Roguelikes: I never met@progression I didn't like

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Roguelikes: I never met@progression I didn't like

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

dis astranagant posted:

Teleglitch is an ok game that doubled down on really lovely looking HDR and distortion effects and some of the worst sprite work I've ever seen.

Bionic Dues is a game of rocket launcher tag where nothing interesting happens so long as you out range all the enemies and you die if you don't. It's also by Arcen and you really shouldn't give them money except for maybe their strategy games.

Sword of the Stars: The Pit is another game by lovely developers that don't deserve money. I also haven't heard anything good about it. It is frequently bundle filler.

Magicite has really, really bad combat and just isn't very well designed in general. Bundle filler.

Tower of Guns was nice and had lots of fast movement you don't get in FPSes much anymore. And the guns are mostly neat, even if you really only get to use one of them at a time on most runs.

Why shouldn't you give your money to Arcen? I'm out of the loop on what they've done wrong, besides not making more strategy games.

As for roguelike content:

- Is Steam Marines any good?

- I loved One Way Heroics, especially given the price. There are ways to make it harder or easier depending on how you play and if you use things like the vault, and which perks you pick for different classes.

- Dungeons of Dredmor is a great roguelike that you've probably already heard of.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2015 03:21

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# ¿ Apr 18, 2024 06:38

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Shattered Planet is a game I got for free on my android phone and it was a decent roguelike, worth killing some time on...but I don't know if I'd want to pay for it, not even 3$. The PC version would have to be WAY improved and more complex for me to buy it.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2015 00:31

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

My one complaint with ToME is that starting a new character can get really, really repetitive, especially if you're starting with the same class/race. I've been through the Trollmire with a Cormac Berserker way too many times now, but darnit, I want to take one to the end of the game.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2015 02:33

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Jordan7hm posted:

Donzo.

I do have a couple roguelikes to give away to anyone who wants them / will play them or at least try them.

Sword of the Stars: The Pit - Gold x2
Dungeons of Dredmor Complete
Paranautical Activity (this game sucks, even ignoring how moronic the devs are. I can't believe I loving kickstarted it)
Teleglitch: Die More Edition
Binding of Isaac Collection (not rebirth)
~~Quest of Dungeons~~

I'd be interested in trying the Pit, if you still have it.

I was also going to ask what was so bad about Paranautical Activity, but then I looked at screenshots of it on Steam and recoiled - I assume it plays as bad as it looks? (Not a fan of the minecraft graphics)

# ¿ Apr 25, 2015 21:15

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Jordan7hm posted:

Sure do. Add me on steam (/7hm)

Paranautical Activity is as bad as the screenshots, which is to say it is the same as every other FPS roguelike but with worse graphics. I have to give them credit - they were the first of the FPS roguelikes to hit release (shortly before Tower of Guns). That's the only reason anyone bothered with them at all.

Fundamentally it's not worse than other FPS roguelikes though. Big empty rooms, projectile hell, none of the strategy and tactics from actual roguelikes, none of the level design of actual old-school FPSs.

Oblige is still the best FPS roguelike by a huge margin.

...

Towerclimb was a ton of fun last time I played it, but I'm waiting for it to hit a full release to go back to it. I'm just happy he's still working on it.

Done and done. I'm /zekkass there.

A FPS roguelike feels like it's fundamentally unworkable - maybe an FPS with roguelike elements, but...the format seems so part and parcel to the genre.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2015 00:00

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Shooter roguelikes exist (c.f. Teleglitch), so what is it about FP in specific that conflicts with roguelike sensibilities? I mean, I admit I've yet to see an FPS roguelike that I thought really worked well (Tower of Guns is the best and it's still not really that great), but that doesn't convince me that the two genres just can't mesh.

Roguelikes, afaik, are defined by grid-based, turn-based gameplay (and permadeath and an inventory system, etc) and I don't see how you could do a first-person roguelike without getting something like Wizardry, or a single-character Etrian Odyssey - but to my point: I don't see how you can do a roguelike without getting away from the turn-based nature of combat.

