This game was reviewed using Version 1.0.4. Your experience on other versions may vary.

A visual novel, dating sim, deckbuilder, and party game all wrapped in a quirky and hilarious package. Over 400 unique scenarios and 120 endings make for a ton of replay value, with absurdist comedy that can hide surprisingly emotional stories if you take the time to pursue them. The deckbuilding combat is fun in its own right, but simplistic compared to bigger games in the genre as the VN/dating sim aspect is the main focus here—basically, it's more Monster Prom than Slay the Spire. Available as a singleplayer game, but vastly more fun with friends.

Doomsday Paradise is a multiplayer dating sim where you and your friends work together, or against each other, to try and score a date in the week before the apocalypse—and, y'know, maybe try to prevent that apocalypse from ending the world if you're feeling up for it. You only have a few days to accomplish your goal(s), whether that's stopping the apocalypse, earning the highest score through fighting demons, romancing one of 12 different singles for the chance at a happily ever after, or just seeing what kind of stupid antics you can get yourself into before the world gets destroyed.

Something to note before you continue: while it does advertise singleplayer support, it is nowhere near as fun as playing multiplayer. You can choose to play cooperatively and try to help each other in your individual or shared goals, or you can play competitively and just focus on scoring better than everyone else—personally, I find the former a lot more fun. You can play online or offline, with multiple controllers or pass-and-play, and even use Remote Play so only one person needs a copy. An average multiplayer run takes about 1-2 hours depending on player count, though you're free to stop mid-game and pick it back up later. Lastly, know that there are no public lobbies, only private rooms with codes you send to your friends, so make sure you've got at least one other person to play with before purchasing since playing with random players isn't an option.

In each session, you and your friends have 5-7 turns (depending on your game length setting) to gain as many stat points, items, and skills as you can before the big bad arrives. Every turn, you can visit one of six locations in town to boost one of your stats and trigger one of many different events that can offer additional boosts/items. The items you collect translate to cards you use in deckbuilder-style combat segments, with each card's strength partly determined by your stat points. The combat is fun, though it might feel too basic if you're used to the bigger deckbuilders out there, so I wouldn't pick this game up if that's the main selling point for you. The VN/dating sim side of things is where much of the focus lies, so the meat and potatoes of the experience predictably stems from interacting with the characters and attempting to romance them.

Romancing a character involves two steps: you first need to select a character as your crush during game setup (this locks in who you can romance that run, so pick carefully); then you fulfill the requirements of their Romance Quest, which requires you to garner a certain amount of "affection points" with them through choices made during events. There are twelve characters you can romance, but you're only allowed to pick from six to be your crush: Frank the undead doctor, Cleo the retired adventurer, Al the Pirate King, Hayley the student monster girl, Tessa the unscrupulous town merchant, and Vando the vampire wizard that can turn into a bat. The other six are secret characters that have a random chance of appearing during a run, and can be pursued regardless of who you're crushing on so long as you garner enough affection with them before the week's end.

By now, you're probably asking "What's the point of all the fighting and romance and running around town?", and the answer is simple: events and endings. There are over 400 unique events to see and 120 different endings to unlock, and these are where much of the entertainment value can be found. The writing leans very heavily into comedy, and the sheer volume of unique scenarios you can encounter is only slightly more impressive to me as how often the comedy actually lands. I don't think my friends and I have had a single session without at least one moment where we all lost our composure, and the amount of quips and out-of-context lines I've screencapped in that time is a bit worrying, if I'm being honest.

After a few runs focusing solely on romance, making dialogue choices entirely based on whether or not my crush would like what I said, things started getting stale. Most of the events I was seeing were repeats, and I started to spin my wheels wondering how on earth this game supposedly had 120 endings. Eventually, I ignored my Romance Quest and just tried experimenting with my responses, and I discovered that some of these one-off events were turning into larger storylines that would continue into my future turns if I picked the right dialogue choices. These started to open up new, more varied endings that I hadn't seen before; and it was here that I began to understand the surprising depth this game really has.

