Doom Machine

JW gifted me the PnP files of Doom Machine when it was on KS a while ago, as I found the tin version a bit too pricey. I liked the bright colours and the theme, and had also checked a playthrough video. It seemed to be a light, fun dice chucker.

And, to an extent, it is. Light, for sure. Fun? It's not bad. There's nothing wrong with the design itself, it is well thought-out and replayable. You lose extremely easily, at least at first. Eventually you learn to check the machine part effects more carefully and decide which ones are worth spending dice on.

This is a dice rolling and allocation game in which your main goal is to destroy the Doom Core. Before you can do that though, you have to get rid of as many parts of the machine as possible, since they are harming your health. Each part you take out gives you an extra die to roll, and a new machine part is revealed at the start of each round.

The game flows easily and quickly. I played four times this evening, and came close to winning in my last try but didn't make it. It's definitely good for a PnP but I'm not sure I would want to purchase the published version. I suspect I'll give it another go or play until I win and then shelve it. For some reason I expected to enjoy it more but I'm lukewarm on it. Perhaps, once again, these small games are doomed with me.