Roguelike recommendations?
Getting into DCSS a lot recently. Still just running Minotaur Berserker with the furthest I've made it being the 10th floor aha.
Regardless, really enjoying it and wondering if others have any other recommendations. I tried ToME4 and just felt overwhelmed and wasn't enjoying myself too much.
Have my eyes of Caves of Qud as well. Love the more "literary" aspect to it (even though I know it's often nonsense), and the atmosphere/setting. Seems to be highly regarded overall though. Wondering if I should buy it and play alongside DCSS.
Hades 10outta10
I don't think anyone should play anything other than Hades.
Until Hades 2 is released, that is.
I'm so in love with this game it's not even funny. Hated it the first time I played it on Xbox, got it on my steam deck and can't put it down.
COGMIND.
COGMIND COGMIND COGMIND.
Cogmind is legitimately the most underrated "real" roguelike around. Everyone knows about CDDA and Caves of Qud or whatever, I never see anyone talk about Cogmind. It's such a rabbit hole both gameplay and actually story-wise (because yeah, it actually has a story, despite being a traditional roguelike) that I can't help but wonder how the hell it's developer keeps going.
They have a blog where they talk about the game. It's borderline obsessive.
If I look at any one aspect of it closely I inevitably end up going "wait, what the hell?" because it goes farther than I expected. In-game computer terminals, the way word of your presence travels throughout the caverns you're in, each tile actually being a 3x3 space which affects how much "cover" you have... playing for quite a few hours before meeting other truly sentient robots and realizing that oh, there's, like, lore. A lot of it.
COGMIND is, hands-down, the most beautiful Roguelike game I have ever enjoyed. I recommend this game as well! God, I wish it had a mobile port.
Ancient Domains of Mystery is really really good if you can get into it. It's available on Steam, but you can get the free version which is identical except for the UI from https://adom.de/
this was my first roguelike, we used to play it in high school in 1996 on the lab computers. nice times.
I've enjoyed Slay the Spire and Wizard of Legend. The latter is very hard to beat at least for me.
For wizards of legend, there are builds that let you clear it pretty easily if you play it safe. Then once you clear it once and unlock the cursed items, using the item that makes all damage 99 lets you run through the dungeons again to get all the chaos arcana quickly
Yes I beat it with a friend, then I beat it myself again easily using a stupid strategy...
::: spoiler stupid wizard of legend strategy Bringing the Vampire glasses on one player and the Singing Bowl on the second player (who I ignore for the whole game), transferring the item to the other, and play with one character only... With these two items and a multi hit move like Cardice Prime I could heal half my health bar in one encounter. :::
Caves of Qud is phenomenal and you won’t regret playing it. If you have a phone, I’d highly recommend Shattered Pixel Dungeon. It may be one of the cleanest versions of the genre. It’s also available on PC, but I’ve never played it there.
Similarly, I think Hoplite on the phone may be the most distilled version of the genre, pared down to the barest essentials and utterly glorious as a result.
Caves of Qud is AMAZING! You should buy it OP
I'd recommend: Hades, Dead Cells, The Binding of Isaac, and FTL
I think they're looking for a roguelike and not a roguelite, but those are great roguelites!
What is the difference? I'm not familiar.
There seems to be some disagreement over the term, but I have always liked the explanation that "true" Roguelikes are "like Rogue", in that they have randomly-generated maps, permadeath, and nothing saved between runs; meanwhile Roguelites feature a "meta-progression" system that allows the player some kind of persistent progress that carries over between runs, and maybe other QOL features.
I did a small write-up off my understanding here, but that's coming from someone that's only dabbled in both and I may have missed some stuff.
I got very addicted to Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead for a while... so much so that I ported it to Android so I could play on my commute to work.
https://cataclysmdda.org/
I second Cataclysm, it's the most fun I had with a roguelike in a long time. There is also Cataclysm: Bright Nights, which is a fork that rolls back some more unpopular recent changes. But they are both still pretty similar and tons of fun.
Depending on your sense of humor, you might also be roped into playing this game by the SsethTzeentach video.
Cataclysm is such a good game and FREE/open-source. The UI and artwork are a bit of an eyesore for new players, but once you learn the mechanics the game really opens up.
It reminds me of Dwarf Fortress in that it weeds out all but the most hardcore gamers in the first few minutes of gameplay.
Definitely agree with you there! I've had a few friends who noped out 5 minutes into playing. I get it, it's not for everyone!
Man I'm sad we don't have an /r/roguelikes here. Discussion of the genre has been clobbered by the much more popular roguelites and it was nice to have a forum focused on traditional roguelikes. There's a discord but it's not the same.
