Is this the best roguelike game?

[jnpoint]

I have been looking through a lot of games, seen a lot of videos, but can't find out which one is the best one?

I don't want to learn the mechanics in a lot of games, but just buy one and play that one.

I like games where you have to think a lot, and games with lots of new places to explore. Graphics does matter, but gameplay is more important.

Any suggestions? BTW I am new to this genre.

[GameOfThrones]

UnReal World ( it's on Greenlight now http://unrealworld.fi/
and before that i knew from same friend old-school gamer about Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead,it used to be fully ASCII but now got graphical update i heard. http://en.cataclysmdda.com/
Before i knew from him about Dwarf Fortress i think havent played that one yet it's complex a lot i heard http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/
And nowadays my friend plays Prospector :) http://www.prospector.at/forum/

These are THE BEST.

[Raul]

BlackKnightsLegend|GetaeDacian eredeti hozzászólása:

UnReal World ( it's on Greenlight now http://unrealworld.fi/
and before that i knew from same friend old-school gamer about Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead,it used to be fully ASCII but now got graphical update i heard. http://en.cataclysmdda.com/
Before i knew from him about Dwarf Fortress i think havent played that one yet it's complex a lot i heard http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/
And nowadays my friend plays Prospector :) http://www.prospector.at/forum/

These are THE BEST.

UnReal World is amazing indeed, the dev is a really nice guy and makes awesome homemade videos for his donators. Definitely a cool game for people who enjoy survival games!
Cataclysm DDA actually has tileset support, but none of the current tilesets are complete (at least they weren't last time I checked).
Prospector is really cool, but it isn't updated anymore, unfortunately. I felt nostalgic today (something that almost never happens) and I actually visited Prospector's website a few hours ago, just to check if it'd been updated. Kind of a coincidence, eh? :)
If we're gonna talk about roguelikes which aren't being updated anymore though, I wanna throw Rogue Survivor in there. It's a really nice zombie apocalypse roguelike with NPCs and all that good stuff, kind of a really simplified Catalysm DDA with graphics and custom tileset support. It had a lot of fans a couple years ago, but the dev completely vanished and left us all behind.

[OmniNegro]

ToME is the best by far. Disagree with that at your own peril. (Not a threat, but some will no doubt have no idea what is meant by that. Do not worry.)

Second to ToME is PosChengband and next up are Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. (Not the same as the name thieves known as "Dungeon Crawl" and "Crawl".)

And with all due respect, despite FTL being a great game, it is in no way a Roguelike.

As for Dwarf Fortress, the best I can do is post a link to an image that explains the problem.
http://i.stack.imgur.com/iECXl.jpg

There. Problem solved.

[Raul]

OmniNegro eredeti hozzászólása:

ToME is the best by far. Disagree with that at your own peril. (Not a threat, but some will no doubt have no idea what is meant by that. Do not worry.)

Second to ToME is PosChengband and next up are Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. (Not the same as the name thieves known as "Dungeon Crawl" and "Crawl".)

Alright, I'll gladly disagree, then ;)

OmniNegro eredeti hozzászólása:

As for Dwarf Fortress, the best I can do is post a link to an image that explains the problem.
http://i.stack.imgur.com/iECXl.jpg

There. Problem solved.

The wiki and the game's community really help with that but yeah, it's still one hell of a learning cliff for roguelike newbies (and by that I mean the OP, not you). I still recommend anyone who has any interest whatsoever in freeform/open world/procedural/hilarious/roguelike games to try and climb it, though. Just ask anyone who made it to the top and they'll tell you for sure it's a much better place up there.

OmniNegro eredeti hozzászólása:

And with all due respect, despite FTL being a great game, it is in no way a Roguelike.

Correct, FTL's not a roguelike, it's a roguelike-like. It even says so in the game's FAQ...

[Awoo!!]

This game has great mechanics and tons of stuff to explore. You can't say it's objectively better or worse than another roguelike, but it's one of my favourites. If there's one thing that lets it down, it's the fact that the game has a lesser degree of randomization in terms of levels and what not, so the early game can feel very repetitive when you're dying a lot.

