I'd like to plug DCSS here:
I could never get into any other roguelikes, but I LOVE Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. I easily have over 100 hours in it, and just recently finished an actual game for the first time (15 runes, Gargoyle Hunter).
I could never get into any other roguelikes, but I LOVE Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. I easily have over 100 hours in it, and just recently finished an actual game for the first time (15 runes, Gargoyle Hunter).
Crawl development strives to eliminate grinding and eliminate tedium. Players should never be rewarded for performing repetitive actions. Every choice should be meaningful. This has been the case since the game's revival in 2006 and goes back to the introduction of the food clock in Rogue. A few years back I asked Ken Arnold about the food clock. He introduced it because a timer is a great way of making stupid, time consuming strategies useless. Crawl follows in this tradition.
We removed the requirement that you have a bladed weapon to butcher corpses. Why? Because it's a game and not a murder-hobo simulator. If you need a fix for mindless simulationism you might enjoy Dwarf Fortress, the premier dwarf terrarium.
> Are there any other similar games (proper roguelikes or not) you've found as enjoyable as DCSS?
Brogue is the finest Roguelike ever made. By happenstance, pender was my neighbor back when I lived in the valley.
And what a success that was...
For anyone else that feels the same, Cataclysm DDA is a great choice. It features open dynamic world with no hard-coded goals, lots of survival mechanics, vehicle and base building, different ways to advance (skills, equipment, mutations, implants) and countless ways to approach any situation.
The game can also be very atmospheric - my @ once got sick so I parked my RV out of danger's way, spent the day reading books, listening to rain hitting the rooftop and planing my next move. It's an experience unlike any other game.
OK, now I have a nine-rune game going (just missing abyss and pan runes).
I had dozens of Minotaur Fighters and Gargoyle Fighters that made it up to 7+ runes before dying. The worst death by far was a MiFi that died to Hellion Island because I was playing in bed, shifted my body slightly, and then accidentally held down the space bar for a few seconds right as I encountered it for the first time ever. Oops!
I am surprised no one has expanded on the DCSS experience in regards to auto/manual yet. The ability to seamlessly switch between automated exploration/combat and precision controls is the killer feature that kept me hooked, I think.