Double the apocalypse, double the fun

December 22, 2010 6:24 PM

Do you like the wholesale destruction of everything you cherish? Do you like roguelikes? Then you're in luck because two new roguelikes are yours to play, the zombie-apocalypse city survival fest Rogue Survivor, and the Gamma Worldesque ASCII-Fallout-analogue Caves of Qud. Both are still in beta, both will keep you away from the dinner table over the holidays.
posted by Kattullus (23 comments total)

You underestimate my appreciation for ham.
posted by The Confessor at 6:26 PM on December 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

God damn, do people really click links to files called setup.exe?
posted by George_Spiggott at 6:31 PM on December 22, 2010

A game that can't run in a unix terminal isn't a real roguelike.
posted by silby at 6:33 PM on December 22, 2010 [2 favorites]

do people really click links to files called setup.exe?

Only at work
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 6:38 PM on December 22, 2010 [9 favorites]

God damn, do people really click links to files called setup.exe?

We'll wait for Cortex to try it.
posted by Artw at 6:48 PM on December 22, 2010

do people really click links to files called setup.exe?

I do. Haven't got the faintest idea what's wrong with them. *continues on merry way*
posted by YamwotIam at 6:51 PM on December 22, 2010

Pfft, both appear to be Windows only. Sorry, I'll skip them. Why in the hell would anyone release a Windows only game today? Because that's the only language they know? Lame.
posted by Invoke at 6:55 PM on December 22, 2010

do people really click links to files called setup.exe?

Sure, why not?

Free and does not consume all of your system resources...

(Not "pepsiblue", sold the last of my stock in October)
posted by jkaczor at 6:56 PM on December 22, 2010

do people really click links to files called setup.exe?

DON"T BLAME THE VICTIM
posted by LordSludge at 6:58 PM on December 22, 2010

Pfft, both appear to be Windows only. Sorry, I'll skip them. Why in the hell would anyone release a Windows only game today? Because that's the only language they know? Lame.

Wow, such emotion over freely downloadable games.

I'll tell you why the hell someone would release a Windows-only game. Because they do it as a hobby and would rather spend time doing fun things like putting extra features into their game than spend weeks figuring out how to compile and deploy software on an unfamiliar OS.
posted by demiurge at 7:10 PM on December 22, 2010 [15 favorites]

I'm absolutely no good so far at Caves of Qud. My last game ended with me being beaten to death by a watervine farmer. But I've gotten pretty decent at Rogue Survivor. It's a fairly straightforward game (especially if you read the manual). My only tip, so to speak, is to take the light eater skill because starving to death is just an embarrassing way to go.
posted by Kattullus at 7:27 PM on December 22, 2010

As far as recent roguelikes go, I really like Brogue and ZapM. One is a gorgeous and smartly stripped-down cave dive, and the other is a schlocky sci-fi take on NetHack.

In light of the above kvetching, I'll add that both games are available for Linux, Mac and Windows.
posted by seikleja at 7:29 PM on December 22, 2010 [6 favorites]

Ah, Rogue Survivor. I spent a whole day barricading myself inside a gun store by pushing a couple of cars in front of the entrace after filling my pockets with food. Just after I finished another survivor, who I'd somehow overlooked, emerged from the basement. Well, I figured, he can stay--my character can presumably use the company, and it's not like they're going to use up all the guns.

A couple of days later, he shot me to death in my sleep for my food.
posted by IjonTichy at 7:36 PM on December 22, 2010 [7 favorites]

Wow. Brogue is great.
posted by lumensimus at 8:01 PM on December 22, 2010

ZapM

And then there's ZapM_, for when you don't want to collect the results of the actions.
posted by kenko at 8:01 PM on December 22, 2010 [4 favorites]

Pfft, both appear to be Windows only. Sorry, I'll skip them. Why in the hell would anyone release a Windows only game today? Because that's the only language they know? Lame.

Ugh I know right, those stupid short-sighted hobbyist freeware dev studios catering to only 90% of computer users
posted by p3on at 9:25 PM on December 22, 2010 [4 favorites]

My concern with roguelikes that have "sandbox" features is that travel has to be fun in sandbox games for the game not to turn into an insanely boring slog. How do you make travel fun in a roguelike? You can't have GTA's manic driving or the mad bounds of Infamous or Prototype.
posted by quillbreaker at 9:43 PM on December 22, 2010

The thing that I didn't like about Rogue Survivor is that there was no guidance on what you should do. Making it to week 3 by barricading and raiding food drops was fun, but now what? Ammo is running dry, and travel to other sectors is extremely difficult due to high-level enemies with sniper rifles. There's all this other stuff in the city, but apparently I had to go find it in the first few days before the city was overrun by blackops, disciples, and zombie princes.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 6:56 AM on December 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

The Subway and the sewers are a way to travel that becomes increasingly sensible as time goes by (not that it's dangerfree).
posted by Kattullus at 7:10 AM on December 23, 2010

The sewer was great in week 2, but I just tried it again and ran into lots of evolved zombies. At least no snipers :/
posted by a robot made out of meat at 9:12 AM on December 23, 2010

I suppose I should've said "relatively sensible."
posted by Kattullus at 10:22 AM on December 23, 2010

Pfft, both appear to be Windows only. Sorry, I'll skip them. Why in the hell would anyone release a Windows only game today? Because that's the only language they know? Lame.

The real question is why you'd spend the time necessary to port your software to Mac/Linux to get a possible 5% increase in your audience.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:29 PM on December 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

I think the kvetching is due to the tty-heritage of the roguelike genre. Windows-only roguelikes using the .net runtime just seem, you know, wrong in that context. Overburdened, perhaps.
posted by silby at 2:10 PM on December 23, 2010 [1 favorite]