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DOOM: The Boardgame
Posted by
michael
on Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:07 AM
from the deploy-chainsaw dept.
from the deploy-chainsaw dept.
Ant writes "And I thought I had seen it all from DOOM world. Nope, there is a boardgame! It is for 2 to 4 players, playable in 1 to 2 hours, based on the groundbreaking DOOM 3 computer game by id Software. Seen on Blue's News." There's also Frag, which IMHO isn't a very good boardgame. The Doom game looks like it might work, though.
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Wow, they mean it. (Score:4, Funny)
6 Archvile figures
6 Demon figures
6 Hell Knight figures
6 Mancubus figures
6 Custom Dice
Wow, they really took that to heart, didn't they?
Re:Wow, they mean it. (Score:5, Funny)
A flashlight! With some duct tape... to stick it to your shotgun!
Parent
Re:Wow, they mean it. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Wow, they mean it. (Score:5, Insightful)
Confession: I haven't actually played this, but it's been hanging around several stores I frequent like an unsalable boatanchor for some time now. I thought it looked exceedingly poor, and the impression I got from reading the back of box copy was that someone had just picked up a half finished fps-board game ( probably inspired (?) by Frag ) and 'skinned' it to make it Doom. I wouldn't waste your money. ( But remember - I haven't played it! It might be a sleeper hit. )
There's also a Warcraft III boardgame which looked quite dull - these crossovers always seem a kind of puzzling decision to me. Stick to what you're good at, guys.
In summary, I'd save your pennies for Acquire, which I hear is really good, or Blockus. Board games are expensive these days - sit back and wait for the dust to clear from the annual awards shows and then move in and pick off the victors.
YLFIParent
Re:Wow, they mean it. (Score:5, Interesting)
Christmas before last I got them the last copy in the area. Seems it was re-released in 1999 by Hasbro, who owned Avalon Hill (ironically, for the purposes of putting out a new Civilization computer game). I was the hero of the day. I still don't get how to play the stupid game, and the one thing her family doesn't like is the fact that the hotel companies in the game were changed to tech companies (it was 1999 and all) but they can play the game for like five hours without breaking a sweat.
As far as I know the 1999 printing is the latest one and as a result, the game's been out of print ever since. If you're in the mood for a "hardcore" boardgame snatch it up while you still can...
Parent
Expense of board games (Score:3, Informative)
That said, is anyone else reminded of the Day of the Dead boardgame [homepageofthedead.com]? (link can't be checked, at work and the filters don't allow anything with "game" in it. Alt link [rpg.net] or use Goo
Re:Wow, they mean it. (Score:3, Funny)
Well, it'll work when ever Steam goes down, so you'll be... Oh. Sorry, wrong game.
Hmm what next... (Score:3, Funny)
2 striders
3 gunships
2 attack helicopters
10 resistance soldiers
10 combine soldiers
5 metrocops
5 elites
2 combine missile trucks
2 combine dropships
1 combine generators
2 combine energy barriers
4 civilians
1 barney
1 eli vance
1 vortigaunt
2 antlions
1 alex
1 dog
1 G-man
1 spin-the-crowbar decision wheel
Re:Hmm what next... (Score:5, Funny)
4 calling birds,
3 French hens,
2 turtle doves,
and a partridge in a pear tree.
Some assembly required.
Parent
Re:Wow, they mean it. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
frame rate (Score:5, Funny)
Re:frame rate (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:frame rate (Score:3, Funny)
Heh, I bet this is a blessing to parents getting hit up by their kids for a $200 video card to play a $60 game.
Xmas 2004:
Kid: Dad did you get me the game and the card I need to play it?
Dad: Almost, son! Here you go!
Kid tears at package to find The Doom III boardgame.
Dad: Merry Christmas! You didnt think I was going to spend almost $300 so you could play some game?
Character development (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Character development (Score:4, Funny)
"You encounter Maria Lovelette. What do you say?"
a) "....."
b) "........"
Parent
If you're curious... (Score:5, Funny)
Roll a 1: You are unable to see shit; lost 5 HP
Roll a 2: You are unable to see shit; lose 5 HP
Roll a 3: You are unable to see shit; lose 5 HP
Roll a 4: You are unable to see shit; lose 5 HP
Roll a 5: You are unable to see shit; lose 5 HP
Roll a 6: You are unable to see shit; lose 5 HP
Roll a 7: You are unable to see shit; lose 5 HP
Roll a 8: You are unable to see shit; lose 5 HP
It is pitch black (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:If you're curious... (Score:4, Funny)
You suddenly realize it is unnaturally quiet. --More--
A cloud of darkness falls upon you. --More--
You are hit! You are hit! You die... --More--
Parent
Well, for one... (Score:5, Funny)
(PS: I loved D3!)
Looks less than thrilling (Score:3, Interesting)
Besides, its hard to play a board game in the middle of the night with the lights off.
