The Best (Your Favorite) Roguelikes?

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Stg-Flame

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
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The whole Roguelike genre is a pretty popular one and I was wondering what other people's opinions were for their favorite games of the genre. If we get enough submissions, I'll keep this one updated with everyone's suggestions so people who are looking for something new can check them out, especially since most games of this genre are under $5 on Steam right now and even cheaper on Humble Bundles.

These are the ones I've played and that I recommend.

- Hero Siege (Arena-style hack-n-slash with RPG elements and many different classes) It's under $1
- Rogue Legacy
- Risk of Rain
- FTL
- Binding of Isaac (highly recommended)
- Spelunky
- Ghost 1.0
- Helldivers (not a standard roguelike, but you will die a lot)

Steam also says Don't Starve and Chronicon are roguelikes, but I don't consider them to fall under that genre. Chronicon is still early access but it's pretty fun.

Also, Hero Siege does have a lot of DLC available, but it's all on sale right now. For anyone on the fence, I would just check out the base game and if you like it, grab the "expansion packs" (Karp, Depths, Wrath) and the two class DLCs. The skins are overpriced and useless. It should also be noted I have over 300 hours sunk into Hero Siege on Steam and I played this game constantly when it was free for mobile.
 
Y

you2

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2002
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darkest dungeon isn't bad. I hear a lot of people like the dwarves and recently there has been 3 or 4 new 'the dwarves' clones.
 
Denithor

Denithor

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Apr 11, 2004
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Is it easy to find people to play Helldivers with these days? Gaming populations tend to shrivel over time.
 
Stg-Flame

Stg-Flame

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Mar 10, 2007
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Helldivers is still pretty active. Also, I have Darkest Dungeon on my list but I've never played it.
 
C

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
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The original rogue is still a great game (and free) - but has a learning curve, with the interface. So are 'real' roguelikes - nethack and others.

I liked Rogue Legacy, but not FTL. Wasn't crazy about Spelunky, but it was more fun than FTL.
 
Stg-Flame

Stg-Flame

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Mar 10, 2007
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I'm not sure how I feel about all these new indie games that attach the "Rogue-Like" tag to them, but say they have "slight rogue-like features".
 
Y

you2

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Apr 2, 2002
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I never liked the original unix rogue; but nethack was great.

Craig234 said:
The original rogue is still a great game (and free) - but has a learning curve, with the interface. So are 'real' roguelikes - nethack and others.

I liked Rogue Legacy, but not FTL. Wasn't crazy about Spelunky, but it was more fun than FTL.
Click to expand...
 
SMOGZINN

SMOGZINN

Lifer
Jun 17, 2005
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ADOM is probably the king of actual roguelikes, and just got a Steam release with updated graphics.
If you are counting Binding of Isaac (probably my all time favorite game at this point) as a roguelike (I think they are better described as roguelite) then Enter the Gungeon should be on there as well.

Other games in the genre worth checking out:
Tales of Maj'Eyal (a traditional roguelike with simple graphics. Think Nethack)
Dungeons of Dredmor (also a traditional Roguelike)
Neo Scavanger (Post nuclear war apocalyptic roguelike)
Runers (An Isaac style twin stick shooter roguelike, it has a fun spell creation system)
Convoy (A FTL style roguelike with a Car Wars twist)
Ziggurat (A first person roguelike with magic)
Sword of the Stars: The Pit (a traditional roguelike with simple graphics, but Sci-Fi with laser guns!)
Pixel Boy and the Ever Expanding Dungeon (A twin stick shooter roguelike, this is currently on sale for $0.49 on steam and is a lot of fun! If you like Isaac you will probably like this as well)
 
DigDog

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
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Most of these aren't roguelike, as "roguelike" doesn't mean "one life" but actually means "like the game Rogue" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_(video_game)

i just got out of a long Angband session, now in release 4.1 which comes with graphics (although ASCII is still available as an option), a redesigned UI, multiple playability tweaks, balancing, and so forth.

get it here: http://rephial.org/

i liked "Tales of Maj'Eyal" a lot back when it was called Tales Of Middle Earth and i think it's possibly the best roguelike ever made, but imho has gotten worse with each new release. i understand tha they have had some copyright issues so they renamed it and removed TOME 1 & 2, but im sure you can dig it out if you ask.

i did get into FTL finally, but only after i cheated enough to figure out how to play and win. It's still impossible on Hard with most ships, and anyway you are looking at a game where you genuinely need to have luck, because skill alone won't cut it.

i tried Binding but the gameplay really doesn't suit me, it reminds me of the horrors of Ricky Dangerous. also tried Ziggurath, and while i'm pretty good at FPS, even on easy mode i couldn't beat it. I'm sure if i played it for more than 2-3 days i'd get better, but the problem is that the game becomes super boring and repetitive before you get good.

dungeons of dredmore and pixel dungeon are both decent fun on a mobile.
 
Antonio94

Antonio94

Junior Member
Jul 3, 2017
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Have anyone heard of this game called Dead Cell? I've seen it quite a lot on Youtube but the game is still in alpha state. By the look of it, it's somehow like a hybrid between Castlevania - Soul-borne. Looks quite interesting, so far it's still in alpha so there're much to hope for here in my opinion.
 
MetalMat

MetalMat

Diamond Member
Jun 14, 2004
9,687
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"The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth" turned into one of my favorite games of all time. It's in my top 10 and was a game I did not like at first, I have sunk way too much time into that game. The antibirth mod is excellent.

