Roguelikes General

[Marduk]

A thread to discuss, review, recommend, and track news about both roguelikes and roguelike inspired (aka roguelike-like) games.

To start off, here's one of my favorites, Cataclysm DDA - a fairly classic one in basic setup, it's special features are a "near future zombie apocalypse plus" setting, and a mindbogglingly detailed item and crafting systems, i can hardly think of a game with a compareable game in that regard.
It's open source, and you can get started with it here. Personally i favor the experimentals, though it wasn't always the case, they tend to be stable enough for long term play these days.

Another one is a little known gem, IVAN, a classic roguelike with its special features being a materials system that applies even to body parts, and lots of interesting emergent gameplay arising from that.
You can get started with it here.

Bay12 games, particularly Dwarf Fortress and LCS, are well known class of strategy roguelikes of their own,
you can check them out here. I'm willing to provide some hints and advice to those needing it in light of DF's legendary learning curve.

Moving on to new and more roguelike inspired type games, there is Jupiter Hell, currently early access "sequel" to famous DoomRL, made by the same team, now with actual graphics!
You can get it here.
DRL - D**m, the Roguelike
And recently out of early access, Shortest Trip to Earth, a spiritual successor to FTL, if you liked FTL you will probably like what you see there, you can get it here.

 

[PsihoKekec]

My thoughts:

DRL is a great game if you are patient, lot or replayability potential with different challenge modes, many equipment crafting options and plethora of trait tied playstyles.

FTL is practically a golden standard for modern commercial roguelikes and has great replayability potential. I unlocked all of the ships and I'm still coming back.

Convoy has some elements of FTL but just doesn't hold attention as well, good for one or two playthroughs and that's it. Try it if it's on sale cheap.

Darkest Dungeon is an excellent fusion of lovecraftian horror and dungeon crawler, it will punish you for every misstep, but preservance will be revarded with triumph.

Mud and Blood II is a simple defense game akin to tower defense games, it's unfair, but so it's war. Other games on site are also worth a try.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

It’s a slight combination of FPS, Soulsbourne and Roguelike

The latter’s due to how the number and types of enemies can be somewhat randomized after every resurrection or checkpoint, unlike Soulsbourne where you can memorize who and what is around. Also, it apparently has a randomization element that makes it so that bosses and areas can be shifted around called “rerolling”....never tried that on admittedly

I only wish I can do Glory Kills as using the equivalent of Estus Flasks takes too long and the number I can have are limited compared to even Soulsbourne.

Also, bosses are hard, mostly because in combination of knowing their movesets they have mooks fight alongside them and they work as distractions who at the very least provide ammunition as you can lose most if not all your ammo on a boss quickly

 

[Human Primacy]

I do like me some roguelikes. Or roguelites, as it were, since I tend to prefer the more action oriented ones. I think because I feel less at the mercy of the RNG gods, whether I technically am or not. That being said, FTL and DRL/Jupiter Hell are both a lot of fun. Jupiter Hell is basically just DRL with fancier graphics and the serial numbers scratched off so that it's commercially viable, though. I still bought it because I want to support them. As it is, it seems a little easier than DRL, but it's also still in development.

There's some growing sentiment that developers make roguelikes as an excuse to not expend effort on content in the way that a lot of developers will choose to be multiplayer focused for that reason. I think this comes from a place of frustration at a game with fun mechanics might not be designed more traditionally. Admittedly, an FTL that had a campaign sort of gameplay, I would also play the shit out of. That being said, I don't think it's fair to lump roguelikes in with the four horsemen of steam shovelware; early access, survival, open world, crafting. I think it's the fact that they can take on any form, so they frequently are going to run up against resistance from people who like that particular genre, but don't like roguelikes.

Personally, I have OCD, and sometimes starting a new, longer game will give me problems with wanting to restart it over one reason or another. The impermanence of roguelike playthroughs are kind of relaxing in that way, for me.

