Game-related ramblings.

Tag: Roguelikes Page 3 of 4

Roguelike Updates: Who Needs Leveling, Anyway?

It’s time for another roundup of updates to the various roguelikes I’ve covered on this blog. The big news is that Brogue has reached v1.7, with some major changes.

With the exception of its scrolls of enchantment — which allowed players to customize their characters not by some up-front character generation choices but by which pieces of equipment they chose to enchant — Brogue was quite similar to the original Rogue on first release. But the scrolls of enchantment were a great idea, and the strict rationing of these scrolls created strategic dilemmas not found in other roguelikes. By the time I wrote about it, other features of Brogue had already started to follow suit. The player character’s strength (and therefore, ability to use heavier weapons and armor) was no longer tied to experience level, instead being granted by potions of strength which were rationed just like scrolls of enchantment. This meant that it was no longer necessary to fight lots of enemies before getting to use better equipment, and stealthy tactics were more viable.

Still, fighting monsters for experience points to gain levels remained at the core of Brogue, and gaining levels was the only way to gain more health. Until now. With v1.7, leveling has been completely removed from the game.

Roguelike Highlights: Iter Vehemens Ad Necem

New readers may wish to read my introduction to roguelikes first. Also, know that you can click on the screenshots for larger versions.

“Iter vehemens ad necem” is a Latin phrase meaning “a violent road to death”. The game Iter Vehemens ad Necem, known as IVAN for short, is a roguelike that is aptly named. Most roguelikes are hard, and end with the player’s death the vast majority of the time, but IVAN takes a special, cruel pleasure in killing the player in the most violent ways possible. A typical session might see you get caught in a spider’s web, poisoned by said spider, and left to die slowly, vomiting the whole time. Or you might get stuck in a bear trap and assaulted by a zombie that gives you leprosy, so you must watch helplessly as your limbs fall off, until the leg with the trap on it falls off, which frees you… but then you have to try and roll around without limbs and eventually starve to death. Or a kamikaze dwarf might detonate next to you, causing the wands you’re carrying to explode, blowing your arms and head off and leaving your corpse to dissolve slowly in a cloud of acid rain.

Sound like fun?

Roguelike Highlights: Mercury

If you haven’t already, you may wish to read my Introduction to Roguelikes. Previous Roguelike Highlights can be found here.

I’ve been pretty busy recently so I haven’t had much time to post, but I wanted to at least write something quick about Mercury. While most Roguelike Highlights are fairly long and detailed, this one doesn’t have to be, because of the central premise of Mercury. It’s a winner-generated roguelike. Rather than being continuously updated by the developer, as most roguelikes are, Mercury instead tracks players’ high scores, and at the end of each cycle (I think cycles are two weeks long but I’m not sure) the two players with the highest scores can add a new character class, monster, or item to the game. Then everyone plays with the new stuff for the next cycle, and the new high scorers will get to add more stuff when that cycle ends.

That means that Mercury started off as a very simple game, with only one character class, one type of monster, and one item. Since then, it’s grown quite a bit.

Roguelike Highlights: POWDER

If you haven’t already, you may wish to read my Introduction to Roguelikes. Previous Roguelike Highlights can be found here.

I’ve been meaning to check out POWDER for some time, having heard good things from many sources, including comments on this blog. Originally released by Jeff Lait for the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS, POWDER has since been ported to Windows, Linux, Max OSX, Wii, Playstation Portable (although that’s an old version), iPhone and even GP2X. With the most recent version (release 117) arriving in December 2011, it seems that POWDER is still very much alive. Which is good, because in my time with it I’ve been quite impressed. Given its origins on handheld devices, I was expecting something fairly basic, but POWDER is actually a very deep and nuanced game that draws on some of the best elements of other roguelikes to create its own unique feel.

It certainly made me feel silly for being prejudiced against handheld games.

Roguelike Updates: Dunegons of Dredmor Expands, Brogue and Dungeon Crawl Update

I should have realized this would become a series, given the various roguelikes I’ve covered and their propensity to update. New readers may wish to read my introduction to roguelikes or peruse my Roguelike Highlights. Everyone else can read on for the updates!

The big news is a new, free expansion pack for Dungeons of Dredmor (read my highlight here), released not long ago. What’s it called, you ask? Well you see, You Have To Name the Expansion Pack. Although when I tried it out, I was dismayed to discover that naming the expansion pack is not actually required. But it is possible. I named mine “Dredmore” because I am not as clever as I think I am. Pleasingly, it seems I can rename it as many times as I want, so I can change it once I think of something better.