I could be wrong, though! Crypt of the Necrodancer (I haven't played this yet) seems to be pushing at those boundaries, but it's still turn-based.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2015 00:32

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Million Ghosts posted:

Oh god please don't do the whole circular "what is/isn't a roguelike" thing for the thousandth time.

Okay, fair enough!

Jordan7hm, thanks for the Pit - I'm enjoying it so far, though I'm probably focusing too much on blades as opposed to my guns. I have this horrible affliction against running out of ammo, so - is that going to be a huge concern in this game?

EDIT: I've run out of pistol ammo, so yes, it is going to be a problem. Time to make every shot count, eep.

StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Apr 26, 2015

# ¿ Apr 26, 2015 01:06

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Okay, can you think of a way to mesh FPSen with Procedural Death Labyrinths that wouldn't suck?

I'm not a game designer, but I'll give it a shot!

Strangely enough, the closest analogues I'm thinking of at the moment are the Silent Hills. Limited inventory so you need to decide if you're going to fight this battle or run for another one, a fairly closed in environment, and death is very, very close.

But mechanically speaking, a slowed down shooter in a dark environment - say enemies can't attack until they're in the light, or if they have ranged attacks they go slow enough that you could pinpoint where they come from - and level ups would net you better lighting, better weapons, more hitpoints. Unfortunately shooters can feel too corridor-y, but corridors are part and parcel of labyrinths, so work with those. I'm not the greatest fan of cover shooters, but - say the skillset/class you choose determines how fights happen? One class could generate cover that enemies would have to react to, another could be more of a run and gun-er.

...

tl;dr I don't know. I don't know if there's a way to get the balance of roguelikes without making the FPS boring, or vise-versa.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2015 03:23

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Jack Trades posted:

I think it's possible.
Every single FPS-Roguelike hybrid I've seen tries to the Doom-style gameplay for it's FPS part. I think that might be one of the biggest things that prevent FPS-Roguelike hybrids from being enough of a roguelike-like.
What if you don't do that and go the opposite way instead?
For example Crypt of the Necrodancer is an objectively good real-time roguelike and one of the ways it achieves that is by having the gameplay being slow enough to make it possible to make meaningful decisions, which is a life-blood of any roguelike.
So maybe a much slower FPS gameplay, where every action has to be less frantic and more purposeful, would fit this kind of hybrid better?

Now if you go from there I think it should possible to design a game that works in a similar way to more conventional roguelikes.

I totally started writing my post first.

Uh-huh.

Actually, a cover-shooter FPS comes to mind - the XCOM spin-off, the Bureau. It has a feature where you have teammates, and you can slow time down and give them orders / activate skills. Perhaps a FPS-roguelike with something similar, where control over time features heavily into how it plays?

# ¿ Apr 26, 2015 03:37

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Due to this thread I decided to open up Dredmor again and see if the UI was as bad as everyone was saying (I loved it about a year ago, then got distracted and lately I've been playing TOME) and...I had to turn on autoloot, and it just felt like such a slog with no auto-explore. Forget rest, forget everything: using the arrow keys to go everywhere is really, really annoying.

If nothing else, that one jaunt into Dredmor has made me appreciate TOME all over again, just for being competent enough to throw in an autoexplore button.

# ¿ May 2, 2015 02:38

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

What's the roguelike thread consensus on Dungeon of the Endless? I've been digging it so far - once I figured out the slow rhythm of the game, it felt like it opened up for me - but I'm curious about what goons think of it. (I'm also trying to decide if I want to go for the crystal edition upgrade)

# ¿ Dec 25, 2015 04:28

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

I don't feel I post enough to justify requesting a premium key, but I wanted to post and say thank you for both the giveaway and the list of roguelikes - they're super handy, and now I'm staring down the abyss into Dungeonmans, this close to buying it. A roguelike that falls between TOME and Dredmor? One that lets you improve your starting heroes when they die? How many hours am I going to lose playing this - ?

# ¿ Dec 30, 2015 02:23

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Highblood posted:

I don't know if I should be offended that there's a Caves of Qud key left, or pleased because everyone already has it.

CAVES OF QUD IS REALLY GOOD GUYS

If I'm not used to playing ASCII roguelikes, how bad is the learning curve in figuring out the GUI? Everything about it sounds good but I'm not sure if I'm up to pushing through that potential wall. (Cataclysm lost me thanks to this very problem.)