Some lesser known ones that I think are quite cool:
Shadow of the Wyrm, open world fantasy with a nice vibe.
Dawn of the Mexica, quite brutal lethal combat with an uncommon setting.
Forays into Norrendrin, traditional dungeon crawler setting with distilled gameplay systems. Brogue-adjacent.
The Ground Gives Way, also a traditional dungeon crawler but with a really interesting fatigue-based equipment system and non lethal combat options. Cool item effects and stuff.
Lost Flame, if dark souls was a roguelike. Quite involved combat where attacks are telegraphed and you can dodge them, use abilities for movement etc. Great atmosphere.
I've very recently spent a close to a hundred hours on a single character on Caves of Qud, and I've hardly scratched the surface of what would be it's endgame areas. If you can handle the interface it's an incredible game with near endless possibilities. The build variety is pretty massive with the way mutations/cybernetics and skills/stats interact with each other, allowing you to build your characters exactly how you want.
Tales of Maj'Eyal is also an excellent choice with a huge variety of ways to play with it's dozens of classes and a wide variety of races to play to keep things fresh each run. The world itself is static, but each zone itself is random per run, and it also has the ability to tune the difficulty a bit to your liking, as well as having a couple expansions to check out too (with another on the way).
Cogmind is another one I've put a decent amount of time into that has a ton of depth, allowing you to pick and choose what parts to strap onto your bot for each run. Stealth hacker runs, ranged artillery explosion builds, incredibly fast ninja melee builds, there's a myriad of cool ways to experience all it has to offer.
These are all pretty in depth games, and the first 10-30 hours could easily be seen as your tutorial, so don't be discouraged by being overwhelmed by things, and don't be afraid to look things up if you need to!
Cogmind is what I mentioned too, the developer is borderline obsessive and somehow it never gets the attention that other roguelikes get. I'm always shocked to see that it's still getting regular updates.
It's a fantastic game, I was blown away at how much the game has to offer and always enjoy checking out the terminal lore and uncovering its mysteries. It fits nicely in among the greats, and I strongly agree that it's criminally underrated!
I love the idea of these games, but I am terrible at them. I sat down with Dark Souls and played it until I got gud, but Caves and Tales and Dwarf Fortress all kick my ass. Even Dungeons of Dredmor, which I poured dozens of hours into and got pretty far in, would annihilate me before I got to the bottom floor. Any tips on how to not suck long enough to learn how to not suck?
All of the games you mentioned regularly destroy my characters and plans, but that's part of the fun of them I think. Dwarf Fortress is one I haven't put enough time into due to the sheer depth and confusion of learning everything, I do plan to revisit it when I've got the itch for a colony builder and want to fail horrifically.
For Caves of Qud and Tales, my best recommendation is to try out new things and builds and see what works. I had miserable luck in Caves with most of my melee focused builds, but using a ranged focused build (use your ammo semi sparingly until Grit Gate where you can buy 1k rounds per restock) was what got me further then ever before. There's some abilities that help immensely with survival too, the Precognition mutation allows you to see the future and reset on a cooldown, even if you stumble into an unfortunate death for example. Also look at domination or proselytize/beguiling, as those will allow you to recruit or control other characters, even shopkeepers who you can then drop the full inventory on the ground for you to utilize (though be careful, failure may turn them against you). Using a zone tier map like the one found on the Qud wiki if you don't mind knowing roughly how tough each over world area is also is a good way to avoid stumbling into an area you're not prepared for.
Tome I have less advice for even after 100+ hours, I had a blast trying out all sorts of build combos, but a good way to get an idea of what builds work well is to check out https://te4.org/characters-vault and search for your difficulty and campaign, and filter it to only show winners. This will show you a list of characters who have cleared the game, and allow you to see what their exact build was upon winning, including stats, talent choices, gear, and a few other useful things. Having a zone order guide pulled up absolutely helps as well and is a decent way to get familiar with where to go when still starting out, especially if you want to see every zone the game has to offer.
Lastly, for Qud, ToME, and even Dredmor, don't be afraid to turn on a difficulty that isn't permadeath. I love the thought of only having one life, but for learning the game it's never a bad thing to turn that off for your first run (or first few!), as it'll allow you to retry the same scenarios with different approaches to see what works best. Qud I think does this the best with it's Roleplay mode, checkpointing at settlements so you're set back usually by dying, but you can still continue on to get a better understanding of all the game has to offer, making future runs that much smoother. Death is all part of the fun either way, sometimes you've taken a character to the point where it's starting to feel stale and a new build can reinvigorate interest in wanting to continue exploring what the worlds have to offer!
Dead Cells is brilliant
The only one I know is Dead Cells. I could play it all day even though I'm awful haha.
