Doomsday on Demand

It was my first ever choose-your-own-adventure, text-based game, and honestly, it’s what got me hooked on this genre. I remember reading and playing it on my phone, not expecting much, but somehow, it pulled me in and started my obsession with these kinds of games and books. Sure, it’s not the best or the longest game out there, but it has its charm. The story is fun, and it brings back so much nostalgia every time I think about it. If you’re into text-based adventures or just want something simple and enjoyable to dive into, this one’s definitely worth a try.

There’s a lot of interesting bits to Doomsday on Demand. On one hand the post apocalyptic world is pretty fleshed out at first as the game goes into detail about different kinds of monsters and hazards. There are some good characters introduced and some difficult choices to make. One of my few issues is that by the end of the game I felt a little pigeon holed in my options and didn’t quite like any of my options fully. I would also say that the epilogue felt a bit rushed and some characters that the game featured early on got little more than a passing mention by the end. The game also felt like it had unresolved plot points. A couple things that felt like they were being made into a focal part of the story just never got mentioned or barely mentioned by the end. Despite this I did enjoy most of the game and felt it was worth it.

I played Doomsday on Demand on Linux. The game has had a rocky history for me. It worked years ago then it went through a period where it would only display a white screen and today it was back to working so I took the opportunity to beat it while I could. I didn’t encounter any other bugs and I didn’t notice any spelling errors. Like other games by Hosted Games the game auto saves on exit and you can’t have multiple save files so every choice you make is for good. I’ve never liked this save style but I understand wanting to add tension to your choices.


Disk Space Used: 239 MB
CPU Usage: 1-8 %
RAM Usage: 3.5-4.1 GB


Overall if you enjoy visual novels I’d say this game is worth your time. I think more could have been done with parts of the story but as it is it was solid enough. I finished it in two hours and four minutes and paid $3.39 CAD for it which felt like a fair price. Hopefully the technical issues stay fixed.


My Score: 7.5/10

My System:

Intel i5-12600K | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | Intel UHD 770 | Mesa 23.0.4 | Western Digital Black SN850 500GB | Trisquel 11 | Mate 1.26.0 | Kernel 6.6.9-gnu

- Weak story.
- Everyone keeps laughing. Like three times per page, "he laughs", "She giggles". It's meant to be a postapocalyptic horror nightmare world, and everyone's walking around guffawing for no reason like they're doped up on laughing gas.
- Some choices literally tell you, "no you can't do that, choose the other thing". Then don't put a choice there and waste my time.

I really enjoyed this game, BUT it's not for everyone. You play in a depressing, hopeless, bleak, post-apocalyptic world. If you like those types of stories, you'll like this. A word of CAUTION, there are some scenes that can be disturbing. Finding dead bodies, children being beaten, things like that.

Pros:
-Felt longer than 102,000 words.
-Lots of well-developed characters, no one felt generic.
-There's factions, but you influence characters in that faction not the faction itself.
-Mysteries and surprises.
-There are some weird sequences, where you're not sure what's real or not.
-Doesn't use a skill system, instead your decisions will influence other characters.
-Author does a good job of making you feel you're constantly in danger.
-Interesting mutants each with special abilities and unique features.

Cons:
-A few minor spelling errors and mistakes.
-You have flashbacks throughout the story, but the payoff is a let down in my opinion.

Not many replablilty choices. I like the story, but there could have been many many improvements for a non-linear kind of game it turned out to be. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and felt a type of connection, but wished it was a bit more. I did notice alot of possible options that proved linear for the most part. Being a pre-teen the entire game did leave options for growth, but proved me wrong when it just ends suddenly a core character dies and the game ends. I would like to add, it feels like there is no point of relationships or age. This is a male pre-teen with hormones growing up during puberty. He didn't even think about sneaking a peek on Lizzy while she showered? Adolescence for short. . Sadly I would not recommend this.