# ¿ Dec 30, 2015 02:57

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Okay, I did it: I picked up Dungeonmans due to this thread. So far I'm having a blast playing a Rangerman, and I really love how intuitive all the controls are + the funny writing + how pleasant the tilesets are.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2015 03:57

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Doctor Meat posted:

I just bought Dungeonmans due to the many recommendations in this thread and I'm really enjoying it. I think it has the most pleasant tiles of any roguelike. The skill system really lets you put together a nice variety of moves quickly instead of slogging through to a certain level before your character is fun to play. Everything looks nice and clean. This may top TOME as my favorite roguelike. I'm really surprised I hadn't heard of Dungeonmans outside this thread. I follow several youtube reviewers and gaming sites and I haven't ever seen the game mentioned on rockpapershotgun or the like.

Are you me? This is exactly how I feel right now. It feels more fun than TOME. It looks great. The skills are great. (The Rangermans skill of shooting a super-shot that pushes you back is useful AND thrilling.) I would not have gotten it without this thread's adulation of it - and what an experience so far!

# ¿ Dec 30, 2015 04:53

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Crossposting the review thing I typed up for Jordan7hm over in the Steam xmas thread -

My current absolutely favorite roguelike-esque game is Dungeons of the Endless, a game I purchased with low expectations that it then proceeded to blow out of the water. It's got an amazing sci-fi aesthetic that looks great - every character is visually distinct, and the dungeon design while randomized looks very good - there were several rooms that made me stop and admire the flora they'd populated it with. As for the gameplay - the premise is that you guide the survivors of a starship crash out of the dungeon they landed in, hauling their valuable crystal with them. The flow of game consists of exploring a floor one room at a time, setting up modules to produce resources / other modules to defend those rooms - because each dark room can spawn monsters that will attempt to destroy your heroes, their modules, and the crystal (losing this is a gameover).

A key feature is keeping rooms lit - you don't have enough power to turn on all of the lights, so you attempt to set up chokepoints that guard the most vital modules and so on - anyways, it only feels like a roguelike early on while you're primarily exploring the dungeon, because the further you get, the more dangerous the monsters get and your heroes can't level up fast enough to keep pace with them. You have to start relying on the tower defense portion of the game, and the final levels are a tense mix between lots of towers and running your heroes around to meet the harder monsters.

Other elements that make it more roguelike-esque: each level is randomly arranged, death comes quickly if you aren't careful, and there are a variety of playstyles depending on which pod you take/which heroes you have.

It's not a game for everyone, but its mix of genres has me addicted, even if I've yet to fully figure out how to defeat "easy" mode. (It calls normal "very easy" and hard "easy" for some reason.)

Phew, there, a proper review. If you want to check it out, get the pixel edition and don't get the Crystal edition - that just adds a pod you have to unlock and a decent hero - i.e. additions you won't care about unless you really get into the game, and it's not that expensive to upgrade it later on.

And then adding that while I was expecting Sproggiwood to be cute, I was not expecting it to be THIS cute, good lord. It feels like more of a mobile/tablet roguelike than Dungeonmans, but so far this is charming in a completely different way, and I fully intend to roguelike out the rest of the 2015 with these three fabulous games.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2015 05:23

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

"Sproggiwood is cute", I post. I picked easy difficulty because I didn't want to die that often in such a cute game.

Four deaths later in the first non-tutorial dungeon, this adorable game disguises a vicious, thinking interior. I'm going to have to be WAY more careful with my little farmer and those horrible, horrible goats.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2015 06:06

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Regarding Dungeonmans and Sproggiwood: I haven't played enough traditional roguelikes recently enough apparently - I keep getting overconfident and getting my dudes splatted on monsters I should have run from. It's one thing to remember that roguelikes are hard, and another to watch yet another poor mans die due to my own arrogance.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2015 11:04

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

madjackmcmad posted:

Thank you so much! I'm glad you dig it. My dreams for Dungeonmans have always included people picking it up during a christmas sale a year after launch and being delighted that they hit a little RPG gem. I mean it! I'm a little salty about not getting picked up by RPS, their roguelike guy just didn't care for the name so I never got any coverage there outside of a blurb during the Kickstarter. Seems a shame because RPS's customer base would love the game. Alas. However you could always

write a pleasant Steam Review

if you're feeling generous.

