Roguelike-thread

[Sotha]

There is an own topic for FTL, but what other Roguelikes people around here play?

 

I played Nethack in the past, but for modern standards, it feels a bit clunky, and the learning curve is very harsh. You learn the risk-level of every monster by getting killed by it.

 

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is one of my favourites, in addition to FTL. It very easily approached and witholds no information. You get a lot of data of enemies by looking at them, and features a nice mouse driven UI. It combines the best parts of Nethack but is very user friendly. There is an android app, too, so you can play it on the run! Highly recommended!

 

Tome4 (Tales of Maj'Eyal) I tried just recently (yesterday). It is highly appreciated and has won several roguelike contests, but I have a bit mixed feelings about it. Sure it is pretty, and has particle effects, sound effects, beautiful artwork, and all but... I dunno, the DD4 edition-style character-power-based gameplay with no consumables feels a bit too simplified for me. Consumables have always been like an ace in the sleeve of the player. Powers work like in FTL: you use, for example, the shield bash skill, and it returns after a cooldown period. The UI is very user friendly, but still there is something about this game that puts me off. It was very easy in the beginning: so easy it was almost frustrating. Then suddenly a level 23 monster appeared and killed me. The monster did not look much different from the lvl 4-6 fodder I bashed down with impunity. It may be I haven't learned to ropes yet, but somehow encountering new baddies in Dungeon Crawl always provoked fear. I probably got desensitized by the too easy start of Tome4. Will play more later.

[demagogue]

Rogue-like could be pushed in different directions, but on my list are games like Transcendence, Survival Crisis Z, & HeroQuest.

 

I like the way Transcendence pulls you forward area by area, like FTL in that respect, but it also seems a bit sparse with its world maybe? SCZ is a randomized zombie survival sim back when that was still a cool new thing to do & I still recommend it.

 

A game I've been toying with making on Unity would also have Roguelike elements. I took that insanely detailed 1740 map of Paris and made the buildings clickable with randomized events, so part of the game is exploring the city.

[Airship Ballet]

These are somewhat more modern roguelikes, some more traditional than others, but are all drawn together by a thread of perma-death, random world gen and resource management:

 

The Binding of Isaac (not great imo, but a lot of people like it)

Don't Starve (a lot more sandbox, based around building things to survive and venture out to find parts of a machine to escape the world)

Dungeons of Dredmor (10 Merry stars, my favorite on this list)

Eldritch (pretty new, based loosely on Lovecraftian lore, a semi-creepy FPS in randomised dungeons with scant ammo and weapons that do different things like blowing up the environment to make a shortcut to the next level)

Pixel Piracy (building a 2D crew and a ship to go sail the seven seas and dynamically fight monsters and pirates. It's basically FTL as pirates with slightly less automation but far less content at the moment)

Project Zomboid (isometric zombie-slaying, town-looting action, the kind where you die in two hits if you're silly enough to get caught off-guard, has the same everything-but-what-you're-looking-at-is-invisible thing going on from the original Rogue)

Rogue Legacy (Perma-death platforming game that sees you attempting the dungeon again as the heir of the last person you died as, really difficult but also really rewarding with a persistent leveling system to get you further each time, though each visit is randomised)

Spelunky (quirky 2D platforming rogue like, tons of fun, really difficult, either the old version or the new one since both are great but the most recent is smoother)

 

They're all the ones I've played and enjoyed, though there's a full list here: http://store.steampo.../en/Rogue-like/

Edited May 10, 2014 by Airship Ballet

[SeriousToni]

What are rougelike people (games) ?

[Airship Ballet]

Games that are like Rogue; games that give you one life and take everything away from you when you die and also have completely randomised worlds.

Edited May 10, 2014 by Airship Ballet

[SeriousToni]

Ah haha thanks, I'm stupid! xD

[Plutonia]

Games that are like Rogue; games that give you one life and take everything away from you when you die and also have completely randomised worlds.

