This is my favourite game ever. What else is there to say?

Ok, so I downloaded ADOM in all its ASCII glory back in the mid-nineties. Since then, I've died a lot. I've been killed by an exploding frog, I've been crushed by my own inventory, I've turned into a pile of chaos goo. I've had my real-life sleep disturbed by nightmares of bright green Hs and dark grey Ls. Eventually I managed a win, then another. I still die a lot.

There's no other game I could imagine playing for two decades. Adom is deep, challenging, frustrating and addictive. And it's still my favourite game ever.

I don't write reviews often, but as I approach 500 hours of play time I feel I ought to do something to give back.

As one of the founding hits of the roguelike genre, ADOM is a game in which you should expect to die often. In other games that can be a deal-breaker for me, but much of the genius of ADOM is in starting a new character. ADOM is a game of near infinite variation: 12 truly distinct playable races, 21 classes that vary in play style according to the race and alignment of the character, dozens of skills and talents that also materially change the play through.

ADOM has been one of my go-to's for more than 20 (30?) years and I still find myself surprised by new and puzzling situations and combats in this sprawling fantasy world every time.

It really doesn't belong in the video game category for me anymore. It's become a favorite relaxing pass-time of it's own, like crosswords were for my grandparents, that I may drop into while chatting with a friend or listening to an audiobook or a certification course or just to enjoy letting my mind sink into all the detail and variation to unwind.

As I said, I'm not much of a reviewer. I guess this is more of a thank you note. To ADOM and Thomas Biskup et al, thanks for all the years of scintillating play and relaxation.

Ancient Domains of Mystery... what a name. Truth be told, of all games I have played on my PC in the last 15 years, ADOM has surely been the one I keep returning to most often. And if there's anything that hasn't changed since the first time is that, whenever I do start up a new character, I can hardly keep myself off the game until the character dies... or until I win. Today the game is officially released on Steam, and the least I can do to repay ADOM and its team for hundreds upon hundreds of hours of fun is to review it.

So, what is ADOM about? It's a fantasy-themed roguelike RPG where you create a character of your liking, choosing from a roster of several races and professions, and embark upon a journey to find out what is it that's plaguing a remote mountain chain. Most of the elements are pretty easy to grasp now that we have mouse control, graphics, and even some rudimentary animation, but should you spend some more time with the game, you'll certainly realize the complexity and level of detail that manifest themselves in almost every aspect of the game (well, except the dialogues—this isn't Planescape: Torment for sure) and this tends to hook everyone who spends more than a couple hours with it. It's not often that you play something for years and keep learning something new and relearning old things with every playthrough. Most of the in-game situations have lots of different possible solutions, which is something that large expensive AAA-titles have all but forgone these days. This game certainly rewards intelligent, thoughtful play—which in no way dimishes its ability to pump adrenaline in certain situations.

As far as roguelikes go, ADOM is definitely more on the traditional RPG side: the world isn't as sandbox-ish as something like Dwarf Fortress, there are a lot of fixed elements and reasonably fleshed-out quests; a typical ascension (the roguelike lingo for completing the ultimate quest and leaving the game) takes from a full day if you're just rushing everything to something closer to a week—even for experienced players. Virtually all the development decisions with regards to its content are also made by the same person, Thomas Biskup—the ageless director and Creator of ADOM. Obviously, there are some disadvantages to this approach, which served to be the main reason the game has at one point spent a decade in neglect, but this man's creativity and burning passion for hardcore RPGs, the fantasy, and the adventure, is what's taken it here—after more than 20 years since its inception. So when Thomas started a crowdsourcing campaign in 2012 to make massive updates to ADOM, I was among the people who contributed without a second thought. Getting ADOM here on Steam, which is almost unthinkable for a genre so niche and seemingly impenetrable, is a huge success. No-one thought this would be possible before the campaign ended. All of the funds that were raised were put to good use, and the backers recognize the main reason behind it: to give the development a strong push, not to make money out of a free product (more on this below).

If you've never played roguelikes, or have no experience with turn-based RPGs in particular, ADOM in its current form is definitely a good place to start. It's definitely a slow burner, and it might seem a little unforgiving at first, but don't discard it if your character keeps getting killed in the first 10 minutes. Try different approaches to the same problem, play to your character's strengths, take the easy ways and pay attention to many generous cues—all of this will be rewarded. At some point you might even decide to turn the graphical interface off and continue playing with good old ASCII—you'd be surprised how immersive can gameplay get if you let your imagination paint the picture. It works just like a good book. Although the monster designs are definitely sweet, and they make the game seem more like a Spiderweb Software RPGs—another dear favorites of mine.

