Roguelikes (Off-Topic)

by cheapLEY , Sunday, December 31, 2017, 18:47 (2300 days ago) @ Harmanimus

You mention really loving Rogue, and you call out Binding of Isaac. Do you enjoy the genre overall, or just those games in particular?

If the latter, I'd recommend Unexplored. I don't know enough about the genre to compare it to anything else, but I really got into that game for a month or so. I really loved the way that game told little stories. The game is built in a way that it drops items and little bits of lore that get connected throughout the run you're doing. It does a good job of seeding things that will be useful later, but in a way that also sort of gives context to the world.

Austin Walker, of Waypoint, explains it better than I could:

But what elevates Unexplored is how, using “cyclical” generation, it builds levels that you sweep through in daring arcs instead of tiny jabs of inquiry. Then it layers twenty of those levels on top of each other and indexes them against each other, creating self-referential dungeons unlike anything I’ve seen in the genre. That sounds complicated, so here, let me explain it this way:

On floor 3, you find a scroll that says that St. Whoever was lost to the fire pits below. Okay, cool, sorry, St. Whoever. On floor 5, you solve a puzzle using a clue from a different floor, and as a reward, you retrieve a recipe for a fire resistance potion. Or do you hold on tight, because after all, you heard about those flame pits. Forty minutes later, facing an orcish champion on a narrow rock bridge, you are slammed with a gust of wind and a massive club, and you go flying off the side of the level, descending down into… yes, the flame pits. So, did you ever make that potion? And do you now have a better idea of how, exactly, St. Whoever found their end? If you’re me, then no you did not, and yes, you now very intimately do.

It's never much deeper than that, but it helps me to sort of get into what I'm doing, helps me feel like a I'm exploring a real place more than just a randomly generated dungeon.

Here's a video of Austin Walker playing (the video that convinced me to buy it). This guy is probably the guy I respect the most in the games industry from a perspective of how deeply he thinks about games, and he communicates in a way that is just incredible to me.

Also, I've been playing Dead Cells recently. It's a metroidvania that is run based with roguelike elements, and it is really freaking good. Still in early access, but from what I've seen, and from everything I've heard, it's already extremely polished and pretty complete experience. I haven't played enough to really say too much about it, but it's incredibly fun in its variety, and it's something I definitely see myself putting a bunch more time into.

Here's the trailer for that: