Other games as addictive as Isaac?

[Andrew R]

People often bring up Rogue Legacy and Ziggaraut?

What is rather fun but won't beat you over the head?

[11clock]

I absolutely love Enter the Gungeon. It's my favorite roguelike of all time.

[JellyPuff]

I second Enter The Gungeon. Rogue Legacy is a more liniear rogue-lite with somewhat of a definitive ending. Still an easy recommendation, though it didn't quite hit the addiction receptors for me. If you end up playing through it, the 2nd on is in Early Access on the Epic Store.

Some other top picks of mine:
- Hades (story-heavy rogue-lite)
- Dead Cells (2D Platforming rogue-lite)
- Slay the Spire (deckbuilding rogue-lite)
- Monster Train (deckbuilding rogue-lite)
- Caves of Qud (true rogue-like)

[Smakit]

Definitely can easily recommend all the games JellyPuff mentioned. Will note that as a more true rogue game, Caves of Qud certainly isn't everyone's cup of tea and while it is easy to get into as far as the genre goes, it isn't as simple as the other games mentioned.

Spelunky HD / 2 can also be fun. The runs tend to be more similar (a rather small item pool), but some people can replay it quite a lot.

Noita is another one with some replayability due to perk variation and wands with spells/various setups, though it is often slower paced to begin and can feel rather punishing for some.

And not at all related, but can be set up to be played rather chill without enemies if you want is Factorio. If you like the designing of conveyor belt factories and possibly making things more efficient as you learn, it can be addictive. Some people have sank ridiculous amounts of time into it.

[Dutczar]

Besides what other people said, Shattered Pixel Dungeon is more of a rogue like roguelike, it's a mod for Pixel Dungeon (which is not quite as good, and I think you have to pay on Steam for it) that you can get for free. It's mostly made for mobile and is on Google Play, but you can download a PC version too from what I've heard, and is somewhat regularly updated. There's a ton of other PD mods too, but I'd say that one is the best.

Like I said though, it's VERY Rogue like and turnbased, more about thinking and learning about different quirks the game's mechanics has. So the "trying to make best use of pickups, searching for secret rooms, trying to make best use of active items, etc." part of Isaac.

Also Nuclear Throne for a much more bullet hell part of Isaac, though still very much roguelike, random and fun. Also quite hard.

Edit: And I second/third(?) that Enter the Gungeon is the best one. It's Isaac but more "polished" in the gameplay department, much closer to an actual bullet hell, while still having enough ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ every now and then.

[Rio]

Rimworld. its like colony sim and roguelite combined. Specially with randy random and random start.

Slay the spire

[0Dd1]

Spelunky 2
Factorio

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by Smakit:

And not at all related, but can be set up to be played rather chill without enemies if you want is Factorio. I[...] it can be addictive. Some people have sank ridiculous amounts of time into it.

If OP just wants the videogame equivalent of heroine and not specifically a rogue-lite, i can vouch for Stardew Valley.
Loop Hero is a more recent one that sure knows how to make people addicted too, even though the player has more a passive role in that game.

[orian34]

Minecraft is severely addictive. With mods

[Rio]

If we are talking pure time, Ark, survival evolved. But it needs like your entire SSD card if its only a 500gb one to have all dlc installed. I have 3 or 4 thousand hours in it and haven't seen everything or beaten all the bosses.

[Andrew R]

I surprised no one mentioned Undermine.

And which ones lean to the easier side?

[Zero Grim]

Originally posted by JellyPuff:

If OP just wants the videogame equivalent of heroine and not specifically a rogue-lite, i can vouch for Stardew Valley.

Calm down there, you may get the DEA chasing you for such practices.

On my side I never got so hooked on stardew as everyone else, for me it was slime rancher, who doesn't love big balls of beautiful slime that smile and giggle.

As for roguelikes I would recommend for a much closer to rogue experience either:
Desktop dungeons (a roguelike game that plays more like a puzzle than action)
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (as close to rogue as I can get without pulling my eyes out)

[Rio]

Atomic crops is fun and can go harder than issac or gungeon on later years with robusta.

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by Andrew R:

And which ones lean to the easier side?

Hades definitely. It is difficult and you're gonna die a lot at the start, but you keep unlocking new useful stuff and gradually become stronger each run. Eventually, you can brute force consistent wins.
There still are optional difficulty modifiers (after your first win), that you can set before starting a run, if you feel, like things are getting too easy. These range from simple enemy HP and DMG buffs to bosses having new movesets. This is a bit like the custom difficulty settings popularized by Slay the Spire. Hades feels like the culmination of all rogue-lites of the past 10 years.

[Takiyori]

I'd say enter the gungeon though it's already said and also personally find it more punishing than isaac is.

[Krondelo]

Originally posted by Kievan:

I'd say enter the gungeon though it's already said and also personally find it more punishing than isaac is.

Personally I disagree. I have a hard time with BOI, I'm not sure if its just by design but the way the bullets move (sometimes arc) and the generally cramped rooms make it hard to avoid bullets. Sure ETG has crazier patterns and more bullets but you have a lot more tools to avoid them, and dodge rolling through them isn't really hard. I've nearly 100% ETG, and I barely make much progress in BOI.