I also REALLY like FTL, I wish they would make a sequel.

"Enter the Gungeon" might be something worth checking out, I could never get into it due to a number of issues I have with the game but it's a competent game in the genre.
 
EXCellR8

EXCellR8

Diamond Member
Sep 1, 2010
4,029
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I tried to get into that Everspace game but I ended up just not liking it. The whole thing just felt really fixed like there was no way to get very far without dying 20 times in the process. That sort of thing just isn't for me.
 
DigDog

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
14,283
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just wanted to let you know that Angband has had yet another release, now at 4.1.2, and we're now testing additional features as well, with the eventuality of a Angband 2 down the line.

i know that sounds pretentious, i'm not a coder or a maintainer, i just play and report bugs. pretty cool game tho, really solid gameplay mechanics.
 
Elcs

Elcs

Diamond Member
Apr 27, 2002
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SMOGZINN said:
ADOM is probably the king of actual roguelikes, and just got a Steam release with updated graphics.
Click to expand...

This. ADOM is my most played game of all time, since 1995 on the Amiga 1200 back in ASCII mode when half the dungeons didn't actually exist.

When you can clean your ears, wipe your face and use non-combat items in rather novel ways in a game and they have their uses... it really does add a nice layer of depth.

The Steam Edition allows for plenty of difficulty tweaking to make the game even more devilishly difficult or make it more "modern" with infinite lives or putting the rolls in your favour. For a veteran like me, it's nice sometimes just to go in and make the game a bit easier so that I can take a more casual walk around or try things that are quite frankly insane at the start (which I have done before).

SMOGZINN said:
If you are counting Binding of Isaac (probably my all time favorite game at this point) as a roguelike (I think they are better described as roguelite) then Enter the Gungeon should be on there as well.

Other games in the genre worth checking out:
Tales of Maj'Eyal (a traditional roguelike with simple graphics. Think Nethack)
Dungeons of Dredmor (also a traditional Roguelike)
Neo Scavanger (Post nuclear war apocalyptic roguelike)
Runers (An Isaac style twin stick shooter roguelike, it has a fun spell creation system)
Convoy (A FTL style roguelike with a Car Wars twist)
Ziggurat (A first person roguelike with magic)
Sword of the Stars: The Pit (a traditional roguelike with simple graphics, but Sci-Fi with laser guns!)
Pixel Boy and the Ever Expanding Dungeon (A twin stick shooter roguelike, this is currently on sale for $0.49 on steam and is a lot of fun! If you like Isaac you will probably like this as well)
Click to expand...

ToME4 is probably the best on this alternative list.
Dungeons of Dredmor was fairly underwhelming, a bit of tongue in cheek humour though.
Neo Scavenger probably should have held my attention but I couldn't get away with it and it's mechanics.
Convoy... I regret that purchase. Did not gel with this one in the slightest despite having one of the coolest concepts of a modern Roguelike
SotS: The Pit is decent too and probably the best Sci Fi Roguelike going... which shows how sorry the state of affairs is when it comes to Sci Fi Roguelikes.
 
SMOGZINN

SMOGZINN

Lifer
Jun 17, 2005
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Elcs said:
Convoy... I regret that purchase. Did not gel with this one in the slightest despite having one of the coolest concepts of a modern Roguelike
Click to expand...

I agree with Convoy. I think when I wrote that I had just started to play it. According to steam I played it for 6.6 hours before I got bored of it. It looks like a good game, it has all the elements of good FTL style game, but somehow it just does not come together. I don't really regret buying it, it was rather cheap, and I really wanted a car based combat roguelike to work. Maybe my having bought it will encourage others to try other car combat based games.
 
Iratus Lord

Iratus Lord

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akenbennu

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Jul 24, 2005
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DigDog said:
Most of these aren't roguelike, as "roguelike" doesn't mean "one life" but actually means "like the game Rogue" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_(video_game)

i just got out of a long Angband session, now in release 4.1 which comes with graphics (although ASCII is still available as an option), a redesigned UI, multiple playability tweaks, balancing, and so forth.

get it here: http://rephial.org/

i liked "Tales of Maj'Eyal" a lot back when it was called Tales Of Middle Earth and i think it's possibly the best roguelike ever made, but imho has gotten worse with each new release. i understand tha they have had some copyright issues so they renamed it and removed TOME 1 & 2, but im sure you can dig it out if you ask.

i did get into FTL finally, but only after i cheated enough to figure out how to play and win. It's still impossible on Hard with most ships, and anyway you are looking at a game where you genuinely need to have luck, because skill alone won't cut it.

i tried Binding but the gameplay really doesn't suit me, it reminds me of the horrors of Ricky Dangerous. also tried Ziggurath, and while i'm pretty good at FPS, even on easy mode i couldn't beat it. I'm sure if i played it for more than 2-3 days i'd get better, but the problem is that the game becomes super boring and repetitive before you get good.

dungeons of dredmore and pixel dungeon are both decent fun on a mobile.
Click to expand...

I sank way too much time in college into Angband. Such a good (if frustrating) game.
 
H

hardhat

Senior member
Dec 4, 2011
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Sots: The Pit and TOME get my vote as best. I just hit 1k hours in TOME and have just over 12% of the achievements completed!
 
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