Anyways, some I like that haven't been mentioned:

Teleglitch - A top down scifi shooter that shows exactly how much atmosphere you can get out of very minimalist graphics. The player is represented by just a few pixels. But damn if it isn't immersive. There's been a teleporter accident, and now everything's really gone to shit. Gives me kind of a Quake feel.

Ziggurat - A fun fantasy FPS where you navigate a map and are locked in a series of arenas when you enter them, until you kill all the enemies. There's different characters to unlock with different strengths and weaknesses, different weapons, etc.

Immortal Redneck, City of Brass, Paranautical Activity - See Ziggurat. They have differences, but the formula is the same. Immortal Redneck is about a guy who becomes a mummy or something, and is based in Egyptian tombs. City of Brass is an old timey middle eastern thing. Paranautical Activity is a voxel based thing with a lot of ocean themed enemies.

Nightmare Reaper - Also a FPS, but doesn't have the locked arenas. Retro sprite shooter about a girl fighting monsters in her nightmares, with a mental hospital in the waking world being the hub.

Cryptark - Sidescroller in a zero-g environment. You board ancient alien ships in a suit of power armor with the primary goal of destroying the core, but are given other objectives sometimes too. You get paid for each one, and there's a cost associated with deploying on each mission, depending on your equipment. You get evaced when you're defeated, so the game doesn't end when you die, only when you go bankrupt.

Heat Signature - Also about boarding spaceships, but is top down and plays very different. It's somewhere between 'stealth' and 'Hotline Miami', but with the FTL style pause function, and a lot of gadgets to vary your approach.

Duskers - Also, also about boarding spaceships, but again, very different. Another top-down approach, but you're controlling a series of drones via command line. Slow paced and methodical.

Abyss Odyssey - I like this one more for it's crazy ass art style than it's gameplay, but it's not bad there, either. You dive into this cavern caused by some warlock's nightmare, that opened up under Chile in the 19th century. You play also as figments of his imagination. A sidescroller that plays sort of like a fighting game.

Crypt of the Necrodancer - Top down, actually more traditional roguelike than most on this list. But the turns are beats, and you must stay in rhythm.

Depths of Fear: Knossos - A first person game about navigating the minotaur's labyrinth. A mixture of stealth and combat. Janky as fuck last I played it, but charming.

Eldritch - Voxelly Lovecraftian FPS about going into other dimensions made of destructible environments.

Lovecraft's Untold Stories - Also Lovecraftian, if that wasn't obvious. Top-down shooter spanning a variety of locations, with unlockable alternate characters that have their own stories.

Road Redemption - I'm told this is basically a roguelike Road Rash. I've never played Road Rash, but this one is pretty good. I'm not even into racing games, and I'd still recommend it. Murder other bikers after the same bounty as you are, as you proceed through a series of different environments.

I'm sure there's more, but that's enough for now.

 

[PsihoKekec]

Moving on to new and more roguelike inspired type games, there is Jupiter Hell, currently early access "sequel" to famous DoomRL, made by the same team, now with actual graphics!
You can get it here.
DRL - D**m, the Roguelike

DRL is a great game if you are patient, lot or replayability potential with different challenge modes, many equipment crafting options and plethora of trait tied playstyles.

I can say that Jupiter Hell is quite fun at this stage, the game is stable, traits are implemented and more diverse than before, challenges are implemented but different, however more will be coming in the future, while crafting system is still in infancy, however there is lot of advanced weapons to be looted - a bit like in Diablo.


Xenomarine - DRL's clunkier cousin, rather tedious at begining but it comes into it's own once you clear the first levels and can delve deeper into leveling and crafting. With so many other choices in the field though, it falls by the wayside.

NEO Scavanger - Survival in the postapocalyptic landscape, learn to boil water in order to prevent death by dysentery, fight hypotermia and hunger, hide from or fight other inhabitants of the area and most importantly of all, mcgyver the shit out of the stuff you scavanged. Combat is far from optimal though.