It has now been a year since AEG first released Doomtown Reloaded, a reboot of the late 90s CCG set in the weird west world of the Deadlands RPG. How has this quirky card game weathered its initial push and what can we expect in the future?
Doomtown, from its initial iteration to its current reboot, has always been unique among the other deck building games on the market. With its poker mechanics, area control aspects and intricate story-line, Doomtown has never really been for extremely casual gamers. Doomtown Reloaded attempted to mitigate some of this learning curve with an extremely detailed rule book included in the base game, and some ironing out of the more counter-intuitive mechanics inherent in the original game. As a jumping on point, the base game is a great value, with its sturdy cardboard chips, mounted board player aid/board and enough cards for two people to jump into the game. As an introduction to the game, it gets a solid A.
As the game has expanded, new cards have been released roughly every 6 weeks. After getting comfortable with the first four factions (the groups fighting for control of Gamorra and the main subsets of cards in the game) from the base box, the large expansion "Faith and Fear" introduced two new groups. These new cards integrate seamlessly into the existing game and while they could have complicated an already crowded playing field, they greatly enhance the game by emphasizing aspects of Doomtown that the original set may have overlooked
Overall, Doomtown Reloaded has weathered its first year better than many had expected. A beloved game from the past has been brought back as vibrant as ever. The game just gets better with each subsequent release, and since there is no rarity or secondary market for Doomtown cards, players can immediately get their hands on these great cards the day they are released. The future looks bright for this amazing game, as the designers have promised new surprises down the line. If you are looking for a great game for you and your friends that breaks the common "card game" mode, try Doomwtown Reloaded.