DoomRL (Roguelike)

blatantrereg

Doom, The Roguelike is a great game, and possibly now my favourite true roguelike.

It's Doom converted into roguelike form, with the same weapons, monsters shown in a nice tileset, with the original sounds from the game. I checked it out after reading good things. I expected it to be fun for a short time, but a fairly basic/casual kinda game. Only three character classes, about 20 or so different weapons, and a large handful of consumables and weapon mods. A command set you could remember most of after reading through once. 25 levels to complete. This all sounds much simpler than some of the big roguelikes I've played like ADOM, and I downloaded the game with it in the pick-up-and-play category in my mind.

Happy to find that I was very incorrect. The simplicity (by roguelike standards) of what I described above underpins a game offering the most interesting and complex tactics of any true roguelike I've played. It's hard - but it's hard in an FTL [also a great game] kind of way, where a bit of luck is probably needed, but strategy and tactics play a larger part. It's not hard so much in an ADOM kind of way, where your level 40 archer dies out of the blue from a brick falling on his head [or something like that at least - I played it 15 years ago.] Likewise these sorts of deaths are less frustrating because of the sane size of the game. Having to start from scratch after every death is fun and challenging if the game takes a few hours to complete in a go, and you can learn from your mistakes - which is the case in both FTL and DoomRL. In some traditional rogulikes where your character might be 100 hours old by the time you complete it, it becomes an unreasonable proposition. [I completed ADOM twice, using both spoilers and save scumming. My opinion is that anyone who completes it using neither is either insane, or likely to drive themselves insane in the process.]

I've made a couple of references to FTL, and it reminds me of that game more than any other in terms of the feel of the game, despite it having more in common on the surface with traditional RLs. I've only played on Hurt Me Plenty - 13 runs, mainly as a scout. Scouts offer the most tactical gameplay I think, especially through their intuition trait, which allows you to sense monsters 3 tiles outside your normal FoV (and through walls), as well as know the locations of stairs and powerups on a level. My best run was to dungeon level 12, with a level 7 character who cleared Deimos lab and the containment area - two of several special optional levels which offer harder monsters and greater rewards, and aren't randomly generated. I died when my phase device teleported me right beside the very hell knight I was trying to escape from. A little unlucky, but not a cheap death, and I think running away would have probably saved me.

Anyway, it's definitely worth checking out if you like FTL or roguelikes.