What is the Best roguelike?
Christopher Gateley
NetHack, and as such I may be posting this in the wrong place.
However, as far as I understand, Rogue is the parent of all roguelikes
so I thought I'de pop the question here.
I feel like there is an overwhealming multitude of roguelikes and
choosing the 'best' one is like trying to pick a good suit. They all
look pretty much the same to me. And so I thought I'de ask those of
you more experienced players out there. What really is the 'best'
roguelike? I understand that the answer depends strongly from person
to person so please don't give general answers. I just want to know
what each of you personally feel is the 'best' roguelike you've
played.
Thanks,
Chris
Michael S. Zraly
Christopher Gateley <mr_je...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>[...] And so I thought I'de ask those of
>you more experienced players out there. What really is the 'best'
>roguelike? I understand that the answer depends strongly from person
>to person so please don't give general answers. I just want to know
>what each of you personally feel is the 'best' roguelike you've
>played.
For me, it was always urogue (aka UltraRogue), version 1.02
or thereabouts. I found it to be a good compromise between
the simplicity of original rogue and the baroque complexity
of nethack. There were four character classes (later versions
had more -- too many IMHO) -- magician, cleric, fighter, and
thief. There were 6 or 8 quest items (Amulet of Yendor, Phial
of Galadriel, Palantir of Might, some others), and maybe 125
monsters, including some unique ones (some special dragons
and assorted demons with names taken from various mythologies).
With rogue I always though it was too easy to get killed in
the early levels, before you have anything invested in the
game. With urogue there are enough levels that the difficulty
can grow more slowly, drawing you more into the game.
With hack I was always running into that damned dog.
I've also played omega, moria, and larn. larn was pretty
good too, but urogue was always my favorite.
--
Mike Zraly Principles have no real force
mzr...@world.std.com except when one is well fed.
-- Mark Twain
Christopher
Weeeelll....
Adom and Nethack come tie first for me, though I really enjoyed the Alphaman too.
Christopher Gateley
> With hack I was always running into that damned dog.
>
I hate pets... They don't help that much. All they do is get in the
way and keep me from getting xp when they take my kills.
They can help when there's a large shop though... :)
Glen Wheeler
"Christopher Gateley" <mr_je...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:66add0ec.04052...@posting.google.com...
This is easier if you tell us what you like in a roguelike. My favourite
would be a variant of Angband, probably Sangband.
Although, if you enjoy NetHack, probably ToME is a better bet. I've never
seen a roguelike with as many `things to do' as ToME.
--
Glen
stre...@rohan.sdsu.edu
[snip]
> I feel like there is an overwhealming multitude of roguelikes and
> choosing the 'best' one is like trying to pick a good suit. They all
> look pretty much the same to me. And so I thought I'de ask those of
> you more experienced players out there. What really is the 'best'
> roguelike? I understand that the answer depends strongly from person
> to person so please don't give general answers. I just want to know
> what each of you personally feel is the 'best' roguelike you've
> played.
Please don't demand general answers to a vague question.
"Best" for _what_? Wasting time? The feeling of accomplishment? Engaging
the mind/hands/eyes? Perhaps you're confusing "favorite" with "best"?
My first roguelike was Rogue; I had an Amiga, and I found Amiga Rogue for
$15 shortly after I was first introduced to Rogue. The _effective_ first
roguelike for me was Amiga Rogue. I very much liked the character-based
layout of the game, but I very much prefer the Amiga's character set over
the traditional text-based versions. Tiles just aren't the same.
I also beat Amiga Rogue several times, and was honored by the Guild so
often that I actually cleared the high-scores file.
So the original Amiga Rogue was the "best" version.
I tried a number of the other roguelikes (Angband, Moria, etc.) but none
really held my attention.... until Larn (also on my Amiga). Larn was nice
because you could go /up/, which leads to a totally different style of
gameplay. Some of the maps were familiar. It was actually easier to win
at Larn than rogue, mostly because there was a long stretch in the middle
of the game where you could end up as death-on-a-stick -- right about the
place in Rogue where promising characters died horribly.