Roguelike Updates: New Versions of DoomRL, Dungeon Crawl and Brogue

Several of the games I’ve covered in my Roguelike Highlights series have recently received some major updates. First up is DoomRL v0.9.9.6 (read my highlight of DoomRL here). DoomRL is, of course, a roguelike based on Doom, and the new version is the first to include a graphical tileset (although the original ASCII graphics can still be used). The graphics, incidentally, are made by Derek Yu, the same man responsible for Spelunky. There are several gameplay and balance changes as well; the full changelog is here, and you can see some shiny new screenshots here.

Roguelike Highlights: Xenocide

EDIT: A WordPress update seems to have messed up the screenshots in this post, and re-uploading them isn’t helping; they do not show up properly in WordPress at all anymore. Plus the original link to the game is down. So you’ll just have to trust me that this game exists at all.

New readers may want to read my introduction to roguelikes first. Previous roguelike highlights can be found here.

Xenocide is not finished. And with no updates since 2007, it seems unlikely that it ever will be. There is no ending, with things simply trailing off if you get far enough, and there are many item descriptions and even some gameplay features that haven’t been implemented. As such, it’s not a game that one will play for very long. But it has a lot of really clever ideas, and I think some of the more popular roguelikes could learn a lot from Xenocide.

Roguelike Highlights: Tales of Maj’Eyal

[If you are unfamiliar with roguelikes, consider reading my introduction to the genre. You can read previous Roguelike Highlights here. As always, click on screenshots to view bigger versions.]

In the year when Dungeons of Dredmor was released to critical acclaim, topped the Steam sales charts for a while, and introduced a whole bunch of people to the roguelike genre, I was somewhat surprised to discover that it did not win the ASCII Dreams Roguelike of the Year award for 2011. Instead, a game I had never heard of took the prize: Tales of Maj’Eyal, a.k.a. ToME 4. Upon further investigation I discovered the the award is simply given to the game that receives the most votes from its fans, and that indeed one can easily vote twice or for several different games. Still, the fact that ToME 4 took the prize for the second year running indicates a very devoted fanbase, so I decided it was time to check it out.

I’m glad I did, because ToME 4 is actually one of the more unusual roguelikes out there, with quite a lot of ideas and mechanics I haven’t seen in other roguelikes. It’s not just a game, but also an engine, providing building blocks and tools for players to construct their own roguelikes. The game itself demonstrates the versatility of the engine, which is able to handle both traditional and non-traditional mechanics, as well as sound effects, music, and fancy sprites and graphical effects if desired. I haven’t poked around with the engine myself, so I’m not sure how easy it is to use, but it’s certainly powerful.

The Complete Saga of Urist Redbeard

EDIT: If you are reading this saga from the FUTURE, please note that Urist won on version 0.9 of the game, and it has changed significantly since. Older versions are all archived here, however, so you can try to replicate his feat if you like.

Urist Redbeard’s epic saga is complete! What I originally thought would be a single, very long post quickly ballooned into no less than seven extremely long posts. I was hoping to capture the complexity and the strategic decision-making required by a hardcore roguelike like Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, and I think I succeeded, but the end result is quite a read. It’s also full of spoilers, so be warned. Even with the spoilers, though, I’m sure you’ll find the game plenty enjoyable.

To make things easier I’ve collected links to each part of the saga here.

Part 1: The early Dungeon and the Ecumenical Temple.
Part 2: The Lair of Beasts.
Part 3: The Orcish Mines and a minotaur’s labyrinth.
Part 4: The Hive, the Snake Pit and the Shoals.
Part 5: The middle Dungeon, the Vaults, and the Crypt.
Part 6: The bottom of the Crypt, the Elven Halls, and the rest of the Dungeon.
Part 7: The Realm of Zot and Urist’s daring escape.

Victory: The Saga of Urist Redbeard (part 7)

The Saga of Urist Redbeard is the story of my first win after roughly six years of playing Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. My hope is that it will give a sense of the complexity and appeal of hardcore roguelikes like Dungeon Crawl, but be warned that it is full of spoilers. Read the earlier parts here.

Urist Redbeard stands before the gateway to the Realm of Zot. His final challenge. Of the hundreds of adventurers who died in the Dungeon, the ones who have entered the Realm of Zot can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Urist has come far, fighting his way to the bottom of several dungeon branches and retrieving three Runes of Zot to open the gate, and looting a few other branches for good measure. He’s reached level 27, the highest possible, and he’s become a master with his flaming demon whip and shield. He’s better prepared than any of the other adventurers who dared enter the Realm of Zot. But still, the creatures who guard the Orb of Zot will be the most dangerous and deadly that Urist has encountered, and he’ll need to be very careful and very smart if he wants to complete his quest.

He’s as ready as he’ll ever be. Time to go.

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