I’ve been having a lot of fun playing all manner of Roguelikes as I gather footage for my interview with Glenn Wichman. I knew there were lots of them, but I’m frankly stunned at the productivity of the roguelike community. Most of us have probably heard of the major roguelikes–ADOM, Angbad, Crawl, ToME, Larn, and, of course, NetHack, but that’s just scratching the surface. Roguebasin lists over 800 in 25 subcategories!
I was intrigued by a category called “Roguelike-likes,” which so far consists of a single game called Red Rogue by Aaron Steed. Aaron’s game features sidescrolling platform action and some real-time options, and was influenced by Spelunky. Of course, I also had to check out the “Erotic” category, which includes a title called Seduction Quest. Appropriately, this game uses a game making framework called LOVE2D.
There’s also a fun challenge called 7DRL. The idea behind this challenge is to complete a roguelike in only 7 days. Last year, there were 155 successful projects! Frankly, that just blows my mind.
I’m definitely a noob when it comes to the world of roguelikes, so I was wondering which ones you guys like the best and any weird ones you may have come across. I still have one more episode with Glenn, so it’d give me a chance to air some footage from lesser known roguelikes.
Nothing comes even close to Nethack imo. It’s the combination of a steep curve, open setting and sheer size. Dwarf fortress adventure mode looks interesting though. And Cataclysm is one newer (ascii) good one.
I don’t have much experience with rogue-likes but I played 2 of them recently and enjoyed it an awful lot.
The first one was Faster Than Light: http://www.ftlgame.com/
Here the rogue-like mechanics are mixed together with the management of a spaceship and everything is totally random. What sectors you travel through, what enemies or friends you find, what items you get, what shops you find and so forth. All this while you try to get away from a big fleet that’s chasing you.
The other one I got in the steam sales over christmas: Rogue Legacy: http://roguelegacy.com/
This one mixes the rogue concept into a platformer. There you enter a castle, a forest, some maya ruins and some hell-ish world. The rooms are mostly random generated. You can recognize repeated patterns after a while though. But they all get mixed up very nicely.
Also, when you die, you always can one of three heirs to play the next run. They can have several classes, abilites as well as disabilities and there is some kind of meta-skill system – your own castle which you can build up with the gold you find and unlock new classes, new abilities and better stats ect.
Played that thing a lot more than I’d have expected.
I can only recommend those two titles. Enjoyed them a lot. 🙂
I was surprised Roguebasin only had 81…
The trick for me is how strictly the “roguelike” definition is applied. Once upon a time, I got really hooked on Moria, which is now pretty much dead and gone, but it was the inspiration / basis for Angband, as I understand, so I could give that one a try.
I haven’t found one since that has proved *very* compelling, unless you include the old SSI game “Dungeon Hack” which I played way more than it was probably worth. The problem is I want to really sink my teeth in a meaty, deep RL without having to go through the step learning curve of a meaty, deep RL. I’m also more of a fan of the RL as a form of an RPG, rather than the ones that have gone in a more “pure” game direction.
I was really excited about the Incursion roguelike, based on the D20 game system, but it looks like it’s effectively dead.
Sword of the Stars: The Pit seems pretty enjoyable, from what I’ve played. Also, props to Dungeons of Dredmor. I have a few roguelikes via a couple of bundles that I have yet to really check out. One day I’ll uncover the One Roguelike to Rule Them All (or I’ll have to make it myself).
That was my bad–they actually list 800. Typo!
Temple of the Roguelike is currently doing a survey for the most active roguelikes
I’m currently really enjoying Brogue. The ascii graphics and spell effects are great, and it has some nice autoexplore features.
Angband is the only one I ever enjoyed. I like the items, monsters, and spell systems.
Tome is way too dragged down by mass market RPG tropes.
When I play roguelikes I get frusterated by the design and get a bunch of ideas for what I want to make. Then I think about how much work that would take and I just give up. I think a major issue is that roguelikes are too repetitive. Holding down the arrow key as you churn through monsters is a bad experience. I guess something more true to a “realistic” pen and paper world would be more enjoyable.
Oh yeah… Enemies that permanently lower/scramble stats are BS!
I’ve played just about every roguelike that’s even remotely popular.