When I started spending a lot of time on *nix boxen, I was introduced to
nethack. I've never won at nethack, and I doubt I ever shall... the game
ends up pretty boring after awhile, unless you get some serious luck from
the RNG to make it interesting. For just wasting time, nethack is great;
but month-long games of nethack don't excite me. I forget what I was
doing, where I was going, and what I was going to do.
Lately, I've compiled the source to ULarn, and played that... had a really
good game (+18 points/turn regeneration, +4 stainless steel plate, +5 LoD,
lots of spells, wands and orbs and whatnot out the ying-yang... except for
the wand of wonder). Fell down a hole into hell.... And since ULarn only
keeps one high-score entry in the list per user, it's hard to keep up any
enthusiasm when just about every game doesn't get close to getting into the
high-score list.
Best? Well, whatever you have the most fun playing at the time.
--
----------------...@rohan.sdsu.edu----------------------------
I was most disappointed when I realized that I hadn't actually been granted
special dispensation for skin removal. -- Mike Sphar (November 2000)
Christopher Gateley
> Please don't demand general answers to a vague question.
>
The question was not vague, just worded strangely. I asked what the
'best' roguelike was for you, which is the same as asking what your
favorite roguelike was. Sorry for the confusion and thank you for you
input.
I will try some of these that you have mentioned.
W. Franklin
me into the genre. I've been having bunches of fun with NetHack, and
it's primary variant Slash'EM(Super Lotsa Added Stuff Hack ' Extended
Magic), as well little affairs with Rogue. Never much cared for
Angband and it's variants, although they do have their charms.
I've always liked Dungeon Crawl because of its fairness. Very few
instant deaths, unlike some other games I could mention
*cough*NetHack*cough*. If you die in Crawl, you deserve it.
If you do decide to give Dungeon Crawl a go, remember this: When in
doubt, RUN.
Christopher Gateley
I gave Dungeon Crawl a try but whenever I play games like that I feel
daunted by the number of choices offered. I mean, has anyone ever
heard of a sludge elf before? Besides there's no way for me to
memorize all the advantages offerend by every combination of race and
occupation. I prefer the simpleness offered by NetHack. But you are
right, the instant deaths in NetHack do get a little annoying.
W. Franklin
Gateley) wrote:
I've been playing a lot more NetHack recently, Dungeon Crawl RNG is
killing me for sport at this point.
Although, I do have something on the go. I won't mention more details,
my RNG might hear me.
As for specific character/class choices, some to try for an easier
game are:
Troll Berserker
Spriggan Venom Mage
And if you plan on playing a mage of any stripe, a good bet is a Deep
Elf. High intelligence, and the fastest learners of magic releated
skills in the game.
Christopher Gateley
Well, I guess nethack is still my favorite. It seems to have the best
balance in terms of playability, story, and replay value. Dungeon
Crawl is fun but after a while you get kind of claustrophobic. Where
is the story? Your just exploring a neverending maze for no real
reason. Nethack has a purpose behind the madness.
Glen Wheeler
>
> Well, I guess nethack is still my favorite. It seems to have the best
> balance in terms of playability, story, and replay value. Dungeon
> Crawl is fun but after a while you get kind of claustrophobic. Where
> is the story? Your just exploring a neverending maze for no real
> reason. Nethack has a purpose behind the madness.
Actually, the story behind Crawl is more than adequate. You must locate
the Orb of Zot, bring it to the surface and gain immeasurable power.
With special locations such as the always fun Abyss, I'd say there is
easily as much story as most roguelikes.
--
Glen
W. Franklin
Gateley) wrote:
"Your objective is to travel deep into a subterranean cave complex and
retrieve the Orb of Zot, which is guarded by many horrible and hideous
creatures."
Yep. That's pretty much it for Dungeon Crawl.
Not that it matters much, roguelikes, for me anyway, are about
treasure. Shiny stuff.
To quote a recent Penny Arcade news post, To quote a recent Penny
Arcade news post, "Treasure is inherently desirable."