EPT
However, I recently noticed that familiar change in my habits that indicates the pursuit of a new obsession. That obsession is the roguelike.
The roguelike is a gaming genre that isn’t as popular as more standard fare, such as first person shooter, racing, real-time strategy, fighting, role-playing, action-adventure, or platformer, most of which have been around for four or five console generations, if not longer. Yet the roguelike is as old (if not older) than all of them because it was derived from a 1980 UNIX game called Rogue. Rogue would be barely recognizable as a video game by most gamers today (many younger players might assume a computer playing Rogue was broken), but it was a unique and powerful game for its time. Rogue featured a high-fantasy world, a turn-based battle system, a randomly-generated map, and a variety of obscure but powerful magical items. Most importantly, Rogue included a mechanic rarely found in games today, almost 35 years later: permadeath. Once your character died, that was it. You started over. It’s no wonder that Rogue is more of a cult classic and historical footnote than a mainstream favorite: between the difficult task of distributing of computer games in the 80s and the game’s obscure and punishing mechanics, I’d be very surprised if more than a few thousand people played it contemporarily (if that). However, the style of the game was so memorable that it spawned a new whole genre of game: the aptly named roguelike. A series of Rogue-inspired games came out in the 1980s, such as Moria, Angband*, Hack, and its sequel, Nethack. These games never found a place on consoles in the 90s, and roguelike development was even slow on the PC. In fact, it’s possible that the roguelike would be all but forgotten if not for the modern indie gaming scene and one huge and beloved game series.
The roguelike didn’t make significant strides until the mid-2000s. The first game studio to create a series of new and popular roguelikes was Chunsoft, a Japanese company. In 2005, they released the first in a new roguelike series: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. While it’s strange to imagine the Pokemon name in conjunction with the challenging genre, this spinoff series is well-liked and critically acclaimed. In addition to Chunsoft’s creation, one of the most famously obscure, challenging, and deranged roguelikes came out around the same time: Dwarf Fortress. Perhaps it was the influence of these two IPs, or maybe it was the coincidentally-timed creations of a plethora of former Rogue-lovers, but these two games marked the opening of the roguelike floodgates and the sudden visibility of this underappreciated genre to many “mainstream” gamers (such as myself). The extant roguelike community took notice of this surge in popularity, and, in 2008, defined a set of criteria that identified a “true roguelike.” Due to the stringent nature of the criteria, many of the games currently lauded as “roguelikes” by gamers are hybrid roguelikes, “procedural death labyrinths,” or “rogue-lites” because of their minor progression elements, non-turn-based gameplay, and other variants. One of the first critically-acclaimed roguelikes of the resurgence is Spelunky, a 2008 Windows game that challenged players to delve into a save-point-bereft mine fortified with thousands of ways to die horribly. The popular game received so much admiration that it was remade in 2012 for a wider console base, but that is not where my love affair with roguelikes began.
My roguelike adventure began with a title called Rogue Legacy. When first seeing the game in reviews, I found myself excited by the challenging, Castlevania-esque dungeon crawler with a unique progression mechanism and a great sense of humor. I had no idea that the charming rogue-lite would be my first foray into the genre. I was awful at it. Truly, truly awful. Yet, slowly but surely, I became proficient at the game. Eventually, I became skilled enough to consistently defeat the legions of monsters within the castle and grind through the game for treasure and statistics, slowly increasing my power via the game’s “inheritance” progression system (which, incidentally, is why the game is a “rogue-lite”). It took me around 62 hours to finally complete Rogue Legacy, as well as over 200 deaths (perhaps more; I can’t find my original stats). With the roguelike fever in my blood, I searched frantically for other games in the genre. Luckily, roguelikes were gaining popularity fast, so there were plenty to enjoy.
The next roguelike I found and loved was FTL. I’ve talked about Faster Than Light and its excellent expansion before, but they’re worth mentioning again, especially in an article about superb modern roguelikes. FTL is a spaceship-management game. You set out on a mission to warn the Galactic Empire of the coming Rebel Fleet, braving the countless dangers of the galaxy to do so. You arm and fire weapons, repair machinery and put out fires (usually via oxygen deprivation), command your crew to man the various shipboard systems, and travel through solar flares, ion storms, and asteroid fields. In the dangerous darkness of outer space, you die. A lot. Permanently. Yes, one of FTL’s signature roguelike mechanics is permadeath because every journey in FTL ends with your ship exploding and begins in the Sector One hangar with a new crew and vessel. Furthermore, the planets, events, and locations in FTL are randomly generated, meaning that your new crew faces a new journey each and every time you start over. In spite of/because of its difficulty, FTL is highly addictive, tempting you to play again and again and again until you figure out the best way to conquer its greatest challenges. This reminds me that I still haven’t beaten it, but it’s on my list. Of course, that hasn’t stopped me from seeking even more roguelike goodness.
Risk of Rain is the most recent of the roguelikes I’ve played. This games puts you in control of the single surviving crew member of a cargo ship that is sabotaged and crashes on a distant planet. In your travels, you must defeat dangerous wildlife and creatures freed from the ship, while collecting your lost cargo to keep you alive during your journey. Not only does Risk of Rain possess a minimalistic and “retro” art-style, it also features some especially unique mechanics for a platforming roguelike, such as difficulty that scales with time and a co-op mode. Additionally, there are 10 playable classes in the game, each one adding a set of different mechanics. Or so I assume since I only possess the base class, and I’ve never beaten the game. It’s hard, guys. Seriously. But it’s also a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to seeing what the coming worlds have to offer, as well as how the different classes will play when I finally reach them.
If none of these games sound up your alley, don’t worry: there are plenty of exciting new roguelikes that look awesome. One of the most anticipated of these is The Binding of Issac: Rebirth, a “procedural death labyrinth” from one of the Team Meat developers. While the original Binding of Issac came out in 2011, Rebirth, a combination reboot and expansion of the original, was released only a few weeks ago. This game is an intensely difficult top-down shooter with a dungeon-layout in the style of Legend of Zelda and thematic elements in the style of YOUR WORST NIGHTMARES. Seriously, the game’s fucked up… but also really fun… in a terrifying way. Another intriguing recent release is Dungeon of the Endless, a “dungeon-defense roguelike” from AMPLITUDE Studios, who are prolific indie developers with lots of recent success stories. I don’t know much about the game, but the art style, basic mechanics, and addictive roguelike elements are sure to suck me in soon.
There’s something special about the modern roguelike. They often have an underdog indie charm, as well as a beautiful retro aesthetic that makes them look like incredibly enhanced versions of SNES and Genesis games. Yet the most compelling feature of the roguelike is its unrelenting and unforgiving nature. In a gaming culture of overwrought tutorials, strategic vacuums, and “Press X to Artistically Emote”, the mystery and challenge of the roguelike genre is inspiring and impressive.
Now if only I could finish one.
Information found on Wikipedia. This is a blog, not a research paper, so cut me some slack. Images courtesy of MegaGames.com, dealspwn.com, and riskofrain.com.
* Yep: both set in Middle-Earth
You can read this dilettante's genre homage and quite a few other things on the N3rd Dimension.