I am! It took me a few hours to pry myself from Dungeonmans to actually write the thing, but there you go.

Regarding the pre-fab chat, I find I prefer the jigsaw puzzle approach ala Spelunky and Dungeon of the Endless - they have a bunch of modules that plug together in different, interesting ways. Dungeon of the Endless has a few super-beautiful rooms that I run into rarely and they really spice up a level. It's much more fun to look at than something that's entirely randomly stuck together.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2015 01:38

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

I somehow was convinced that Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup would get #1 slot - what an interesting turn-out! All good choices, however, and I'm looking forward to the write-ups when they come.

EDIT: Dungeons of Dredmor I feel works best as a game to play when you're new to the genre, but going back to it after you've played almost anything else is nearly impossible, given how slowly it plays.

StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Jan 2, 2016

# ¿ Jan 2, 2016 01:34

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Finally defeated the last boss in Sproggiwood on easy! :toot:

Time to take off my Tutuvus hat, quit relying on that goat, and go up to normal difficulty...

# ¿ Jan 12, 2016 06:56

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

FTL should have been the perfect game for me given the theme and fun gameplay, but the dead man walking flaw and that godawful final boss killed it for me. Finding out that Invisible Inc used that final boss as an inspiration nearly killed my interest in that game as well, up until I got into Endless Mode.

I don't mind the RNG being able to screw you over that much, but sudden difficulty spikes that are orders of magnitude above the rest of the game are not fun for me.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2016 20:35

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Zombie Samurai posted:

Do what now?

I watched this talk by the Invisible Inc devs on how they designed Invisible Inc, and they cited FTL's final boss as an inspiration: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1021919/Designing-Procedural-Stealth-for-Invisible

# ¿ Jan 12, 2016 21:00

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Samizdata posted:

What is that anyway? An Xcom?

(It's XCOM EU/EW.)

# ¿ Jan 14, 2016 06:35

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

I've played Nethack, that's close enough, right? :v:

# ¿ Jan 24, 2016 02:00

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

lordfrikk posted:

After seeing several positive things about Deathstate I've decided to buy it. After putting in several hours I've finished the game as several characters and I have to say it's not a very good game. The atmosphere and the music is pretty good but that's about it. Player movement leaves a lot to be desired, combined with super narrow levels after the first one make it very frustrating to play smoothly. This game is supposed to be more bullet hell-y than the likes of Isaac and it is but in a bad way. The cramped levels in later areas are chock full of enemies and most if not every single of them is constantly spewing projectiles your way so playing on Desecration is virtually impossible. Desecration is kind of hard mode that has 3 tiers with Desecration 3 being the craziest bullshit.

So as a perfectly logical being I went and bought another bullet hell-y roguelite, Starward Rogue.

Despite being pretty skeptical about Arcen pulling it off, I've conclued very fast that it luckily a pretty fun game! You can choose from 6 mechs who have different stats and some of them also start with some weapons or special skills that makes them unique. From the description one of the mechs literally turns the game SUPERHOT. For the uninitiated, SUPERHOT is a FPS where time flows only when you move. I haven't tried it yet so I can't confirm whether that's actually the case but seems like it.

Anyway. Each mech has 4 slots, primary weapon with infinite ammo, secondary energy weapon with limited usage that refills upon entering a new room, limited ammo weapon like a rocket launcher that functions like bombs in Binding of Isaac for breaking stuff/killing enemies in emergency and lastly a consumable slot. Apart from that you can find drops that just upgrade or modify your mech without being restricted to slot.

The whole game (of what I've seen so far) has 5 floors, each floor is very Isaac-like with shops, miniboss rooms, secret rooms and floor boss. You also gain experience, upon leveling up you can choose a perk like becoming the Keymaster and getting 100 keys, seeing the non-special and later special rooms automatically on map or learning you gottagofast. Yes, game actually has sprint button for traversing long distances AND for use in boss fights. Some of them like the Hunter miniboss will actively chase you at higher-than-normal speed so you gotta put those mech legs to work.

