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The Roguelikes Thread

Stabwound

Arcane
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
3,240
So, roguelikes. I consider them a type of CRPG and I'm sure many others here do as well. There are a few random threads around the forum about specific roguelike games, but I thought it might be cool to have a thread strictly about roguelikes in general.

This might turn into a big "official" thread - who knows. I just wanted to get some conversation going about the genre and whatnot.

I'm sure most people think of games like Nethack, ADOM, Angband or Crawl when they think of roguelikes, but there are tons of other great games out there that don't get nearly as much attention. If anyone knows of any fun, lesser-known or even "obscure" games, it would be cool to learn about them.

One game in particular I think is great and never see discussed is Legerdemain. Although it's in the roguelike style, it's really more of a CRPG than a roguelike. It's very text-heavy, character creation is ala Ultima 4, and it has a large overworld, dungeons, etc. It's been a while since I've played it, but it looks like a new version with graphical tiles was recently released. It's a pretty good game from what I remember and I think I'll download it again.

So, anyway, roguelikes. What are your favorites?
 

desocupado

Magister
Joined
Nov 17, 2008
Messages
1,802
Crawl Stone Soup. I tried Adom for a bit but the need for spoilers puts me off.

Crawl has those wonderful auto-explore and auto-attack buttons, which make the game a lot less tedious. The game is quite tight, with skills and resources all having their places and not being OP or useless.

I'm playing the DoomRL after seeing the thread here. It's fun, but it doesn't give you resources to play with, so it gets kinda samey/boring.
 

trotof

Educated
Joined
Nov 3, 2011
Messages
50
Location
Mordor
Been playing Brogue lately. A bit primitive compared to heavyweights such as DCSS, NetHack etc. but pretty fun and relaxing. If you like DCSS but getting tired of it, you should give this a try.
 

Shannow

Waster of Time
Joined
Sep 15, 2006
Messages
6,386
Location
Finnegan's Wake
Incursion
The game is based on the open source D&D licence. The current version is more a demo (but still long and huge in scope and features). The creator supposedly is porting the whole game to a new engine, but hasn't posted any news in one and a half years.
 

Gord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
Rogue Survivor

Roguelike in zombie-apocalypse setting.
Still "alpha" and rather small feature set compared to the big Roguelikes, but interesting concept.
 

Volken

Scholar
Joined
Apr 14, 2011
Messages
116
Location
EuroUnian Caliphate
Sadly I don't play minor roguelikes. Most of my gaming time is spent in webtiles version of Dungeon Crawl (since AAA+ games are shit now).

Yesterday my MuWz died. :( Got +3 trolls armour, regeneration ring and demonic whip (vamp) + imba randart shield (+4 ench and +3 str, +4 int). For tougher bastards I spammed orbs of destruction and vampiric draining. I was fucking juggernaut until Frederick + 2 death oozes raped me in Crypt. THAT's emotionally engaging -> I was swearing for like half an hour.
 

groke

Arcane
Patron
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Dec 28, 2011
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SAVE THIS CHARACTER? NO.
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera BattleTech I'm very into cock and ball torture
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Gearhead and Caves of Qud are both pretty cool and feature no balrogs.
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2011
Messages
177
Anyone play Mage Guild?

http://www.lukossoftware.com/node/8

If not, then do. Roguelike with focus on mages, and a really good one. There is a graphical version availible.

Also, thumbs up on Mission Thunderbolt. It's surprisingly not shitty for such an obscure and forgotten RL.
 

MisterStone

Arcane
Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Messages
9,422
The Roguelikes Thread :yeah:


I've played a lot of the games mentioned already, and I would say Crawl SS, DoomRL and RL Survivor have been my favorites over the past few years. Incursion is sort of cool, but it still needs work and it looks like it might be sort of dead in terms of development, although I think the bug tracker is still showing signs of progress.

I was wondering, has anyone ever played Omega seriously? The game is kind of old and glitchy, but it was pretty interesting. However I never made any real progress because it is ridiculously hard and unforgiving. I see it as sort of a proto-Adom sort of game; IIRC it has towns, a world map with sites, etc. Not sure if it is worth trying to play it though.




 

Sul

Savant
Joined
Nov 25, 2011
Messages
487
Location
brbr?
UnReal World for Iron Age survival roguelike. There your biggest enemy is the winter.
http://www.jmp.fi/~smaarane/urw.html
There's a big free trial version if you want to try.

UnReal World, or UrW, is a unique graphical roguelike RPG taking place in the Far North long, long ago. It brings you a realistic game world rich with historical atmosphere in which northern folklore, knowledge and way of life play an important part. The atmosphere and game features are highly original and compelling. The world of the game is based on the ancient Finland in the late Iron Age.


