Getting into DCSS a lot recently. Still just running Minotaur Berserker with the furthest I’ve made it being the 10th floor aha.
Regardless, really enjoying it and wondering if others have any other recommendations. I tried ToME4 and just felt overwhelmed and wasn’t enjoying myself too much.
Have my eyes of Caves of Qud as well. Love the more “literary” aspect to it (even though I know it’s often nonsense), and the atmosphere/setting. Seems to be highly regarded overall though. Wondering if I should buy it and play alongside DCSS.
COGMIND.
COGMIND COGMIND COGMIND.
Cogmind is legitimately the most underrated “real” roguelike around. Everyone knows about CDDA and Caves of Qud or whatever, I never see anyone talk about Cogmind. It’s such a rabbit hole both gameplay and actually story-wise (because yeah, it actually has a story, despite being a traditional roguelike) that I can’t help but wonder how the hell it’s developer keeps going.
They have a blog where they talk about the game. It’s borderline obsessive.
If I look at any one aspect of it closely I inevitably end up going “wait, what the hell?” because it goes farther than I expected. In-game computer terminals, the way word of your presence travels throughout the caverns you’re in, each tile actually being a 3x3 space which affects how much “cover” you have… playing for quite a few hours before meeting other truly sentient robots and realizing that oh, there’s, like, lore. A lot of it.
COGMIND is, hands-down, the most beautiful Roguelike game I have ever enjoyed. I recommend this game as well! God, I wish it had a mobile port.
Hades 10outta10
I don’t think anyone should play anything other than Hades.
Until Hades 2 is released, that is.
I’m so in love with this game it’s not even funny. Hated it the first time I played it on Xbox, got it on my steam deck and can’t put it down.
Ancient Domains of Mystery is really really good if you can get into it. It’s available on Steam, but you can get the free version which is identical except for the UI from https://adom.de/
this was my first roguelike, we used to play it in high school in 1996 on the lab computers. nice times.
Caves of Qud is AMAZING! You should buy it OP
My go-to is Shattered Pixel Dungeon.
Caves of Qud is phenomenal and you won’t regret playing it. If you have a phone, I’d highly recommend Shattered Pixel Dungeon. It may be one of the cleanest versions of the genre. It’s also available on PC, but I’ve never played it there.
Similarly, I think Hoplite on the phone may be the most distilled version of the genre, pared down to the barest essentials and utterly glorious as a result.
I got very addicted to Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead for a while… so much so that I ported it to Android so I could play on my commute to work.
Cataclysm is such a good game and FREE/open-source. The UI and artwork are a bit of an eyesore for new players, but once you learn the mechanics the game really opens up.
It reminds me of Dwarf Fortress in that it weeds out all but the most hardcore gamers in the first few minutes of gameplay.
Definitely agree with you there! I’ve had a few friends who noped out 5 minutes into playing. I get it, it’s not for everyone!
I second Cataclysm, it’s the most fun I had with a roguelike in a long time. There is also Cataclysm: Bright Nights, which is a fork that rolls back some more unpopular recent changes. But they are both still pretty similar and tons of fun.
Depending on your sense of humor, you might also be roped into playing this game by the SsethTzeentach video.
I’ve very recently spent a close to a hundred hours on a single character on Caves of Qud, and I’ve hardly scratched the surface of what would be it’s endgame areas. If you can handle the interface it’s an incredible game with near endless possibilities. The build variety is pretty massive with the way mutations/cybernetics and skills/stats interact with each other, allowing you to build your characters exactly how you want.
Tales of Maj’Eyal is also an excellent choice with a huge variety of ways to play with it’s dozens of classes and a wide variety of races to play to keep things fresh each run. The world itself is static, but each zone itself is random per run, and it also has the ability to tune the difficulty a bit to your liking, as well as having a couple expansions to check out too (with another on the way).
Cogmind is another one I’ve put a decent amount of time into that has a ton of depth, allowing you to pick and choose what parts to strap onto your bot for each run. Stealth hacker runs, ranged artillery explosion builds, incredibly fast ninja melee builds, there’s a myriad of cool ways to experience all it has to offer.
These are all pretty in depth games, and the first 10-30 hours could easily be seen as your tutorial, so don’t be discouraged by being overwhelmed by things, and don’t be afraid to look things up if you need to!
Cogmind is what I mentioned too, the developer is borderline obsessive and somehow it never gets the attention that other roguelikes get. I’m always shocked to see that it’s still getting regular updates.
It’s a fantastic game, I was blown away at how much the game has to offer and always enjoy checking out the terminal lore and uncovering its mysteries. It fits nicely in among the greats, and I strongly agree that it’s criminally underrated!
I love the idea of these games, but I am terrible at them. I sat down with Dark Souls and played it until I got gud, but Caves and Tales and Dwarf Fortress all kick my ass. Even Dungeons of Dredmor, which I poured dozens of hours into and got pretty far in, would annihilate me before I got to the bottom floor. Any tips on how to not suck long enough to learn how to not suck?