The enemies use bullet hell patterns but on normal they are mostly avoidable even for someone like me who doesn't play typical bullet hell games like the Touhou games. Well, at least not until you increase the difficulty and/or get to the very end. The difficulties alter enemy and boss patterns, among other things, which is really cool way to do difficulty tiers in general.

Overall, the game has pretty bitching soundtrack even if it can get a bit repetitive during a longer session and solid gameplay with plenty to do on each floor and bosses that don't feel like copypasta of each other so if you're tired of BoI or Nuclear Throne it's a good choice of a time-waster.

Quoting this as it's part of what led me to buy it literally half an hour ago. I'm enjoying it! A solid cross between Binding of Isaac and the Touhou games, with an aesthetic I dig. Three runs in and I just died to the Crystal Mother - her giant green wave attack got me.

edit: Trip report on using the mech that stops time unless you move or fire: oh my gosh, I didn't know it could be done. Tactical bullethell where you can stop and think about how to weave through those patterns. Should I shoot or move further out of the range of that bullet spread? It's a vastly slowed down pace, which I adore. I might not be able get myself to stop using this mech to try the other ones!

StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Jan 28, 2016

# ¿ Jan 28, 2016 05:56

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

You'd think after this happened earlier they'd learn how to better manage their money? I mean, Starward Rogue had zero marketing and came out competing against Darkest Dungeon and XCOM 2 among other things. Of course it didn't sell.

... And yet it's a good game, I'm enjoying it, and I'd like Arcen to do well off of it. :sigh:

# ¿ Jan 28, 2016 11:11

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

victrix posted:

I had no idea the game was even out, or was a thing, or they were making it, etc.

Arcen games are... pretty raw. They always feel more experimental than solid, which can be a good thing, but I think I was put off their work after AI War for a long time, they released a string of games that just felt messy, unfinished, or unfun to me, so I stopped paying attention. And apparently that included not paying attention to them releasing a new game again, oops.

Also, not to bag on the polish quality of a tiny company, but they put out some deeply, deeply unappealing products aesthetically. It can't just be a budget issue either, they're consciously choosing art/music/sfx I find anywhere from uninteresting to actively repellant.

I can't hold UX design against them, that tends to be a Big Boy forte, but even so... I usually don't like those either

It also feels like I'm always reading about Arcen doing very poorly somewhere in the news or forums, which is a real bummer. So much of their success is (was?) tied up in how Steam managed sales and promotions, and without any means of attracting a large base of buyers elsewhere, welp.

edit: This reads like I'm slamming Arcen I think they're a pretty cool company really! They just make decisions that look questionable from over here in my comfy couch that isn't supporting a tiny indie dev company. Like how often do you see the company head posting about a layoff, not the affected employees first? Anyway, maybe I should check this game out, youtube vids don't look that appealing, but if GoonReviews say its solid, maybe there's more there.

Apparently the Last Federation did them well enough to have money in the bank, but they turned around and delayed their next 4X over and over and over again, making Starward Rogue instead and hoping it would make enough bank to support them finishing this other game. That's not a sound decision by any means, and I just - I like this company, but they keep making bad decisions.

Also, agreed with regards to the aesthetic problems - Tidalis has a terrible look and plot, Shattered Haven looks really low quality, and with the rest of their games you can just feel the indie dev coming off of it.

Which, compared to something like Darkest Dungeon and its near AAA mirror sheen - feels amateurish.

# ¿ Jan 28, 2016 11:53

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Yeah, you're right. Arcen Games seems to be determined to hit the kind of low-budget experimental aesthetic that you see in, eh, Spiderweb Software's stuff. (Thinking of Geneforge specifically and that's super old!)

It feels like the company needs some different people to help them nail a more professional feel + survive financially. It's more likely they'll limp along until final death, though, which is a shame as I don't think anyone else makes quite the same games they do.