I would recommend Infra Arcana and Brogue to the veteran gamer new to roguelikes. DoomRL is also a consistently well liked game. Crawl (Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup) is strong as well. ToME4 is probably the most popular overall and has a lot of graphical flourish and polish. Dungeons of Dredmore was a mainstream hit. If you like the turn based zero frills style there is something for everyone in the genre.
For the real time hybrids I like Spelunky. FTL, Roguelegacy and Binding of Isaac are also pretty good.
I quite like Malevolence which is a 3D first-person infinite-world roguelike. Sort of a modern take on Dungeon Hack but it’s turn-based and the scope is vastly expanded, including overworld exploration, towns and quests.
http://www.malevolencegame.com/
Also Unreal World is quite an interesting survival-themed low-fantasy roguelike set in a Scandinavian Iron Age:
http://www.unrealworld.fi/
Just to be that guy, I”d say Dungeon Hack by SSI.
Honestly, I like them all, but I feel like that was the polished end of them.
Anyone who has an interest in roguelikes I’d highly recommend checking out the http://www.roguelikeradio.com podcast on roguelikes. They also cover many new games with roguelike features. Rotating panel of hosts mostly made up of assorted roguelike developers which accordingly brings a bit of a game design slant. Reminds me quite a bit of mattchat really (high quality developer interviews, retrospectives, classic games, etc…) but focused on the roguelike genre.
I don’t know why you say that Red Rogue is the only roguelike-like, there are lots of them actually.
Check out IRLDB to know which roguelikes are popular and well-rated among those who like multiple roguelikes:
Among those who have many votes, Spelunky (a roguelike-like) comes first, then Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, TOME and ADOM. NetHack and Angband are history: they are popular, but not well liked.
And for something more in the direction of innovation and experimenting, check out my HyperRogue 😉
If you have a DS, get Shiren the Wanderer (Wii version is worse). It has a lot of great qualities:
– Maybe the best graphics ever in a RL game. They are colorful and well-drawn without compromising the clean simplicity that a roguelike needs.
– An interesting take on limited persistence – the world around you will change with each run you make, and you can put items in a storehouse for future characters to access. There is also a 99-floor challenge dungeon for a “pure” RL experience.
– There is an elegant simplicity to the items – your equipment is just your weapon, your shield, and one jewelry slot. But the item interaction still has a lot of depth due a wide variety of consumables with unusual and interesting effects. And the “Jar” category of items is quite interesting and unique to Shiren.
– Creative and highly diverse enemy design. For example, whenever one enemy kills another, it levels up to a significantly stronger version. The ranged “tank” family of enemies can quickly turn from a minor threat to extremely dangerous this way due to collateral damage and friendly fire. Then there’s the “Evil Soldier”, who releases a ghost on his death that seeks out an enemy to possess and level up, or the Bunny that heals other enemies and teleports…all sorts of interesting and unique enemies.
– Several interesting dungeons. There’s the main one, there’s the aforementioned 99-floor challenge, there’s a dungeon that revolves around transforming into different enemies, and more. A few of them aren’t as high-quality as the others, but there’s a lot of good content.
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is probably the one I’ve put the most time into aside from possibly Nethack. I’ve actually never managed to complete it…the game just seems to love shitting on you.
The upgraded version of Sword of Fargoal for iDevices is actually a pretty solid title to take on the road with you, or to spend some time on in a waiting room. It’s not as deep and complicated as a lot of the popular PC games, but it’s still fun.
I also have spent a wicked amount of time playing the port of Rogue on the iPhone. Rogue Touch, I believe it’s called? Very fun.
I also recommend Sil. Technically an Angband variant, but it changes so much that it’s really its own thing. It has a strongly realized First-Age Tolkien theme. The monster AI is very impressive, and the tactical combat has a variety of interesting such as flanking, morale, and stealth. There’s a rather deep skill system. So deep that it’s actually somewhat intimidating for new players, they could give you more of a nudge on what builds to start with – my only criticism.
Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. I’ll try to show as many of these as I can during the next segment, and credit you for the suggestion to boot. 😉
Hack was my first so there is a certain degree of nostalgia factor in that choice.
Moria is classic and definitely my most played roguelike. IMO has everything in it that makes a roguelike great. Love the bargaining options in the town too.
ADOM is the best modern roguelike.
I think the IOS remake of Sword of Fargoal is the best graphically enhanced roguelike.
Diablo I is the best game directly influenced by a roguelike.