You would really enjoy Caves of Qud. It’s like DCSS but science fantasy in a crazy world instead of pure fantasy. Mechanically they’re fairly equivalent; both offer a lot of deep builds and complicated ways to solve the problem of “how do I survive this next turn?”
Binding of Isaac is my favorite.
If you are curious about a classic originator in the genre, and willing for a steep learning curve, I highly recommend to check out Nethack: "NetHack is a single-player roguelike video game originally released in 1987 with ASCII graphics. It is a descendant of an earlier game called Hack, which is a clone of Rogue" It's still under development today! I prefer the tile-based versions over the ascii versions. And if you can play it on a touch-screen device, that can be an even better experience.
Nethack is an amazing deep system to explore and learn about.. but it's not that fun to play (at least once you've already been to the late game). It's more fun to read NetHackWiki than to actually play the game IMO. It would be a huge downgrade from DCSS, which is carefully designed to be fun.
I can see that. It did take me a while to really appreciate Nethack even back in the day. TBH I haven't played it in 10ish years so maybe my recommendation was made poorly.
Didn't know about DCSS thanks.
I'm currently playing Hades (a top-down, isometric brawler). The gameplay is really fun and with different weapons, skills & upgrades per run, it stays entertaining for a long time. The story is simple but engaging, and after almost every run, there are some characters with new dialogue that tells you more about it.
I was never really a roguelike fan but I loved Hades! The game always makes you feel like you're making progress without feeling grindy, which I think is an issue that pushed me away from most roguelikes.
As a roguelike fan, I could not find a taste for Hades. A lot of roguelikes I play have a systemic nature to them where you can combine elements together to come up with creative solutions to problems, like making enemies attack each other because you triggered some criteria that allows that to happen. In Hades, all of the power ups just seemed to be a way to make you deal more damage and that was about it. Plus, out of four levels, I really wasn't a fan of levels 3 and 4.
You're right, Hades is not a very strategic game. There are some synergies between the power-ups, but mostly I just pick the ones that suit my playstyle. I'd also say that the power-ups in Hades are just there to mix it up a bit (and not really a core part of the gameplay loop).
Dwarf Fortress and Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead/Bright Nights are the obvious recommendations I have, though they are more managing/survival games than a classic roguelike.
One that I come back every now and then and don't see recommended often is Prospector, it's about exploring space.
Also I try NetHack every three or four years but I can't make it hold my attention long enough to learn it.
My go-to is Shattered Pixel Dungeon.
Not sure if it count but Street of Rogue is kinda like a 2d GTA or Saints Row only without the cars and there's lots of characters with completely different playstyles like you can go guns blazing as a soldier or play as a pacifist doctor who can't really fight and has to use stealth or other means to do objectives or be a gorilla rescuing other gorillas who's very strong but cant talk to people or use guns or be a zombie who weak on its own but once it gets going you'll start the zombie apocalypse.
There're also these mutators which can be used as accessibility options cause I use it to slow the game down but it can be used to turn off some of the stuff that you don't like in the game.
This is a little bit of a deep cut, but the roguelike add-on to Remnant From the Ashes honestly slaps if you enjoy the core gameplay loop. (The pitch is "Dark Souls with guns," which is like 70% accurate.) High quality 3rd person gunplay, awesome abilities, fun enemies, wacky builds, beautiful maps.
EDIT. Remnant is on sale for $13 on Steam! A very good deal, esp. with Remnant 2 coming out this year!
Darkest Dungeon is also great if you like oppressive horror vibes.
been really loving halls of torment, best description i could give is something between vampire survivor and diablo 2.
Never heard of it and loved both those thanks for the recommendation
A personal favourite is UnReal World.
...into the far north we shall take you.
Brogue is worth a try. I like the back-to-the-genre-roots minimalism and the hybrid-ascii aesthetics. I alternate between DCSS and Brogue these days.
Ancient Domains of Mystery, but not the half 3D one.
FTL, Spelunky, Angband, Barony
ADOM
Try out Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. It's like a 90's sci-fi that gets hit by every single apocalyptic, world-ending disaster at once.
Holy god, I never thought I'd see someone else mention DCSS in the wild!! I used to play that a bunch about a year or so ago. Truth be told, I kind of miss it once in a while. Devilishly hard, but I did manage to break into Hell once. Even killed one of the pandemonium lords.
Shit... I might start playing again.
It was updated recently!
I highly recommend OneBit Adventure. It is available on mobile and Steam. The last time I checked it is still in active development, So you will see new features and improvements frequently.
CoQ is indeed a quality game, that I would recommend. Another one, if you are interested in sci-fi, Cogmind. It has pretty amazing graphics, even if you use ASCII style.