Re:Looks less than thrilling (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Groundbreaking? (Score:2, Interesting)
Hmmm... (Score:3, Interesting)
Eh???? (Score:5, Insightful)
Most board games have some sort of Role-Playing element to them, not just "You walk into a room with 3 Cyberdemons. You died." Doom is a GREAT video game as most hack and slash games like it. How does gameplay flow?
Are there character goals? Can you build up your marine to rule the underworld?
Then again, perhaps I just don't get it...
Sounds quite like D&D... (Score:4, Informative)
I don't know, but this sounds like your typical board-playable RPG.
As an off-topic side note, I also remember the Spy vs Spy board game [collectmad.com], we had lots of fun with that one (not that it's related, just a thought)
Parent
Re:Eh???? (Score:3, Interesting)
Couldn't find info on the box. (Score:5, Funny)
Doomonopoly... (Score:5, Funny)
k.
Unfortunately (Score:5, Funny)
Boardgames are back? (Score:5, Funny)
God Mode Help (Score:3, Funny)
Re:God Mode Help (Score:3, Funny)
Get some glue and a note-card and stick the new letters on the outside of the dice. You win!
D3 Multiplayer (Score:3, Funny)
-Supports 2-4 players
-Playable for 1-2 hours
I wonder if they also ported the "absolute shit gameplay" feature aswell?
More information on boardgamegeek (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/10640 [boardgamegeek.com]
Ranked 68th, that's very good!
Re:More information on boardgamegeek (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't trust the rankings there. Boardgamegeek ranks DOOM: The Boardgame higher than Risk [boardgamegeek.com]
Now I havent played DOOM::TB, but I doubt it's more interesting and holds a better replay value than Chess. I have played Zombies!!! [boardgamegeek.com] - a seriously flawed game, yet the voters of boardgame geeks still rank it higher than Risk and Monopoly. I suspect theres some vote-rigging going on, much like that which the admins at IMDb are constantly battling.
Parent
Re:More information on boardgamegeek (Score:3, Insightful)
They like fun "bits" (thus Zombies!!! position is high because, hey, glow in the dark zombies) and they dislike "classics" because as a group they are looking for something exciting and new.
Ask the "average American" about boardgames and they will probably list "Monopoly, Risk and p
BoardGameGeek (Score:4, Informative)
The place to check this out is the BoardGameGeek Doom: The Boardgame [boardgamegeek.com] page, which has reviews, scenarios, and other good stuff.
Darkness... (Score:5, Funny)
You may see:
"Yeah, but you can only see 1 space ahead"
"WTF WE nEed duct taPe"
or "OMG DICE ATTACK YOU FORM KNOQWERE".
We get it. Doom's dark. Enough already.
I want the collectors edition (Score:5, Informative)
yeah, that would be cool,
~me walks away from the keyboard for the night, not sure if I'm serious or joking....
I spent New Year's eve playing this... (Score:5, Informative)
The rules provided in the box aren't always clear, but the game does have a lot of replayability. In fact, playing a mission you haven't played before can be extremely difficult, as it's easy to waste too much time and too many respawns exploring.
Some people would argue that the ammo system is rather sucky, though. You collect ammo counters and lose them on the basis of the dice, not for every shot you make, so you may get no opportunity to use the bigger weapons with two dice that have chances to miss. This is especially crucial when you consider some monsters can't even be harmed by most weapons. Oh, and the losing armour on respawn really, really sucks, because there's so little of it in most missions, and without it, pretty much everything that attacks you will do damage.
If you play it much, you'll probably want to establish some tailored rules for your group.
Other stuff: the miniatures are decent and painting allows you to see the nice amount of detail they have on them; the playing pieces and cards are all heavy enough stock that should last a fair while.
Give it a try, though!
Reviews and Pictures and MODS at BoardGameGeek (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/10640 [boardgamegeek.com]
Cheat codes (Score:5, Funny)
GOD MODE: "roll" dice by placing them down carefully on the number you want
KILL ALL MONSTERS: Place your hand firmly on your playing pice. With the other hand grasp the playing board with your other hand and shake vigorously.
UNLIMITED AMMO: Point behind the other players and say in a loud voice, "Hey, what the heck is THAT over there!?!?!" When other player look away to see what you are looking at, grab all unused game tokens.
CHANGE LEVELS: With a broad sweep of your arm, clean the board. Then set up again in the configuration of the level you want to play.
EASTER EGGS: IDDQD, many easter eggs will become hidden in your house. (This only works on Easter morning)
They've already come out with a see-through-walls hack too, in fact, it looks like it's pre-built into the game...
I've actually tried it. (Score:3, Interesting)
PS. You can actually see something in this game!
No monster closets? (Score:5, Funny)
"Okay, I slowly -- SLOWLY -- enter the room. What do I see?"
"It's dark. There's some blood on the ground."
"And that's it?"
"Yes. ROWR!"
"What? What? I spin around!"