As a member of one of the nine different cultures you'll enter a very realistic and enchanting game world:

- find excitement in surviving everyday life and the quest for success in the harsh ancient wilderness
- play freely or complete various game tasks in a huge randomly generated world
- skill-based system including dozens of skills from COOKERY to HIDEWORKING
- keep in touch with the indigenous spirit world and the supernatural guardians of nature
- packed with intuitive graphics and pictures, original music and sounds


..there are infinite ways to play the game:

as a fisherman, a hermit searching for the peace, a brave adventurer, a rough hunter, a trapper or a tradesman etc. Everything is up to you
 

Stabwound

Arcane
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
3,240
The Roguelikes Thread :yeah:


I've played a lot of the games mentioned already, and I would say Crawl SS, DoomRL and RL Survivor have been my favorites over the past few years. Incursion is sort of cool, but it still needs work and it looks like it might be sort of dead in terms of development, although I think the bug tracker is still showing signs of progress.

I was wondering, has anyone ever played Omega seriously? The game is kind of old and glitchy, but it was pretty interesting. However I never made any real progress because it is ridiculously hard and unforgiving. I see it as sort of a proto-Adom sort of game; IIRC it has towns, a world map with sites, etc. Not sure if it is worth trying to play it though.

I tried to play Omega way back when I started getting into roguelikes but never got anywhere, mostly because I was an impatient kid. It's a good example of a forgotten roguelike, and I hardly ever see anyone mention it and I totally forgot about it.

The CRPG Addict played through it on his blog, but he never came close to finishing it because of game-breaking bugs. Apparently he was playing a very old monochrome version, so I hope the bugs are fixed in whichever is the latest version. I'm reading more about it and it sounds like a pretty damn interesting game, complete with quests, competing (and exclusive) guilds you can join to gain new skills and rewards (possibly the first in a CRPG?), a full game world, towns, etc. The game sounds awesome and CRPG Addict gave it the same score he gave Ultima 4 and he barely even got anywhere in it. The fact that it sounds so cool but is almost completely forgotten makes me wonder if there's something totally fucked up about the game that isn't obvious at first glance. If it still has the bugs that CRPG Addict found then it's practically unplayable (corrupted inventory and gold etc)

Anyway, time to download. :smug:

fake edit: Surprisingly there seems to be a modern Windows build complete with tiles and full compatibility with Windows. http://freespace.virgin.net/davidk.kinder/omega.html if you swing that way. Standard Windows ASCII build here: http://www.prankster.com/winomega/#Downloads

omega.png
 

Castanova

Prophet
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
2,949
Location
The White Visitation
Ah, roguelikes. What a great genre. Pretty much every RPG in existence should look to roguelikes for inspiration as they feature pretty much everything that a proper RPG should.

I do constantly wish for a really good party-based roguelike, though. Something like Knights of the Chalice but better and turned into a roguelike. I think the fact that you have a party would soften the blow of losing individual characters, too. Unlike a typical roguelike, your game is not instantly over if someone dies. Plus, I think DC:SS has pretty much reached the epitome of single-character roguelike so it's time to branch out. Roguelikes are so much about using the dungeon to your advantage and what better way to enhance that by adding a party that you have to position? Instead of just finding a one-tile hallway for use as a chokepoint like in DC:SS.

I do think you'd need to make it with a mouse interface, though, which might be rough for some purists.
 

OuterSpace

Scholar
Joined
Apr 5, 2010
Messages
155
UnReal World for Iron Age survival roguelike. There your biggest enemy is the winter.
http://www.jmp.fi/~smaarane/urw.html
There's a big free trial version if you want to try.

I've always wanted to try this one. I watched most of an hour long youtube video demonstration in which the player mostly just caught fish and ate them. Seems like my kind of game!

Just tried Diggr. Good roguelike if you have a short attention span.
 

SCO

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
16,320
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I don't like playing games with keyboard only interface, and that is what most rogue like are.

Any besides DCSS that even offers a complete mouse driven alternate?
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,983
DoomRL does now, though it's not nearly as deep as DCSS, I've sunk a lot of time to it and keep coming back.

Nethack was the first RL I ever beat, and still one of my favourite, though I've never gotten back into it properly, because I always start getting obsessive about maxing my stats and get bored, even though thats really not needed at all. But Nethack seems to do the improvisational use of gear the best; something like a wand of digging is so much more than a tunnel maker, it can also be used to escape from enemies by digging straight down, engrave Elbereth decently in a single turn, dig your way out of a monster that has swallowed you (and nearly kill it in the process) and I think it might destroy statues as well (boulders for sure, which can be handy around giants.) Tons of items have that kind of versatility, it makes things a lot more interesting than when all a wand is good for is burning enemies.
 