# ¿ Jan 28, 2016 13:24

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

HeartNotes3 posted:

Dang, I've been on the fence on this. This has been sitting in my cart for a week along with Dungeonmans while I argue over whether or not I should buy them before I fully finish Talos Principle and Darkest Dungeon's Darkest Dungeon. I just need to ask this: the schmup parts of Isaac are the parts I dislike the most because of the weird hitbox of Isaac's body and the limited amount of dodging space or things that lower your speed. Does this game give you the ability to make yourself a high-agility dodging machine or otherwise subvert the bullet hells?

I've also put 6 hours in Deathstate, something similar, before I concluded Level 3 and 4 need a lot more polish before I feel like wading through them to win the game again.

Also, I approve of the topic title. You can play tile rogue online here if you want to fix that: http://donnierussellii.github.io/JSTileRogue.html

I'm not sure if this counts, but: a) there are multiple levels of difficulty ranging from very easy to insane, b) you can change the speed of your mech - make it move slowly for precise movement, or have it sprint around, and c) depending on the room you walk into you can have open arenas or more complicated mazes with varying enemies. The bosses are all in huge arenas and you navigate their bullet patterns, however.

...wait, shoot, I figured it out - you mean ignore the bullet hells entirely. Nnnot really. There are weapons you can find that vastly change how you handle 'em - I found a sweet sword that would erase the bullets in front of me at regular intervals - but there's no guarantee you'll find it.

I still think you should check out the game - refund it if you really can't get into it - but if bullet hells are a deal breaker, them's the breaks.

As for Dungeonmans, get it right this second. You will love it. (What aspects of it do you need convincing on?)

# ¿ Jan 29, 2016 12:05

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Dominic White posted:

Oh, one thing I do highly recommend for Cryptark: A modern gamepad. You've got four guns on four different triggers plus four consumable slots on the D-pad. You want four shoulder buttons, if only for the joy of mounting four different kinds of machinegun and firing them all at once. BRRRRATATATATATATAAAAAA.

How bad is it with keyboard+mouse?

# ¿ Jan 30, 2016 01:56

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Tuxedo Catfish posted:

While I appreciate the in-depth review, all you really had to say was "bullet hell with life bars and regenerating health."

As a positive or a negative?

# ¿ Jan 31, 2016 01:33

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Tuxedo Catfish posted:

A negative, usually. It basically broadcasts that the developers are either unfamiliar with the genre or think they know better; if it's the former they probably shouldn't jump straight to hybridizing it with another complex and frequently misunderstood genre, and if it's the latter it's a hell of a glove to throw down so you better be ready.

Ah, interesting. I disagree. Bullet hells are typically arcade games/linear shooters. This isn't. It's a roguelike, and running it with one hit point would demand incredible amounts of focus and caution in literally every room, sapping the fun out of it unless your reflexes were excellent. The HP/shields open it up for mistakes, but unless you're playing at very easy, those HP will go quickly if you're careless. In addition, having multiple hitpoints let them add dangers to the rooms themselves.

It's a hybrid, and I feel that the addition of more health makes it far more enjoyable.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2016 01:49

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Tony Montana posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpGeS68zb-c

I made this for the thread, because Cryptark is so good and anyone that doesn't know this should be aware.

Aw man, this game looks super cool but it comes with that inbuilt timer mechanic that makes me shy away from it. I'm not fond of games with real time timers in 'em, especially when I would prefer to systematically work my way through that ship.

edit: I should clarify, how harsh is it? Spelunky's timer was just right - I rarely run into it - but how bad is the time crunch/what are the penalties for dawdling?

# ¿ Jan 31, 2016 03:27

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Dominic White posted:

The timer is really generous (I've never had it run out, at least), and also I'm pretty sure it's just a bonus objective. More cash for doing the job under par.

There's plenty more things to worry about once you're into medium or large ships, especially if there's multiple Juggernaut factories churning out armored death.

And I just noticed this update to the game:

Rogue game mode:
- No time limit
- No enemy selection, finishing a level just goes to the next ship
- No money, weapons\items are just picked up ingame
- Dying means the end of the game

...which means I'm this much closer to picking it up. Hmmmmmm.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2016 03:40

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Thanks for posting that feedback over there - I just put one of my suggestions on their bug tracker myself.

