemy to try and defeat it during your turn is worth the potential trouble of having a pair of nearby zombies gang up on you, dealing considerable damage in the process. This is why making the most of each unit’s special ability is a must. Take, for example, the Fighter class and its Shoulder Slam. Shoulder Slam can be used to not only deal damage to an opponent but also push and stun a nearby enemy. Stunning one zombie and pushing it away so that you can then attack the other one with your Swing attack is a solid choice!

 

Along with moving from here to there, attacking enemies with your regular abilities, or making good use of your special abilities, there’s also the option of guarding for a unit’s turn. Guarding is an important part of combat since it will reduce damage taken by 50% until the next turn. Doing this when one unit is surrounded could buy you the precious time needed for the rest of the group to reach the enemies so that everyone can attack as one and survive for one more day.

Another important element to keep in mind is turn order. When in combat, you can see on the upper left corner of the screen the order in which your units and enemy units will take their turn. This is determined by each unit’s speed stat. Knowing which unit will attack when is crucial to your survival! You should always try to stay one step ahead of your enemies so that you can be ready to move out of their attack range as you set them up for a world of hurt during your next turn.

As you defeat enemies, you will get to loot some resources that will be very valuable for your journey. Traveling is dangerous, and as you move from node to node, you’ll need to spend some fuel. This is why you should keep a close eye on the resources in the upper left corner of the screen because running out of fuel will put an end to your quest to reach the city of Sanctuary. At least you’ll be sent back to the settlement so that you can figure out what your next action should be.

 

Pressing the L1 button will open up the management screen. From there, you’ll be able to review your inventory, which units are currently part of your group, as well as any extra information on them that could prove to be valuable during combat. Each of your units will have at least one slot for equipping consumable items, such as a medkit, to have them recover some HP. And yes, using a consumable item will require you to spend an Action Point! Units on your team will also have slots for equipping Runes. Runes are trinkets that grant passive bonuses that can make a big difference in your run.

Because of its roguelite nature, death is very much part of the gameplay loop for Days of Doom. When your team is defeated, you’ll start back at your settlement, where you can regroup, add new members to your group, and even buy upgrades that will help your odds of survival during subsequent runs. As you try to reach Sanctuary, you’ll obtain Renown. Renown is the one resource that will persist between runs, and it’s what’s needed to boost your standing within the community, as well as allow you to improve the different facilities.

What will you be able to do with the Renown you obtain? Well, you’ll be able to build some Living Quarters so that you can improve candidate capacity and food acquisition. The first upgrade will allow up to four candidates to reside at the settlement, but you can increase this further by spending a town of Renown down the road. By visiting the notice board, you can check out the current setup before you start a new journey.

 

Since this is a roguelite, that means that each run will be randomly generated. On top of that, there will be different node types to consider as you move toward the big boss battle at the end of each area. If there’s a question mark on a node, that means it will lead you to an event. A sword signals there’s a fight coming up ahead. A red skull means you’re going to take on a boss fight. A tent will allow you to heal your wounds at a campfire. You could decide to heal 30% of everyone’s health, spend some rations to heal 50% of all party members’ health, or leave it for later. Who knows, you might find a traveling merchant with items, resources, and even new recruits for hire!

The game has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy waiting for you. The list includes 4 Bronze trophies, 9 Silver trophies, and 7 Gold trophies for you to work on. The first trophy to pop will be for starting your first run. After that, you can get trophies for losing your whole squad during a run, unlocking each of the additional classes in the game, fully equipping a character, reaching a boss node with only a single character left alive, beating each of the big bad bosses along the way, and reaching Sanctuary. Oh, and you’ll also have to beat 500 enemies, reach level 6 with a character by gaining enough experience points, and complete a run without losing a single squad member.

Days of Doom is a challenging post-apocalyptic turn-based roguelite in which zombies, reptilians, and crazy raiders stand on your path toward Sanctuary. Due to its roguelite nature, you won’t be able to complete a successful run right away since you’ll first need to learn all of the basics, meet all of the enemies and bosses to better understand their movement and attack patterns, and upgrade your settlement thanks to the Renown you obtain during each run. The further you progress in a run, the more Renown you’ll be able to obtain, so be sure to pay attention to the different consumable items and runes you find along the way, as well as use the items you can buy from the traveling merchant while on the road. Days of Doom is out on PlayStation 5 with a $29.99 asking price. There’s also a PlayStation 4 version of the game available for the same price as a separate purchase.

Disclaimer
This Days of Doom review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Atari.