[Blind]

I don't doubt it's a roguelikelike, 'cuz it sure eats my shields.

[MrMuse]

If we are going to go down the "is it roguelike" route I would say that Ziggurat - and any other proc-gen FPS is NOT. It depends how you define the genre. I think it's a bit strange that anything with proc-gen is now getting labelled as a roguelike or a roguelite. Personally I think anything along the lines of Dungeons of Dreadmore/ Dins Curse/ Fate etc. would be correct.

[Blind]

Ya, procgen alone is not a roguelike - since even games like Civilization and Settlers of Catan feature random maps.

Permadeath alone with not a roguelike - since you can attribute the arcade experience to semi-permadeath being a money sink.

Fundamentally, back when genre-likes were called "Clones" (as in Doom-Clone, or Castlevania-Clone), a roguelike should be a Rogue-Clone. But modern roguelikes are incredibly removed (often due to refinement) from the original rogue experience. Diablo 1, for example, is an Ang-Clone (yet, due to refinement, not a Bang-Like)

...

But, I have nothing to back up my opinions - so whatevs.

[queebles]

I've played adom, ivan, various hacks and bands, DF, DC, and others i can't remember... i like aspects of all of them, but ToME is my all time favorite game. I would recomend it to anyone and everyone! please at least give the free version a try, if you find that you've been playing it nonstop for a month... shoot a few bucks at Darkgod to show your love.

[Torham]

I would say it depends entirely on your preferences. Also, it is very tough to actually decide on any rankings in games, since they are very subjective.

Tome is definitely roguelike I really like, but its not the only one. I also really like Dwarf frotress, Unreal world and Dungeon crawl Stone soup. Stone soup can drive me up the wall with YASD, but it is very enjoyable for the very same reason.

[three_sevens]

I can't believe no one mentioned Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup! It is one of the best Roguelikes out there and also FREE!

[Raul]

Suicidal Blonde eredeti hozzászólása:

I can't believe no one mentioned Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup! It is one of the best Roguelikes out there and also FREE!

A couple of people did, actually.

[OmniNegro]

Suicidal Blonde eredeti hozzászólása:

I can't believe no one mentioned Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup! It is one of the best Roguelikes out there and also FREE!

I mentioned it in post number 19. And I was not the only one.

[JacksonTriggs Fan]

If you don't want a learning curve, get Rogue Legacy if we're talking and allowing rogue-lite-likes. It's a fun metroidvania type game whose genre definition garners more arguments than any content in the game.

This game (ToME) is free on its website, the "Cost" in Steam is for a donator account, so go to ToME's website and try it for free, a character or two. I quite like it, but I know it isn't for the young whippersnappers who need eight filter layers of grime on a lensflared 1080p collarbone to enjoy a game (that is, the graphics are late 90s at best). The game has some weird moral systems too, but I consider that more part of their world than something reflecting their views on reality. Though I am annoyed that as a Zigur follower I apparently am somehow "cool" with the Melisandre Witch, I am sure there's a mod that would offer a different reward and turn her over to Zigur for proper disposal, that is the beauty of open-source works.

Dwarf Fort has a vertical learning cliff, but if you use an old version it's both more fun and easier to learn, and more forgiving (being able to guarantee your two starter cows can breed and are not otherkin hemisexual cows is kinda really important for newbies, and the current hospital system is downright arcane at times for new players compared to the older "bedrest and water can heal broken bones given enough time" route, which can be learned later once you grasp the basics from an older version). I'd say try to find a popular old version to try, with a graphics pack so it isn't in ASCII (yeah, yeah, purists, cry me a river, I like seeing a dwarf and an anvil and a tree, not alphabet soup).

[Upsilon Crux]

Chiming in with the DungeonCrawlStoneSoup crowd.
That and ToME will keep you busy, and they're sufficiently different which helps.
DCSS has a neat religion and food system