All this Starward Rogue chat got me to go pick up the one game of theirs I hadn't bought yet, the Last Federation, and while it's not a roguelike (or roguelite or rogue-anything) - it's really, really interesting, and I'm having fun with the weird emergent stories that come out of its sandbox. Which is to say, I want Arcen Games to rebound - they make weird, interesting games that I enjoy.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2016 07:18

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Unormal posted:

Got my little dudes some basic combat behavior and some glitchy sfx for when you get hit.

Perhaps I've been watching too many Transformer cartoons, but I love the design on that robot. Very Shockwave-esque.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2016 03:43

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Archonex posted:

I can throw up a pre-compiled copy of the latest version of both games later if people want.

I'd be interested in this!

# ¿ Feb 19, 2016 00:57

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Archonex posted:

Here's Gearhead 2 prepackaged with two saves included. Let me know if it works. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ge4pyf2z5lnckbs/Gearhead%202.rar?dl=0

Some info on the saves, since I included one that's a good example of a really skilled mech pilot:

The Lira save shows off a bunch of features. She may or may not be on the token "entertainment" space colony. It's basically a theme park with a bunch of different activities like arena battling, minigames, etc, etc. Pilots and other major characters in the game world occasionally take vacations there. Which lets you shoot the poo poo with them and boost relations to get more people on your side. If not i'm probably on Yakate spinner, which is one of the core Rishiri space colonies. I forget.

Lira is a ridiculously lethal mech pilot that is part of the Rocket Stars faction. Which are a bunch of equally lethal mech pilots that work for a nation-state faction named the Rishiri Dominion. This influences missions you can get and I think relations to certain characters, amongst other things. I have her set up in a special suped up mech I was awarded for ranking up to corporal in the Rocket Stars, but if you want you can use the assault buru on Yakate Spinner. I recommend upgrading it though since I stripped the CPU and other upgrades I put in it out to switch to the suped up factional mech.

You can get a ton of missions by journeying between the Rishiri capital spinner (Whatever it's called. When you choose colonies to travel too via a ticket agent it'll mention it's the capital in the colony description.) and Yakate spinner. When on the former check the HQ to see if the dominion has any missions for you at their offices on the spinner. There's one admiral that sometimes travels through there that loves to have that character blow poo poo up. When on the latter check the Rocket Stars HQ or wait for an email. If there's any work you'll get an email to report to duty, and you can just phone in for the job.

Alternatively, just talk to people and they'll give you rumors about jobs. You can poo poo Shift+T or check your rumors menu via the M key to call them and get a job afterwards. Law enforcement agencies might have a poo poo ton of jobs too since this save's story seems to be about pirates loving things up in the Dominion.

So long as you avoid out of mech combat Lira can pretty much curb stomp anything she comes up against. She has like 10+ piloting alone. Not counting an equally insane mech gunner skill. She can rack up insane amounts of cash by taking missions from the mercenary faction she's a part of or the nation they work for. Doing missions for the Rocket Stars will increase her rank as well, allowing access to a bunch of features, mechs, and items I don't recall offhand since I can't find the wiki to update myself on what gives what at each rank.

Just don't go wandering outside to other spinners outside the Dominion unless they're being invaded or have infiltrators suspected to be on the spinner. That seems like a bad idea given that the game specifically warned me that factions don't always get along.

The Markus save/character is basically my deadbeat hippy character. He's not nearly anywhere as rich, but the last time I tried a charisma based rock star character I ended up with a poo poo ton of lance mates who would happily curb stomp anything for me while he serenely strummed a guitar in the background. I haven't gotten far enough to get a bunch of ultra-violent mech piloting groupies on that run yet though.

I had to tell Windows 10 that it was okay to run the program, but it's working fine so far! Thank you! (I have no idea what I'm doing so far, but I'll check out your saves in a mo.)

# ¿ Feb 19, 2016 01:35

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# ¿ Apr 18, 2024 06:38

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Stoat posted:

I know we talk about it all the time, but just to be sure: Sproggiwood is worth buying, right?

YES.

It's a great roguelike that encourages short but fun sessions, it's got difficulty levels with teeth to 'em, and it's absolutely worth it.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2016 09:23

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Roguelikes: I never met@progression I didn't like

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