Roguelikes

[Aedin]

Does anyone play any of these? I've had a few I've wanted to try for a while, and was thinking about starting one up soon.

[mechana2015]

Havn't heard of them... explain a bit more please?

[Davidizer13]

Havn't heard of them... explain a bit more please?

Lemme try: roguelikes are these super-hard RPGs, usually done in ASCII art, and get their name from the first one, Rogue. They were some of the first RPGs to be made into computer games, so they're a lot closer to the model set by pen-and-paper RPGs. And like I said, they're really unforgiving: many don't tell you what's going to happen if you drink that potion or put on that ring unless you do something to identify its effect. Oh, and death is permanent and usually irreversible. (Here's an incomplete list of deaths from Nethack, to give you a taste of how many ways you can die and how complex these games can be.) Additionally, there's a whole lot of random generation: levels and the effects of items will be hugely different every time you play.

The most popular one is Nethack, which is open-source, freeware, and has an online server where you can play it. Don't expect to win the first time, or the hundredth. Dwarf Fortress is kind of a roguelike - it's more like a hyper-complex SimCity than anything else, but it has a lot of the trademarks, like ASCII art, a huge amount of depth, and incredible difficulty. I've also played one based on DooM that was really fun, where ranged combat, rather than hack-and-slash, was the main way to fight.

[mechana2015]

ooh like Zork and the original Hitchikers games!

[Fish and Chips]

Zork isn't a roguelike.

[MxCake]

yea but do the roguelikes play as zork does? is it a text adventure?

[Davidizer13]

yea but do the roguelikes play as zork does? is it a text adventure?

Oh no, they still play like your standard RPG - you're moving a character around on a map, equipping items, fighting monsters, etc. There are graphics-based roguelikes, especially the more modern ones, but the oldest ones use ASCII characters as graphics - more symbol-based than text-based (though you can get graphical setups for the older ones).

The graphics aren't the defining factor between roguelikes and other RPGs, but instead, the key gameplay features are, namely high difficulty, random maps, and a huge number of ways to play. So, less like Zork, and more like Diablo.

[Fish and Chips]

yea but do the roguelikes play as zork does? is it a text adventure?

Roguelikes are straight dungeon crawlers, typically turn-based, and set to random with a high difficulty (with things like death being permanent and erasing your character file). Only the hardcore need apply.

They tend to have very simple graphics because, well, it's not about the graphics - it's about the slog of it. It takes a very particular type of person to appreciate roguelikes.

That said, there are some mainstream games that could be considered roguelikes, but it seems to vary from person to person; I've heard Diablo and Torchlight considered roguelikes, for example, as well as stuff like the Dark Spire and Etrian Odyssey (your mileage may vary on whether you consider either or any of these to fit the criteria - Diablo and Torchlight aren't turn-based, and I don't believe either the Dark Spire or Etrian Odyssey implement permadeath).

[MxCake]

ok i see now lol

[Kaligraphic]

I'm rather a fan of Angband. In particular, I tend to like the Zangband and TOME variants, but I've played a fair portion of the variations out there.