"Surprisingly deep" is probably the best way I can describe Doomsday Paradise, because that statement carries into almost every aspect of its design. For example, while RNG plays a big role in every run, there are little tricks to tip the scales in your favor. The mechanics behind combat are easy to learn and not-so-hard to master, but your performance is still largely based on the items and skills you acquire through events. While the exact events you get are random, the rewards that specific events offer are static, so players prioritizing combat can make dialogue choices based on the reward rather than story progression. Players prioritizing story, on the other hand, also have a trick at their disposal: the RNG will give a slight priority to events that involve your crush, so your choice of crush can change the likelihood of who does/doesn't appear, and by extension which events do/don't appear. Along with this, there's a whole metagame to unlocking endings you can dive into, because there are endings tied to everything from relationship status, dialogue choices, your stats at the end of the run, and more.

More than all of that, though, what surprised me the most was the depth of the writing. Comedy is the main focus, and the amount of running gags and brick jokes you can stumble upon—some of which won't see proper payoff until a separate run entirely—certainly implies a depth all its own; but comedy isn't the only thing it has to offer. Tucked away behind all the one-liners and skits lie some unexpectedly emotional stories, and it isn't afraid to dial back the comedy to give these moments the spotlight they deserve. What start as one-dimensional tropes become actual fleshed-out characters as you discover their histories and past relationships and story arcs that you can help influence; and I've found myself liking these characters more and more with every session because of it. The humor and the replay value quickly cemented Doomsday Paradise as a good game in my eyes, but the heartfelt stories buried beneath the surface are what elevated it to a great game. This game showed up by chance in a friend's Discovery Queue shortly after launch, and we've played it with different friend groups nearly every day since. If I've managed to make it sound even remotely interesting to you, grab your friends and pick it up as soon as you can.

For more game reviews, check out my Curator page!