Zed

Codex Staff
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2002
Messages
17,068
Codex USB, 2014
any 16x16, 32x32 tiled "high-quality" graphics roguelikes? I don't like dungeons of dredmor, characters are 64x32 or something and it's not... pixly enough.
I consider the doomRL to have pretty good graphics, as an example.
 

Stabwound

Arcane
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
3,240
The "Absurd" tileset for Nethack is pretty damn nice looking. It's designed in 128x128 or something ridiculous like that but can be used 32x32 and looks really nice. I can't find a screenshot of the actual game with the tiles but here is the tileset file: http://bilious.alt.org/~paxed/nethack/nhsshot/tileset/absurd32_nethack.png

On the other hand Tome4 is by far the most graphically-polished (and one of the most polished in general) roguelike, but that might suffer from the "not pixely enough" thing you're talking about like Dungeons of Dredmore: http://te4.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/t4-screenshots/screenshots/tome4-screenshots/A powerful leader indeed.png

Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup seems like it has an excellent graphical interface and tile job, but I've never actually played it, only the ASCII version.

I agree that the non-square tiles of DoD aren't good. A roguelike really needs to have a completely square grid.
 

Zed

Codex Staff
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2002
Messages
17,068
Codex USB, 2014
That absurd tileset looks really damn nice.

And yeah, something about not having everything contained within the tiles really put me off. It's one of those unexplainable xfactor things I guess? :P
 

PorkaMorka

Arcane
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
5,090
Ever since the Crawl dev team was hijacked by a bunch of extremists who openly hate RPGs, Tolkien and melee characters, my favorite roguelike is TOME4. In some ways it plays out more like a traditional RPG though, so you might burn out after about 30 characters.

P.S. It has autoexplore.

I don't like playing games with keyboard only interface, and that is what most rogue like are.

Any besides DCSS that even offers a complete mouse driven alternate?

TOME4 offers a heavily mouse driven interface, although you'll probably want to move with the num pad and autoexplore most of the time. You can click all your skills and menus though.

any 16x16, 32x32 tiled "high-quality" graphics roguelikes? I don't like dungeons of dredmor, characters are 64x32 or something and it's not... pixly enough.
I consider the doomRL to have pretty good graphics, as an example.

TOME4 has a very high quality tileset, with unique graphics for almost all monsters and visible equipment for players. It can be run at 32x32, although I think it is more commonly run at 64x64 so that people can see how pretty it is.

Screenshot:
http://i.imgur.com/35Zr8.jpg

(They put in a new, cleaner looking UI since that shot was taken).
 

Stabwound

Arcane
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
3,240
Ever since the Crawl dev team was hijacked by a bunch of extremists who openly hate RPGs, Tolkien and melee characters, my favorite roguelike is TOME4.
Hahaha, I'm happy to see someone who shares the same sentiment I do about the current devs. I stopped playing it several releases ago for the exact same reason. As far as I'm concerned the game is now ruined by the current devs, and I'm someone who used to play the game obsessively.
 

lurker3000

Arcane
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Messages
1,714
Ever since the Crawl dev team was hijacked by a bunch of extremists who openly hate RPGs, Tolkien and melee characters, my favorite roguelike is TOME4.
Hahaha, I'm happy to see someone who shares the same sentiment I do about the current devs. I stopped playing it several releases ago for the exact same reason. As far as I'm concerned the game is now ruined by the current devs, and I'm someone who used to play the game obsessively.
I guess I don't get it. Rougelikes are almost all tactical combat games, not RPGs. Play Ultima if you want an RPG.

Although I will have to try Legerdemain as suggested by the OP.
 

desocupado

Magister
Joined
Nov 17, 2008
Messages
1,802
Ever since the Crawl dev team was hijacked by a bunch of extremists who openly hate RPGs, Tolkien and melee characters, my favorite roguelike is TOME4.
Hahaha, I'm happy to see someone who shares the same sentiment I do about the current devs. I stopped playing it several releases ago for the exact same reason. As far as I'm concerned the game is now ruined by the current devs, and I'm someone who used to play the game obsessively.

Uh, what's so bad about the new things in Crawl? I play since 0.6 and I mostly like or I am ok with most changes. Not all are prize winners like removing Mountain Dwarves, but the new skill system is a godsend for example. No more hitting an imp with a dagger with extra xp to build fighting for a caster!
 

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