What is today’s Rogue?

Saturday 23 July, 2011 at 11:07 am Todd "Winin" Edwards Winin's Brain Dump 6

I loved Rogue back in the day. It was a fun mix of arcade (play til you die) and RPG (explore, kill, collect gear, level up so you can explore deeper and fight tougher things).

I know Rogue-likes have a big underground following, but most seem to adhere to the ascii graphics and/or 2D design. That is great for nostalgia, but not so great for bringing this style game to modern times. Are Minecraft (which I play) and Terraria (which I don’t) the new games to fill the shoes of Rogue?

Minecraft, maybe not, because it is more about building than exploring/fighting tougher and tougher monsters. Terraria seems to have more RPG/fighting, but I’ve not played it yet. Are there other games out there? I’d love a randomly generated 3d world (like Minecraft) with tougher and tougher monsters to find, gear to collect, and a high score board so I can challenge myself to survive longer and explore deeper into the world.

Does such a thing exist? Are there more of these type games out there? I’m willing to consider Android games as well as PC.

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Longasc says:

July 23, 2011 at 11:11 am

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of-dwarf-fortress.html

Maybe this? A buddy of mine is nuts about it, I never really got into it.

Dean "tehden" says:

July 23, 2011 at 1:09 pm

I have yet to find any sort of 3-D, first person roguelike. I’m hoping Minecraft’s adventure update helps push it a bit in that direction, but it probably won’t. Here are some of my favorites, which still adhere (some more strictly than others) to the concepts of rogue.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has made insane strides over the last few years. It’s probably the most accessible roguelike I’ve played and it is very, very fun. It has tilesets if you’re into that sort of thing. http://crawl.develz.org/wordpress/

Unreal World RPG is a survival roguelike set in ancient Finland and is probably unlike anything you’ve ever played. I highly recommend fans of wilderness survival/rogue genres give it a try because it can be crazy fun hunting, building your own shelters, fishing, etc. http://www.jmp.fi/~smaarane/urw.html

For Android, the only roguelike I’ve put any time into is Legends of Yore, which I actually don’t like all that much. There’s also a port of Powder that I haven’t tried but probably should since Powder is pretty awesome.

Dungeons of Dredmor just came out for PC, and that’s available on Steam for $5. I’ve only sunk about an hour into it (had other things to do!) but I’ve heard great things from players. It’s a little slow paced for a roguelike but it makes up for that in charm and a decent interface.

Todd "Winin" Edwards says:

July 23, 2011 at 10:02 pm

Thanks! I’ll check all those out.

Sox says:

July 24, 2011 at 3:26 am

I like Triangle Wizard as a killing monsters in a dungeon with my mage game. Nethack-like but realtime, free movement, nice spell effects and no bloody ascii levels (except monsters) gives it a more modern feel

Hunter says:

July 24, 2011 at 9:25 pm

I’ve been hoping for years for some form of 3d nethack or rogue-like game maybe even with limited online capabilities, just like i’ve been waiting for a decade for some kind of big budget follow up to x-com. Sigh.

slashbrb says:

July 25, 2011 at 9:57 am

How about ol’ Dungeon Hack from SSI? Was released in ’93 so you’d probably be able to pick this up for next to nothing. I lost my old CD for it but it was fun when I had it and would make a great game for a reboot in todays ‘roguelike rebirth’

6 comments

Longasc Comment:July 23, 2011 at 11:11 am
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of-dwarf-fortress.html

Maybe this? A buddy of mine is nuts about it, I never really got into it.
Dean "tehden" Comment:July 23, 2011 at 1:09 pm
I have yet to find any sort of 3-D, first person roguelike. I’m hoping Minecraft’s adventure update helps push it a bit in that direction, but it probably won’t. Here are some of my favorites, which still adhere (some more strictly than others) to the concepts of rogue.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has made insane strides over the last few years. It’s probably the most accessible roguelike I’ve played and it is very, very fun. It has tilesets if you’re into that sort of thing. http://crawl.develz.org/wordpress/

Unreal World RPG is a survival roguelike set in ancient Finland and is probably unlike anything you’ve ever played. I highly recommend fans of wilderness survival/rogue genres give it a try because it can be crazy fun hunting, building your own shelters, fishing, etc. http://www.jmp.fi/~smaarane/urw.html

For Android, the only roguelike I’ve put any time into is Legends of Yore, which I actually don’t like all that much. There’s also a port of Powder that I haven’t tried but probably should since Powder is pretty awesome.

Dungeons of Dredmor just came out for PC, and that’s available on Steam for $5. I’ve only sunk about an hour into it (had other things to do!) but I’ve heard great things from players. It’s a little slow paced for a roguelike but it makes up for that in charm and a decent interface.
Todd "Winin" Edwards Comment:July 23, 2011 at 10:02 pm
Thanks! I’ll check all those out.
Sox Comment:July 24, 2011 at 3:26 am
I like Triangle Wizard as a killing monsters in a dungeon with my mage game. Nethack-like but realtime, free movement, nice spell effects and no bloody ascii levels (except monsters) gives it a more modern feel
Hunter Comment:July 24, 2011 at 9:25 pm
I’ve been hoping for years for some form of 3d nethack or rogue-like game maybe even with limited online capabilities, just like i’ve been waiting for a decade for some kind of big budget follow up to x-com. Sigh.
slashbrb Comment:July 25, 2011 at 9:57 am
How about ol’ Dungeon Hack from SSI? Was released in ’93 so you’d probably be able to pick this up for next to nothing. I lost my old CD for it but it was fun when I had it and would make a great game for a reboot in todays ‘roguelike rebirth’