Those of you who have already tried ADOM many years ago and are wondering what is different about it these days are in luck: virtually every aspect of the game has seen improvements—often drastic ones! Difficulty curve is a lot less spiky now, most of the infamous exploits are fixed or toned down to sane levels, and there's quite a bit of new content to dabble in if you feel like it (none is shoved down your throat, mind—TB recognizes the game is long as is)—both semi-fixed and completely random. Even if you keep playing without graphics, I encourage you to leave the in-game music on: it fits the game quite well and definitely enhances the roguelike experience.

So, to sum up, if you enjoy some or most of:

• large, detailed, fantasy-themed worlds;
  
• exploring dangerous, non-linear series of dungeons, which you can enter methodically or try diving in early for their treasure and the adrenaline rush that comes with it;
  
• RPGs with heavily customizable characters and elaborate combat mechanics;
  
• games that aren't afraid to challenge you and give choices with impactful, permanent consequences;
  
• games that are immersive, detailed, and treat you like an intellectually capable person once you let go of the tutorial;
  
• that immense feeling of reward when you have finally beat the game for the first time;
  
• achievements that are, for the most part, actual and commendable achievements;

...ADOM just might be your top pick. It has its problems, but they're relatively minor and ultimately dwarfed by the good stuff.

Let me conclude by saying this. Those of us who have been playing ADOM for years upon years don't do it because of nostalgia—we never did. It's because ADOM excels at what it has set out to do, and is constantly getting better at it. How many games you know have seen their authors grow into successful businessmen and yet still keep working hard upon improving and polishing a piece of creative effort they have started back in their college years? This game is an honest-to-god result of so much love, thought, and craft, that you'd be hard-pressed to find anything that compares. We play ADOM because we feel this. We play it because it's still genuinely fun. And by the way: if you don't want the fancy and convenient stuff in the Steam version of the game, the classic, fully-hardcore version of ADOM with the same fully up-to-date quests, mechanics, and content has been, and will always remain, distributed for free on the original site[www.adom.de]. This speaks of honesty and love more than anything else I could think of. Support it while you can!

So, would I recommend ADOM? Well now, why wouldn't I. Play it. Play the hell out of it! See you on D:50.

0.) Warning! This review mentions several things that may or may not be spoilers. The game is randomized to a degree and also depends greatly on your own choices in-game. There is no right or wrong way to play, but I do mention several things that I consider to be entertaining examples of ADOM's charm. Everything below is optional and nothing below is related to the "main plot" but if the threat of spoilers gives you heart palpitations, just know that I heartily endorse ADOM (whether in ASCII or in the new graphical mode). It's one of my top 10 games of all-time, and I gladly supported it during its indiegogo campaign despite there still being a completely free version available from the developer. It's just that good.

1.) This game has entertained me for well over a decade, and I'm still not tired of it.

2.) Every time you start a new character, make a note of what your first kill is; trust me.

3.) Don't kick a door head-on if you can help it; diagonals are best.

4.) Killing cats is bad.

5.) If you find yourself with a cursed item, you might want to try stripping naked and standing in an acid trap for a few minutes.

6.) Don't touch strange trees you find underground.

7.) Never sell or drop your last Si.

8.) If at first you don't succeed, try playing a hurthling archer.

9.) There is a dedicated hotkey for wiping your face, and you'll need it.

10.) After 1000+ hours, I have never managed to reach even one of the possible endings; the furthest I've reached is character level 43 and it was glorious.

One of the most popular roguelikes of all time has finally made it to Steam. There's a reason why ADOM and ToME4 usually fight it out for #1 and #2 on the Roguelike of the Year awards and that's because they are both bloody good and worth your cash.

ADOM is one of the most challenging games I have encountered. The mechanics are deep and rewarding for those that play and discover. Death, like in any real roguelike, is common even for the experienced player and there's a major sense of satisfaction when you discover a new trick, enter a new dungeon or simply cave in the head of some nasty monster that has taken you all of your ammo, your power points and left you barely functional.

I started my journey back in 1995 on the Amiga playing this game made up of @ signs and & signs and wondering how such a bland, simple looking game could ever hope to hold my attention. 20 years on, new content has been added and colourful tiles presenting a much nicer GUI have arrived.

And one piece of advice.... never EVER eat a kobold... it's like Montezuma's revenge (wait, you might meet him) only worse!!!

I've played this game for just shy of four hundred hours at the time of writing, and I've only beaten it twice. There are still locations, quests, items, monsters, spells and secrets that I've never encountered, and a large number of race/class combinations I've never tried. Given all that, I've no doubt I'll end up playing four hundred more.

A lot of the negatives mentioned by other reviews are completely accurate. Yes, it's an incredibly hard, punishing game. Yes, the mechanics are complex and hard to understand at first, and the keybindings are extensive and take a lot of time to remember. It'll be a long time before you make significant progress, especially if you want to avoid spoilers, and some deaths will be unfair. It is not balanced, nor does it try to be.

