Roguelikes: I never met@progression I didn't like

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Roguelikes: I never met@progression I didn't like

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Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

No Wave posted:

Having beaten the final boss of synthetik once

On what difficulty?

# ? Feb 20, 2024 20:15

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# ? May 27, 2024 08:22

StarkRavingMad: Sep 27, 2001; Yams Fan

Tea Party Crasher posted:

Balatro is out today and I bought it instantly, I've been addicted to that demo.

I only played a little of the demo because I knew after like two runs I'd be buying the full. I've played poker all my life and I also like weird card decks so this game is like crack for me. The full game seems to be everything I'd hoped.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 20:23

cock hero flux: Apr 17, 2011

i've beaten both synthetiks on the hardest difficulty a few times and I can pretty conclusively say that sniper is the easiest class and it really does boil down to simply shooting your enemies from far away while standing still. you even get a stun grenade to make sure enemies can't move so that it's even easier to point and click adventure your way through them.

there are many classes that do not do this, however, and you will probably have more fun playing one of them.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 20:31

mystes: May 31, 2006

StarkRavingMad posted:

I only played a little of the demo because I knew after like two runs I'd be buying the full. I've played poker all my life and I also like weird card decks so this game is like crack for me. The full game seems to be everything I'd hoped.

I realize that it's nominally supposed to be poker-ish but the mechanics are so unlike poker that I find it weird that people even mention poker in relation to it. I don't even play poker and I was still initially confused by things not working like I expected based on it being supposed to be vaguely pokerlike

However after playing it a little I would recommend it to anyone who likes both slay the spire and luck be a landlord since it feels sort of half way in between

# ? Feb 20, 2024 20:32

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

Is the Switch port any good, or should I get it on PC instead?

# ? Feb 20, 2024 20:36

No Wave: Sep 18, 2005; HA! HA! NICE! WHAT A TOOL!

cock hero flux posted:

i've beaten both synthetiks on the hardest difficulty a few times and I can pretty conclusively say that sniper is the easiest class and it really does boil down to simply shooting your enemies from far away while standing still. you even get a stun grenade to make sure enemies can't move so that it's even easier to point and click adventure your way through them.

there are many classes that do not do this, however, and you will probably have more fun playing one of them.

I liked sniper and I played it the most but it got too hosed over by the airplane so I just played raider eventually instead. The class you pick doesnt really change that you're turbo safe from 3/4 a screen away, even raider knife isnt really a mechanical incentive to get close it just makes it less stupid to do so.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 20:53

cock hero flux: Apr 17, 2011

No Wave posted:

I liked sniper and I played it the most but it got too hosed over by the airplane so I just played raider eventually instead. The class you pick doesnt really change that you're turbo safe from 3/4 a screen away, even raider knife isnt really a mechanical incentive to get close it just makes it less stupid to do so.

i mean if you can't stop yourself from taking a sniper rifle on breacher and playing Bad Sniper instead of engaging with the class's actual mechanics then maybe this is true. on higher difficulties of Synthetik 2 I think this runs into a brick wall when you get to that level where every enemy is a chrono trooper that teleports on top of you because if you're literally just a guy with a sniper rifle and zero synergy I think you just die

# ? Feb 20, 2024 20:58

No Wave: Sep 18, 2005; HA! HA! NICE! WHAT A TOOL!

cock hero flux posted:

i mean if you can't stop yourself from taking a sniper rifle on breacher and playing Bad Sniper instead of engaging with the class's actual mechanics then maybe this is true. on higher difficulties of Synthetik 2 I think this runs into a brick wall when you get to that level where every enemy is a chrono trooper that teleports on top of you because if you're literally just a guy with a sniper rifle and zero synergy I think you just die

That's good! Thats the kind of thing they should be fixing in synthetik 2.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 21:10

moot the hopple: Apr 26, 2008; dyslexic Bowie clone

One thing to note is that Raider and Assassin melee attacks can pass through walls and are very powerful with their cool down reset and damage bonus. They're good supplements especially if you build for dash or cloak cooldown and shouldn't be neglected.

Breacher is probably my favorite for the run and gun play style. Just an exciting flow state of charging in and point blank blasting enemies.

Synthetik's specialist classes were the last ones I dug into but they are also very satisfying and different to play. Demo bombarding enemies with a salvo of grenades and then daisy chaining a chain reaction of explosives everywhere on your screen is hilarious. I know using Engineer to gamble and roll for a god build is the funny meme meta, but just playing him as a summoner who rolls with a mob at his back is also cool.

There's a lot of fun stuff to do in Synthetik and you kind of do yourself a disservice by just sticking to one play style.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 21:13

No Wave: Sep 18, 2005; HA! HA! NICE! WHAT A TOOL!

moot the hopple posted:

There's a lot of fun stuff to do in Synthetik and you kind of do yourself a disservice by just sticking to one play style.

