Saturday, March 19, 2011

Game #1: Caves of Qud

What it is:
Caves of Qud is roguelike still in beta set in a post-apocalyptic world where you character is able to travel through ruins, complete quests, and fight for survival against a vast array of enemies. You can play as either a mutant or a normal human.  Both follow the same basic storyline, but humans get more stat points and better gear, whereas mutants start out with a choice of several helpful mutations (Night Vision, 2 heads, pyrokinesis, etc). Allowing for a very customizable experience.

It uses a ASCII interface, so if you are a graphics nut with no imagination, this is not the game for you. Different from other roguelikes similar to it, Caves of Qud has a great and easily to use inventory system and water based economy.

For more information or a free download of the game, feel free to go to the website:
For a more visual reference, a link to a Let's Play from JefMajor's youtube channel (not me, but it's how I was introduced to the game):


What I Liked:
  • Highly customizable character and skill trees.
  • Great time killer, can seriously lose hours to this game.
  • Huge game, lots of quests, random encounters and more items than I can count.
  • Mutants are awesome.
  • Strategic turn-based gameplay
What I Didn't Like:
  • Unforgiving gameplay, 1 life, no quicksaves. Sometimes a single button press can mean life and death.
  • The beginning quests are the same every time, and since you will be dying a lot, you will be doing them a lot.
  • Keyboard only, and really tough to play unless you use the num pad.
My Opinions:
I am certainly no expert on this game, but I've started to get a hang of this game. It is very addicting, and if I find myself with any spare time, this is what has been filling it up.  My best character thus far has been a mutant warden with double muscles, regeneration, phasing, night vision, and an evil twin (muahaha). Managed to get him to level 11 before dying inside a wall with a miscalculated phase (mutation that allows you to walk through walls for a limited amount of turns).  There are some points where it just feels like playing ASCII whack a mole with some of the enemies, but the randomly generated dungeons and the large inventory system certainly make up for it.

Overall grade so far:  B-

Later this week I'll either be going to this game more in depth, or more likely be picking up a new game to look at.

Thanks for reading!

-Pintos

4 comments:

  1. I checked it out and its not my cup of tea.

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  2. This sounds like a pretty good game, if you're into rogue-likes you should try Desktop Dungeons, it's really basic, but it's just as hard as any other with a cool interface and gameplay. It's good for short games or time wasting.

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