And yet, it's one of the deepest, most compelling and replayable games I've ever come across. If you're up for a challenge and willing to put in some time to learn the game, you will be rewarded manyfold. Ultimately, it's one of the best games I've ever played, and though I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, if you like the idea of a game to invest a substantial amount of time into for relatively cheap, this is the game for you.

Took me ~20 years to beat this game... babies don't sleep this well.

I really enjoy classic Roguelike games, and have played everything from Rogue proper to Moria, Angband, Nethack, Zangband, Cthband, TOME, and more. I though that ADOM would be another success in that line of games that I would really embrace, and was really looking forward to playing it.

And there are a lot of things that ADOM does well, such as a better graphics presentation than anything else not-named TOME or some character building options and decisions. You also have the major keys you want to press that bring up various screens on the side of the UI so you can use hotkeys like every Roguelike player has had to do or you can just click and play that way. Good job on those, ADOM!

I also enjoy the additions of leveling up with skills, training, the sign you were born under, and more, and the character design has more teeth to it than a lot of other games in the genre.

There are a few qualms that I have though. Most Roguelikes are hard, that's the point. They are designed to be a challenge, and no less so with ADOM, especially in the early game. I give ADOM mad props for being tough too. But where it errs is pushing that to design decisons that make the game require extensive foreknowledge or heavy subsequent plays to have a shot at winning. I'll give you two examples of that in a moment. But that is not a normal Roguelike tactic. I can pick up, and win at, Angband without reading the entire wikia first and five or six walkthroughs and watching YouTube videos. Sure, I will get better as I play more, which is true of other games, but Angband and friends always played fair with you, even when it was playing hard. I won Angband without scumming. I never came close to beating Moria. I almost beat Zangband, but lost in the final battle. You get the idea.


ADOM doesn't play fair. It has design decisions that force you to know about ahead of time and plan for.

Here are two examples, one early, and one later:

Early Example - In the first town, there are two mutually exclusive quests that you could come across by talking with one of two people there, and the first one you talk to gives that quest. Since you have a quest coming into that town to talk to as many people in the first town as you can, you are talking to them anyways, as there is an in-game incentive to complete that quest. But one of two quests gives you a prize thats good for some characters and not others, and vice versa. I took the wrong quest becuase I didn't know that the town had two quests that are mutually exclusive, and they don't even need to be. Both create seperate dungeons and characters, and you certainly could do them both. Without knowing the rewards ahead of time, you miss out on a major quest reward early.


Middle Game Example - There is a dungeon in the game called the pyramid that you cannot get to until you're of a high enough level. I entered it when I arrived in the vicinity with my Halfling Duelist and was told I didn't have an invite. Then around level 14 I found a papyrus and read it, and I was invited for a challenge at the pyramid. Now's that's totally fine up until now. You have dungeons that open up later pretty often in lots of RPGs, including Roguelikes such as Zangband. I finished my dungeon delve of this 12 level dungon and then by the time I had finished I had reached level 17, and then I stepped out, dropped off some of my extra gear at this oasis I found, and then went to the pyramid. But I couldn't enter it. Why not? I still had the papyrus with me. So I looked it up on the Wikia. And this is a major and very important dungeon to complete because the ruler has two major guaranteed artifacts you really want to snag. And the issue was that you can only enter it from levels 13-16. I was too high to do that challenge. I saw that one of the items, a special armor, is one that is perfect for my class, and really helps you survive long term, and I missed out.

That's ADOM. Design decisions have been made about the game but have not been communicated to you as a player. The papyrus that invited me to the pyramid didn't say that I couldn't arrive after level 16 and it was a limited time offer. The quest in the first city never said that if I accepted it I couldn't do another quest instead.

So the result is a game that appears, with the investment of a few hours, to be a sturdy entry into the Roguelike genre, but the more I delve into it, the more I realize that this is not a game that plays fair with me as a player. And why would I want to continue to play that sort of game after already investing more than 20 hours into it?

This could have been a game I would easily have seen myself with 100+ hours. But there are these horrible design choices that don't respect me as a player or give me the agency to change them in the game. That's a major philosophical issue that I hope the game cleans up. And if it does, and becomes more player friendly with inforamtion in the game, or changing up some of those design decisions, then I would certianly be open to revisiting this review and the game itself. But that's not today. And it's likely not tomorrow either.


It's okay to be hard. It's not okay to hide information that makes the game harder.

I wish I had more thumbs to set them up. Playing for 13 years by now and not going to stop. I died in ADoM more times than in all other games together. True hardcore epic classic roguelike. Legend. Masterpiece.

An all-time classic