Mighty Doom ReviEulogy — Slayer Spin-off is Satisfying but Microtransaction Heavy
Alpha Dog and Mighty Doom fell victim In the wake of Xbox’s May 2024 closures and layoffs. But how was Mighty Doom to play?
Only a little after a year of its release, Mighty Doom and its developer Alpha Dog have fallen as victims to Xbox’s May 2024 wake of layoffs and closures. This leaves Mighty Doom, doomed to persist on app stores only as far as it has been currently developed. I probably should have written a review when I was much more active playing it, but I figure at the least, a proper eulogy and review is in order…
Mighty Doom is a roguelite. You equip a set of gear and then fight your way through a gauntlet of arenas, and fight a myriad of bosses. Along the way, you’ll earn upgrades that will augment your Doomslayer or weapons for your current play session, and you’ll keep moving along. It’s simple, fun, and safe, meaning that it follows the tried and true tested roguelite game formula. DOOM ETERNAL is the core of all of their design elements, and Alpha Dog incorporates elements that fit such as the UI and font designs, enemy designs and attack patterns, the music, and glory kills. This ETERNAL coat of paint does a good job at differentiating it a bit from similar playing competitor mobile games.
The key here is understanding that Mighty Doom is a mobile game, fueled by microtransactions. You can’t just beat the game in one go like you would a normal roguelite. Here there are several legs of a journey through hell and beyond to go through, and they all get progressively more difficult as you complete each segment. To combat the difficulty, you get stronger through loot boxes, or rather, the weapons and armors inside of them. These all must be upgraded with currency that you seemingly never have enough of. So in the simplest terms, your progression is very much tied to your luck.
Not only is it tied to luck, but it’s temporary. Rarities of weapons and armors DEGRADE over time. Right, so I got lucky. Got the highest tier of items in SEVERAL slots. Next season. They all degraded by two rarities. Loot boxes I understand and can live with. But not letting me keep my legendary drops is downright BRUTAL.
But the one thing I commend this game for is how far you can offset the difficulty with sheer skill and willpower. You can jump as far ahead into the campaign as you want, complete the toughest of content under-leveled, and it’ll be really rewarding. The trick is to just not get hit! Some dudes are bullet sponges, sure, but once you memorize enemy attack patterns, and exploit their weaknesses, you can play your guts out and progress much further than I imagine the developers anticipated. I appreciated being able to do this, in a gleeful spite of the systems that make the Slayer’s power feel chained to your luck.
Overall, Mighty Doom was an alright mobile game. There were times I’d consider it a good one at that, enough that I sank some money into it. The weapon acquisitions tied to the loot boxes is truly unfortunate, but I did enjoy collecting an arsenal of weapons. The real downfall of Mighty Doom (despite being gone so soon), is that it is plagued with microtransactions that hinder what could otherwise be a really enjoyable mobile game.
Overall, I had a good time playing while it lasted, and I hope in death, Alpha Dog employees land on their feet. I also hope before the final nail gets put in the coffin, a few tweaks can be made to make Mighty Doom more timeless, because I’d love to return and play more. But as it sits now, with microtransactions at the core, I can’t see myself going back. If you’re on the fence, I’m not recommending you play it, but if you’re casually interested either from before or after reading my article, there’s no harm in downloading it and having fun for a bit. Regardless, may it rest in peace, and may the devs at Alpha Dog have a speedy recovery.
Originally published at https://backloggd.com.