Doom & Destiny Worlds review

Doom & Destiny Worlds feels like an amalgamation of ideas and styles from a multitude of titles like Minecraft, Zelda, and Stardew Valley. It’s a surprisingly deep explorative game with tons of crafting and adventuring to be had, and while the grinding can become frustrating, there’s plenty to do. It’s also a charming game about friendship, venturing into the realms of fantasy thanks to the four nerds’ love of all things tabletop. It might feel repetitive at times, at least as far as the combat goes, but there’s plenty of environments to explore and engage with.

While sat having a chilled out session of Dungeons & Dragons (or one of many available pen and paper games), the four main characters are teleported into a strange world. Waking up naked and alone, without a single tool or weapon at your disposal, you must find your friends and work out what the hell is going on. It doesn’t take long until your first job is to save a friend from the top of a tower, and the opening section provides you with the knowledge needed to play, thanks to a decent tutorial. After bumping into the physical embodiment of Destiny, you learn about three tyrants who must be defeated in order to return home.

There’s no audible dialogue, instead opting for conversational bubbles and the odd quip in text. The writing is fun and fundamental, and acts as a nice gap between the times you are out trying to gather enough resources for crafting. This is where Doom & Destiny Worlds feels laborious at times, as you’ll do a lot of grinding by breaking rocks, chopping trees down, and gathering materials for what you need. Certain elements of crafting and farming aren’t as well explained as they could be, and gathering so many blueprints can lead you feeling lost, especially in the early stages.

There’s a lot to get your head around, and with a messy inventory, it’s easy to get lost in there. Much of the learning is done on your own, and it would have been nice to have a little more guidance in how to craft items, or a clearer UI for how to build things. You can craft a whole manner of things from armour, weapons, and building blocks to traverse across the islands, and when you do begin to grasp these mechanics, Doom & Destiny Worlds can be fun. There’s just a lot to take in and a lot to manage, and with four characters all needing to be equipped with tools and such, it’s easy to forget where you are.

One thing I did like was how streamlined the combat is. While it can become repetitive, it’s easy to get to grips with. Each enemy has a health bar and an energy bar. The energy bar provides the ability to use certain skills, and while you and your foe has it, it needs to be broken down until the health can be depleted. Once the energy is removed, the health is the only thing keeping their hearts beating. it also acts as an extra level of defence against enemies, feeling just as much of a shield as a way to dish out certain spells and attacks.

Doom & Destiny is gorgeous. The pixel art allows the developers to get creative with the sheer amount of islands available, and I’m a sucker for this kind of art style. Heartbit Interactive has made a charming adventure, and I couldn’t help but fall in love with it. The music was wonderful as well, and provided the perfect soundtrack to my journey to find the tyrants and go home. It’s humour is great, and the relationship between the friends is relatable. As a DnD player myself, I appreciated how the nuances of the game were implemented into certain aspects of it.

It may become quite the chore to grind for resources or to craft a particular item, Doom & Destiny does reward you for your dedication. The art style and music is wonderful, and the world is vast and ripe for exploration. Combat is straightforward and often fun, although it can become repetitive when enemies keep rushing towards you. It won’t be for everyone, but the charming characters and opportunities to craft some cool equipment is present throughout.