Roguelikes you enjoy?

Talk about anything not related to Transcendence.
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JohnBWatson
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Considering Transcendence has become something of a gateway into the roguelike genre for many, I thought it might be good to have a thread to discuss our favorite roguelikes, and share our appreciation for this relatively unexplored genre.

Aside from the obvious(Transcendence's inspiration, nethack), what are some roguelikes that you're especially fond of? Any you consider particularly interesting?

Here are two of the ones I think are worth sharing, especially with other people new to the genre:

- Cardinal Quest is a browser roguelike with very simple mechanics, that still captures the feel of the genre very well.

- I'd hesitate to call Untrusted a roguelike, but it definitely takes inspiration from the genre. Given how many programmers our modding community has attracted, I'm sure at least a few people will like it. It's very short, so you'll definitely not be out much time if it turns out you don't.
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Xephyr
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It's funny to think that Transcendence could be a gateway into roguelikes these days. It was the opposite for me - I played Rogue long before I ever saw Transcendence.

My two favourites are Rogue and ADOM, both of which are pretty easy to find.
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Song
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I've mostly glanced-off true roguelikes.....made it far enough in nethack to beat a bugbear to death with a cursed rusty tin opener but not much further. Closest I've come is Dwarf Fortress....but I've never played adventurer mode so it may not count. I play it with the stock tileset and no utility mods though so I get some hardcore points there at least.


In terms of the more modern roguelikes ("roguelites" or "roguelikelike").....FTL is fantastic albiet almost impossible to win at times. Sunless Sea is also pretty neat although the combat system is still pretty clunky. In terms of up-and-coming releases I heartily recommend The Curious Expedition, which is currently one of the more interesting early-access (or Games in Development, if you're buying DRM-free through GOG) titles. In theory you can probably get through all 6 expeditions in a game in a fairly short amount of time. Almost always, however, you'll end up with your crew eating each other and going insane, falling into bottomless pits, starting fires, getting eaten by hyenas and annoying the locals into killing you. It's great fun.
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JohnBWatson
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Rogue, eh? The original is always a safe bet. I've seen at least one of you guys playing FTL on the IRC and it looked interesting, so I might pick it up sometime.

I've heard a lot about Enola - is it easy to get into?
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Back in the BBS days I liked playing Elynthia. I've looked for a hint of it's existence and so far have come up with zip (no, not a .zip). Oddly enough that's why I like the Civ series, they're all rogue like, as well as the sim series (sim ant is my fave).
I wish there was a random map option for Total Annihilation.

edit: Ooh and anyone remember Lunatic Fringe?
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If you'd like something simple and turn-based, Mother of All Battles is pretty good.

It's based on older games like Strategic Conquest that helped popularize the "fog-of-war" concept where the player has to discover more about the world by exploring it. Maps are randomly generated based on criteria that the user provides at the beginning of each game.

The goal of the game is to capture cities and increase military production until you can eliminate all of your enemies.
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I don't know if you would count it, but Darkest Dungeon is one of my favorite games of all time! Rogue Legacy was also pretty fun while I played it. There are probably a few more which I could name if you're interested.
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digdug
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I've never got into netHack style games. I did play netHack, angband and dwarf fortress but I was never impressed by the ASCII graphics. On the opposite, ASCII Portal was a fun game. :)

However one of the games I played most in my life is Castle of the Winds. I still have it on my pendrive with my savegame started around 2000. :)

I had fun with Decker (free) and Uplink, it's very simple to make additional contents for Uplink and I made a bunch of mods for it.

Regarding more modern roguelikes, FTL is really great, Battle for Wesnoth is awesome (and free).
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TheLoneWolf
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Can't you count TES games as rogue likes? Especially Skyrim!
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Can't you count TES games as rogue likes? Especially Skyrim!
I think those are more of open world RPG games, not rogue likes... but I guess they sort of count.
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Atarlost
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They're really not. The worlds aren't procedural and death isn't permanent and they aren't ascii or even tile based. For every possible defining feature of the roguelike genre they do the opposite. They are almost, but not quite, completely unlike Rogue. The manner in which they are similar is that they have swords in them.
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