All of the games you mentioned regularly destroy my characters and plans, but that’s part of the fun of them I think. Dwarf Fortress is one I haven’t put enough time into due to the sheer depth and confusion of learning everything, I do plan to revisit it when I’ve got the itch for a colony builder and want to fail horrifically.
For Caves of Qud and Tales, my best recommendation is to try out new things and builds and see what works. I had miserable luck in Caves with most of my melee focused builds, but using a ranged focused build (use your ammo semi sparingly until Grit Gate where you can buy 1k rounds per restock) was what got me further then ever before. There’s some abilities that help immensely with survival too, the Precognition mutation allows you to see the future and reset on a cooldown, even if you stumble into an unfortunate death for example. Also look at domination or proselytize/beguiling, as those will allow you to recruit or control other characters, even shopkeepers who you can then drop the full inventory on the ground for you to utilize (though be careful, failure may turn them against you). Using a zone tier map like the one found on the Qud wiki if you don’t mind knowing roughly how tough each over world area is also is a good way to avoid stumbling into an area you’re not prepared for.
Tome I have less advice for even after 100+ hours, I had a blast trying out all sorts of build combos, but a good way to get an idea of what builds work well is to check out https://te4.org/characters-vault and search for your difficulty and campaign, and filter it to only show winners. This will show you a list of characters who have cleared the game, and allow you to see what their exact build was upon winning, including stats, talent choices, gear, and a few other useful things. Having a zone order guide pulled up absolutely helps as well and is a decent way to get familiar with where to go when still starting out, especially if you want to see every zone the game has to offer.
Lastly, for Qud, ToME, and even Dredmor, don’t be afraid to turn on a difficulty that isn’t permadeath. I love the thought of only having one life, but for learning the game it’s never a bad thing to turn that off for your first run (or first few!), as it’ll allow you to retry the same scenarios with different approaches to see what works best. Qud I think does this the best with it’s Roleplay mode, checkpointing at settlements so you’re set back usually by dying, but you can still continue on to get a better understanding of all the game has to offer, making future runs that much smoother. Death is all part of the fun either way, sometimes you’ve taken a character to the point where it’s starting to feel stale and a new build can reinvigorate interest in wanting to continue exploring what the worlds have to offer!
Binding of Isaac is my favorite.
If you are curious about a classic originator in the genre, and willing for a steep learning curve, I highly recommend to check out Nethack: “NetHack is a single-player roguelike video game originally released in 1987 with ASCII graphics. It is a descendant of an earlier game called Hack, which is a clone of Rogue” It’s still under development today! I prefer the tile-based versions over the ascii versions. And if you can play it on a touch-screen device, that can be an even better experience.
Nethack is an amazing deep system to explore and learn about… but it’s not that fun to play (at least once you’ve already been to the late game). It’s more fun to read NetHackWiki than to actually play the game IMO. It would be a huge downgrade from DCSS, which is carefully designed to be fun.
I can see that. It did take me a while to really appreciate Nethack even back in the day. TBH I haven’t played it in 10ish years so maybe my recommendation was made poorly.
Didn’t know about DCSS thanks.
I’m currently playing Hades (a top-down, isometric brawler). The gameplay is really fun and with different weapons, skills & upgrades per run, it stays entertaining for a long time. The story is simple but engaging, and after almost every run, there are some characters with new dialogue that tells you more about it.
I was never really a roguelike fan but I loved Hades! The game always makes you feel like you’re making progress without feeling grindy, which I think is an issue that pushed me away from most roguelikes.
As a roguelike fan, I could not find a taste for Hades. A lot of roguelikes I play have a systemic nature to them where you can combine elements together to come up with creative solutions to problems, like making enemies attack each other because you triggered some criteria that allows that to happen. In Hades, all of the power ups just seemed to be a way to make you deal more damage and that was about it. Plus, out of four levels, I really wasn’t a fan of levels 3 and 4.
You’re right, Hades is not a very strategic game. There are some synergies between the power-ups, but mostly I just pick the ones that suit my playstyle. I’d also say that the power-ups in Hades are just there to mix it up a bit (and not really a core part of the gameplay loop).
Holy god, I never thought I’d see someone else mention DCSS in the wild!! I used to play that a bunch about a year or so ago. Truth be told, I kind of miss it once in a while. Devilishly hard, but I did manage to break into Hell once. Even killed one of the pandemonium lords.
Shit… I might start playing again.
It was updated recently!
Check out Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. There’s a version on Steam to support the developers, but you can download the executable for free from their website just like DCSS.
CDDA also has a non terrible mobile version as well. When I used to commute pre pandemic I’d spend many a bus rides home playing and it’s surprisingly playable on a phone. Wasn’t expecting that.
A personal favourite is UnReal World.
…into the far north we shall take you.
The only one I know is Dead Cells. I could play it all day even though I’m awful haha.
Dwarf Fortress and Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead/Bright Nights are the obvious recommendations I have, though they are more managing/survival games than a classic roguelike.
One that I come back every now and then and don’t see recommended often is Prospector, it’s about exploring space.
Also I try NetHack every three or four years but I can’t make it hold my attention long enough to learn it.