[b][u]This game was reviewed using Version 1.0.4. Your experience on other versions may vary.[/u][/b] [h3][b][u]Short Answer:[/u][/b][/h3] A visual novel, dating sim, deckbuilder, and party game all wrapped in a quirky and hilarious package. Over 400 unique scenarios and 120 endings make for a ton of replay value, with absurdist comedy that can hide surprisingly emotional stories if you take the time to pursue them. The deckbuilding combat is fun in its own right, but simplistic compared to bigger games in the genre as the VN/dating sim aspect is the main focus here—basically, it's more [i]Monster Prom[/i] than [i]Slay the Spire[/i]. Available as a singleplayer game, but vastly more fun with friends. [h3][b][u]Long Answer:[/u][/b][/h3] [i]Doomsday Paradise[/i] is a multiplayer dating sim where you and your friends work together, or against each other, to try and score a date in the week before the apocalypse—and, y'know, maybe try to prevent that apocalypse from ending the world if you're feeling up for it. You only have a few days to accomplish your goal(s), whether that's stopping the apocalypse, earning the highest score through fighting demons, romancing one of 12 different singles for the chance at a happily ever after, or just seeing what kind of stupid antics you can get yourself into before the world gets destroyed. Something to note before you continue: [b]while it does advertise singleplayer support, it is nowhere near as fun as playing multiplayer[/b]. You can choose to play cooperatively and try to help each other in your individual or shared goals, or you can play competitively and just focus on scoring better than everyone else—personally, I find the former a lot more fun. You can play online or offline, with multiple controllers or pass-and-play, and even use Remote Play so only one person needs a copy. [b]An average multiplayer run takes about 1-2 hours depending on player count[/b], though you're free to stop mid-game and pick it back up later. Lastly, know that [b]there are no public lobbies, only private rooms with codes you send to your friends[/b], so make sure you've got at least one other person to play with before purchasing since playing with random players isn't an option. In each session, you and your friends have 5-7 turns (depending on your game length setting) to gain as many stat points, items, and skills as you can before the big bad arrives. Every turn, you can visit one of six locations in town to boost one of your stats and trigger one of many different events that can offer additional boosts/items. The items you collect translate to cards you use in deckbuilder-style combat segments, with each card's strength partly determined by your stat points. [b]The combat is fun, though it might feel too basic if you're used to the bigger deckbuilders out there[/b], so I wouldn't pick this game up if that's the main selling point for you. The VN/dating sim side of things is where much of the focus lies, so the meat and potatoes of the experience predictably stems from interacting with the characters and attempting to romance them. Romancing a character involves two steps: you first need to select a character as your crush during game setup (this locks in who you can romance that run, so pick carefully); then you fulfill the requirements of their Romance Quest, which requires you to garner a certain amount of "affection points" with them through choices made during events. There are twelve characters you can romance, but you're only allowed to pick from six to be your crush: Frank the undead doctor, Cleo the retired adventurer, Al the Pirate King, Hayley the student monster girl, Tessa the unscrupulous town merchant, and Vando the [strike]vampire[/strike] wizard that can turn into a bat. The other six are secret characters that have a random chance of appearing during a run, and can be pursued regardless of who you're crushing on so long as you garner enough affection with them before the week's end. By now, you're probably asking "What's the point of all the fighting and romance and running around town?", and the answer is simple: events and endings. There are over 400 unique events to see and 120 different endings to unlock, and these are where much of the entertainment value can be found. [b]The writing leans very heavily into comedy, and the sheer volume of unique scenarios you can encounter is only slightly more impressive to me as how often the comedy actually lands.[/b] I don't think my friends and I have had a single session without at least one moment where we all lost our composure, and the amount of quips and out-of-context lines I've screencapped in that time is a bit worrying, if I'm being honest. After a few runs focusing solely on romance, making dialogue choices entirely based on whether or not my crush would like what I said, things started getting stale. Most of the events I was seeing were repeats, and I started to spin my wheels wondering how on earth this game supposedly had 120 endings. Eventually, I ignored my Romance Quest and just tried experimenting with my responses, and I discovered that some of these one-off events were turning into larger storylines that would continue into my future turns if I picked the right dialogue choices. These started to open up new, more varied endings that I hadn't seen before; and it was here that I began to understand the surprising depth this game really has. [b]"Surprisingly deep" is probably the best way I can describe [i]Doomsday Paradise[/i], because that statement carries into almost every aspect of its design.[/b] For example, while RNG plays a big role in every run, there are little tricks to tip the scales in your favor. The mechanics behind combat are easy to learn and not-so-hard to master, but your performance is still largely based on the items and skills you acquire through events. While the exact events you get are random, the rewards that specific events offer are static, so players prioritizing combat can make dialogue choices based on the reward rather than story progression. Players prioritizing story, on the other hand, also have a trick at their disposal: the RNG will give a slight priority to events that involve your crush, so your choice of crush can change the likelihood of who does/doesn't appear, and by extension which events do/don't appear. Along with this, there's a whole metagame to unlocking endings you can dive into, because there are endings tied to everything from relationship status, dialogue choices, your stats at the end of the run, and more. More than all of that, though, what surprised me the most was the depth of the writing. Comedy is the main focus, and the amount of running gags and brick jokes you can stumble upon—some of which won't see proper payoff until a separate run entirely—certainly implies a depth all its own; but comedy isn't the only thing it has to offer. [b]Tucked away behind all the one-liners and skits lie some unexpectedly emotional stories, and it isn't afraid to dial back the comedy to give these moments the spotlight they deserve.[/b] What start as one-dimensional tropes become actual fleshed-out characters as you discover their histories and past relationships and story arcs that you can help influence; and I've found myself liking these characters more and more with every session because of it. [b][u]The humor and the replay value quickly cemented [i]Doomsday Paradise[/i] as a good game in my eyes, but the heartfelt stories buried beneath the surface are what elevated it to a great game.[/u][/b] This game showed up by chance in a friend's Discovery Queue shortly after launch, and we've played it with different friend groups nearly every day since. If I've managed to make it sound even remotely interesting to you, grab your friends and pick it up as soon as you can. [quote]For more game reviews, check out my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42524563/]Curator page[/url]![/quote]