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Countdown To Doom resembles the three previously-published Acornsoft 'Adventure' games. An adventure is a role-playing game, where the player is supplied with a description of an environment, and is invited to suggest some action to take. Actions (such as picking up an item or walking in a given direction) result in changes to the environment. The player's "score" increases until some set aim has been achieved.

The environment of Countdown To Doom is a classic science-fiction one. While orbiting a planet with the improbable name of Doomawangara (Doom for short), your spaceship is unfortunately zapped. You crash on the planet's inhospitable surface, where you must hurriedly repair your spaceship before the corrosive atmosphere of Doom makes it impossible for you to escape. Just to complicate matters, the planet is liberally scattered with treasures, which you are reluctant to leave behind. Various alien tricks and traps are distribute across the planet, giving you the chance of a sudden rather than a lingering death.

Instructions such as TAKE GUN, QUIT, GO NORTH and so forth may be used. The program is rather dumb and consequently it doesn't understand most instructions, even if you confine yourself to two words. Sometimes it even misunderstands a command completely - we typed EXPLODE DOOR and received the reply "What do you want me to do with the explode?" Other instructions bring the unhelpful reply "Eh?" The program is written in BASIC but cannot be examined in the usual way.

Countdown To Doom takes over six minutes to load. A partially completed game can be saved on tape if required. If you enjoyed the other Acornsoft adventures you'll probably find this one fun, but Countdown To Doom does not make very good use of the machine' facilities.