CDDA, is fun sci-fi post-apocalypse, with zombies. But its complex. But real fun.
The ones I played and enjoyed:
I would say, The Binding of Isaac is one of the Rouge Likes everyone should have at least tried. Its one of my favorite games overall!
Edit: woups was still editing the list and accidentally hit the post button.. Added more
I'd like to add Enter the Gungeon to this list, as it fits thematically. It's a roguelite with bullet hell aspects. In many respects very similar to The Binding of Isaac. And it has a great art style and humor.
Check out Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. There's a version on Steam to support the developers, but you can download the executable for free from their website just like DCSS.
CDDA also has a non terrible mobile version as well. When I used to commute pre pandemic I'd spend many a bus rides home playing and it's surprisingly playable on a phone. Wasn't expecting that.
I poured way too much time into Rogue, Moria, Angband and Zangband back in the day... Sad to see Zangband completely disappeared - no idea if there's a similar flavour floating around.
Played a couple of newer more graphical (and probably better balanced games) but I actually found them less engaging.
My son was madly into Shattered Pixel Dungeon for a while.
I reckon you'd like Caves of Qud if you were a fan of Angband and the like. It's a very ambitious true roguelike along similar lines.
Golden Light if you're into horror games.
+1 for Golden Light. Game has an unsettling yet very funny vibe.
I didn't see anyone recommend in the comments, but I very much enjoyed Dreamscaper. It has a nice story revolving around the main character confronting hwr psychological issues in the world of her dreams. Combat is fun, slower paced and a little more tactical than most.
Also, fwiw, I'm not generally a roguelike fan, but I liked this one. Whether that makes you more or less likely to take my recommendation is up to you lol.
Tangledeep is honestly really underrated. Beautiful graphics, great music, monster taming, swapping to whatever job class you like.... My favourite roguelike hands down.
The Pokémon mystery dungeon games are also amazing, a little more simplistic but still great. If you want a punishing challenge then the Shiren series might be for you!
Everspace 1 and 2 are both solid games if you like space exploration and ahooting!
Just a note that in Everspace 2, they shed the whole procedurally generated aspect, but they're both still phenomenal games!
Shattered Pixel Dungeon.
DCSS is my usual recommendation but you're already playing it.
Enter the Gungeon is fun if you like bullet hell And Spelunky 1 and 2 are nice if you want a roguelike as a jump'n'run Although if you want to play Spelunky, definitely start with the first game. The second game is more difficult and more complex.
I hate bullet hell games and I still absolutely adore Gungeon. I've got probably a few hundred hours in it and I still have never been able to beat it once, though.
I tend to play a lot of the old text-tile games that I cut my teeth on back starting with Angband. Any of those variants are enjoyable, but I pretty much stick to Zangband (Angband adding in the work of Zelazny) and frogcomposband (It's a mouthfull, but FUN).
If you're into Pokemon, the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games are fantastic. They aren't the hardest roguelike in the world (still harder than a mainline Pokemon game though), but they're fun. The stories are also incredible (can only speak for Rescue Team and Explorers, haven't played the 3DS titles yet).
Inscryption is pretty great. It's like a horror card game.
Ah, look at everyone recommending action roguelikes. The Berlin Interpretation is dead, long live the Berlin Interpretation! I'll happily n'th Caves of Qud and Cogmind as amazing turn-based traditional roguelikes, and I'll add to that pile the following lesser-known gems:
Some other notable traditional roguelikes which I think are less good than any of the six above but still worth playing, are:
The lack of Cogmind makes me mad.
Yeah nevermind, I just ignored it for some reason.
Where's Zorbus?
It would make me mad too, which is why I already had it in the second line. 😋
Amazing, thanks very much for sharing this. Admittedly I was referring to the Berlin interpretation of a roguelike, so I very much appreciate such an extensive breakdown of some of your recommendations. Haven't heard of a handful of these, will be checking them out with time!
Darkest Dungeon is a game I keep coming back to. Long story short, it's a roguelike where you send a group of four heroes into a dungeon and you fight lovecraftian horrors there. It's also really well narrated!
Skul: the hero slayer is fantastic, there is a ridiculous amount of build variety and the gameplay is great.
I like rogue-lites a bit more, so thethese games may or may not fit your interests.
I'm actually not sure if this fully counts as a roguelike (because I'm not really super familiar with the genre), but I started Returnal on PC yesterday and it already seems to be a pretty darn good game only after 30 minutes of play time. I am looking forward to putting more time into it!
I really liked it at first, but after 10 or so runs, it started getting a bit stale. It's a really well done game, but the level gen gets limiting pretty quickly and I wasn't a fan of half of the weapons.
Definitely still worth checking out, and the PC version ran pretty well for me.