"There's nothing there. Just a scary noise. Oh, but you see a box of shotgun shells."
"OK, motherfucker, I know what's going to happen. I sneak up, and JUST AS I GRAB THE SHELLS I spin around!"
"A closet opens up and an imp pops out!"
"I shoot the bastard! BLAM1 I rolled a 12! He's dead!"
"Good job, marine. So what now?"
"I walk toward the door..."
"And just as you do so, three Hell Knights teleport in behind you!!"
"What the..."
"GRROWR! ROAR! SLASH! BOOM! You're dead."
"Motherfucker... OK, I hit Alt-tab."
"What?"
"You heard me. I navigate to the DOOM directory and hit unistall.exe . You backstabbed me for the last time, bitch."
Played Doom board game... a mini-review... (Score:3, Informative)
The first thing I noticed was the game had approximately a metric buttload of figurines, dice, cards, and widgets. Heck, I think there are even some out-of-state fireworks and dancing girls in the box. So, if you're into games with lotsa bits, Doom has some serious heft to it.
With those bits comes a lot of dice-rolling. Each weapon has an array of dice to be thrown, each with varying damages, ranges, and ammo-usage. We found ammo to be extremely scarce. Each player starts out with a small amount of ammo, and it tends to run out quickly -- at least one out of every three attacks. Due to some bad die rolls, our "sharpshooter" marine was constantly running out of ammo, and had to often resort to the classic "fist" attack. (Which, strangely enough, seems to be more effective than the pistol.)
The line-of-sight rules combined with Evil's spawning rules seemed a little out-of-line. Evil was able to use a constant supply of cards in his hand to spawn new bad guys (which is a departure from the video game). Evil could spawn anywhere he could put a critter out of our "line-of-sight". Unfortunately, even one or two little critters could block line of sight for a big critter. When we finally started working carefully to cover every corner, being careful of line-of-sight, Evil played a "Darkness" card which allowed new baddies to spawn. Twice. This was all great fun for the Evil player, but irritating and frustrating for the players. (In the original game, a player could "clear out" an area and use it as a safe zone. Nothing doing in the board game.)
The game allows 6 respawns of the players before the evil player wins. Which is a good thing -- us players had lost 3 lives before we got out of the first room. The game also took a long time to play. We played for nearly 3 hours before we gave up the ghost, but none of the players except for Evil seemed to have a good time.
Earlier the same day, we played the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer [boardgamegeek.com]" game, which is along the same lines as Doom. A similar theme, a similar style of play (one player versus the rest), but Buffy seemed much better for some reason. Buffy kept things simple, which Doom bogged down with the details.
I'm not really looking forward to playing the Doom boardgame again, but I'll probably give it another shot to see if there was something that I missed. Although it had lovely pieces, I think the gameplay was a lot of dice-rolling for three hours, with the odds stacked frustratingly against the Marines to the point of being "not fun." Maybe the dice were just not with us. If you like the pretty bits, and like slapping a bunch of dice and figures around the table, then you might want to check this out.
Re:Played Doom board game... a mini-review... (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, it's reasonable value when you look at the price of other boardgames and what you get for the cash.
Maybe the dice were just not with us.
I think an "every X shots you lose an ammo token" rule would be a better way of handling things.
Buffy kept things simple, which Doom bogged down with the details.
Plays a lot quicker once people are familiar with the setup. And yep, the Evil player has a decided advantage if they're sharp e
Re:hmm... (Score:2)
Re:if it is like the real doom game.... (Score:4, Funny)
Unfortunately, the Half-Life2 board game can't be played in the same building as a computer running Linux or MacOS, and requires all players to call the publisher to ask for permission before playing. Most slashdot geeks clamor for a boycott against the game, but secretly play it at their friend's houses.
Parent
Re:Since when? (Score:5, Informative)
Pardon me for nitpicking, but how exactly is Doom 3 a high-poly game that requires "excessive" processing power? If you took Doom 3's graphics on its own and slapped it on an older engine, it would take much, much longer to draw at the same quality.
You're clearly underestimating the massive engineering effort put into making the game. If you think Doom 3's engine was just created by "anyone", think again. Setting aside who made that graphics engine (as there are already lots of Carmack fanboys in the world to emphasize that point), the algorithms used in the game are the product of years of research work by other guys who aren't even directly involved in Doom 3's making.
The shadows alone, though largely derided by most people for making the game "too dark", is only made possible due to Everitt, Kilgard and other people's groundbreaking research work on the area. I currently have their papers on my desk. Without those algorithms, Doom 3's shadows would approach *polynomial* time just to get it to render!
If you want to criticize the game itself, go ahead. (I personally liked the game's atmosphere more than Half-Life 2, but my subjective opinions rarely count for anything.) But don't discount the fact that it took real people with great minds to actually make these stuff. I could say with absolute certainty that Doom 3 is ground-breaking in the graphics arena.
Parent
Re:Check it out (Score:3, Funny)