 

Those are roguelike-likes, or "rogue-lites". Simplified. A roguelike is a game where levels are randomly generated, death is permanent, and gameplay mechanics and classic RPG elements are extremely complicated. Roguelikes basically bind every key on the keyboard to some action, and there are dozens of character and equipment attributes and environmental factors used in every dice roll. Speaking of dice, roguelikes are always turn-based. When you take a step, your enemies take a step, and if your character is fast, you might be able to take two steps when your enemy can only take one.

 

And once you die, you do not lose the game. There is no game over. The death was simply part of the story of that character's adventure, and is added to the record right next to the champion who actually managed to finish the mission, if there are any. It's often very improbable for a player to finish a roguelike game. It takes a massive amount of strategy and in-depth knowledge to play properly, but in the end of the day, it's still all just rolls of the dice, and therefore it's theoretically possible to roll badly every single time.

[jaxa]

http://adom.de/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Domains_of_Mystery

 

http://www.unrealworld.fi/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnReal_World

 

Pretty surprised these are still actively developed.

[Airship Ballet]

Those are roguelike-likes, or "rogue-lites". Simplified.

 

Rogue-lites have become today's rogue-likes. There are none of those true hardcore games coming out anymore, and really there weren't many to begin with. I didn't want to define rogue-likes because I knew somebody would jump on me and tell me what a true rogue-like is, and it's a debate that's still on-going. You're not wrong in saying that the ones coming out are simpler, but there's not enough solid distinction between them to properly define them. While they are certainly easier than the hardcore rogue-likes of yore, they're still not easily quantifiable as "lite". A rogue-like is more than a rogue-lite with more intricacy, and even if that was the case you'd have to draw a line with regards to what is and isn't classed as complicated. Dungeons of Dredmor, for example, is turn-based but isn't particularly complicated. People call it both, maybe because some don't want a filthy casual's game ruining their jaded mind's memories of older hardcore games while others see enough similarities to categorise it as a rogue-like. Honestly I think the definition's transient, and has changed to mean something that has permadeath and randomised level generation. There's nothing "like" about Rogue-likes, because frankly they're just a texture pack for Rogue. They're Rogue-Clones, not nearly varied enough to be anything else. Until the zombie survival/sandbox creation trend passes and an age of Rogue-Clones is ushered in, I think rogue-like does just fine to describe what people deem rogue-lites and there's really not enough difference between them to start nit-picking.

 

Pretty surprised these are still actively developed.

 

It is surprising; I still regularly play MUME, a really old MUD that's still added to and played fairly religiously by some. It's still popular enough to have decent fun with it but man, some people are these scarily fixated real-life manifestations of the AVGN.

Edited May 10, 2014 by Airship Ballet

[jaxa]

I meant the two I posted. URW has a post from today, and ADOM had a bit of a renewal after a Kickstarter type deal.

[Melan]

I played a lot of Rogue, Dungeons of Moria and Nethack back in the day. I really liked OMEGA, which had a surface section, cities and different types of dungeons, factions you could get involved with and so on. More recently, DooM the Roguelike has been a hoot. Not as vicious as other RLs, it is still enough of a challenge for my skills, and what's more, it plays, sounds and even looks like DooM.

[Sotha]

Anti-nitpicking post:

 

For more info on roguelike-definition, see here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike

[Airship Ballet]

I meant the two I posted. URW has a post from today, and ADOM had a bit of a renewal after a Kickstarter type deal.

 

I know, I just mean it's great that some really old ASCII-based games are still in active development. MUME's still going and that went live in 1991 and there are plenty of other MUDs I play very regularly that were put up around the same time. I've never played either of those though, was just reading about them then

[MasterHelpo]

DooM the Roguelike has been a hoot. Not as vicious as other RLs, it is still enough of a challenge for my skills, and what's more, it plays, sounds and even looks like DooM.

 

Agreed. DOOMRL is a great option to start out with if you're just getting into rogue-likes.

[elwing]

second... doomRL is pretty great, easy to start and some challenge medals are pretty hard to attain, it got a pretty great replayability...