I definitely agree with this and this is an issue I've had with a lot of challenging action roguelikes since Dead Cells in 2017. If you play in the fun way and lose it's hard to draw a lesson from it besides "I shouldnt have played in the fun way", because you already know exactly how you could have gotten past that situation without getting hurt. The best way to make players play the fun way is by making the fun way do a lot more damage and add strict timers, but at the same time, this makes the game no longer at all chill. I like the "battle room" approach that games like Oblivion Override and Binding of Isaac have because it forces you out of safe tedious strategies.

Obviously not everyone has this issue. Judging by synthetik in game chat some people are happy to make the game their lifestyle.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 21:24

LifeLynx: Feb 27, 2001; Dang so this is like looking over his shoulder in real-time; Grimey Drawer

Pollyanna posted:

Is the Switch port any good, or should I get it on PC instead?

I'm getting both, but only because I don't have a Steam Deck and it's not on Android. The interface for the game is dead simple, I don't see how they could mess it up.

Edit: It just occurred to me that the console versions might be slightly delayed at receiving patches and expansions, when that time comes.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 21:58

Snooze Cruise: Feb 16, 2013; hey look,
a post

mystes posted:

I realize that it's nominally supposed to be poker-ish but the mechanics are so unlike poker that I find it weird that people even mention poker in relation to it. I don't even play poker and I was still initially confused by things not working like I expected based on it being supposed to be vaguely pokerlike

Balatro is very poker, it has all the poker words in it.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 22:22

mystes: May 31, 2006

Do the words even mean the same thing they mean in poker?

# ? Feb 20, 2024 22:25

explosivo: May 23, 2004; Fueled by Satan

Balatro definitely feels extremely 'vaguely pokerlike' to me. You're obviously not playing capital P Poker and there are differences between this videogame roguelike and poker but the entire premise of the game is about making poker hands.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 22:36

Snooze Cruise: Feb 16, 2013; hey look,
a post

Yeah and you are still weighing all those probabilities of those hands in similar ways you do with poker, compared to like a STS game or whatever. Overall I feel like I am playing something closer to Poker than Slay the Spire personally.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 22:45

beer gas canister: Oct 30, 2007; shmups are da best come play some shmups they're cheap and good and you like them; Plaster Town Cop

First impression is that Balatro has a dazzling number of possibilities. For example, in my first run I got the Half Joker, which gives a x20 score multiplier to hands of 3 or less cards. I was netting nearly 1k chips in a single play with pairs and three of a kind in low cards (enemies at that level only required 800 or so to win).

You get a limited number of discards per blind (enemy), but you can also discard stuff by including non-scored cards in your hand (a 5th card appended to two pair etc). Coming from StS the potential for deck cycling alone is mind-blowing.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 22:53

Drone Incognito: Oct 16, 2008; There are no drones here. No way no how.

Balatro has nothing to do with actual poker. It uses the aesthetics and terminology of poker to make a excellent deck/engine builder to make number go up.

It's really smart because it makes it fairly accessible and you have at least somewhat of an idea of what you are trying to do. The hand names are something a lot of people will be familiar with if they've had even a passing interest in poker or a plain deck of cards in general.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 23:10

victrix: Oct 30, 2007

it has the opposite effect on me, it couldn't be less appealing :v:

# ? Feb 20, 2024 23:21

Broken Cog: Dec 29, 2009; We're all friends here

Yeah, I'm passing hard on Balatro as well. Been watching some streams and it's not appealing to me at all.

Great that people are having a good time with it though

# ? Feb 20, 2024 23:24

Tendales: Mar 9, 2012

Balatro is specifically video poker, not table poker.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 23:39

Mithross: Apr 27, 2011; Intelligent and bright, they explored a world that was new and strange to them. They liked it, they thought - a whole world just for them! They were dimly aware that a God had created them, was watching them; they called out to him, thanking him in a chittering language, before running off.

Tendales posted:

Balatro is specifically video poker, not table poker.

This. I'm of an age where I remember my parents/grandparents playing little hand held video poker machines to pass the time, and balatro is that but fun and interesting. Or at least attention grabbing and lizard brain numbers go up pleasing.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 23:46

Lowness 72: Jul 19, 2006; BUTTS LOL; Jade Ear Joe

I am instantly hooked on Balatro. It's video poker with added complexity. Love it.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 23:46

Turin Turambar: Jun 5, 2011

victrix posted:

it has the opposite effect on me, it couldn't be less appealing

Same here.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 23:54

Bruceski: Aug 21, 2007; The tools of a hero mean nothing without a solid core.

I think Balatro is going to find very few "middle of the road" folks. Either it's your jam or not, and that's fine but if it's not your jam there's nothing there to entice you to go for it anyway. It's a shame the demo seems to have disappeared,

# ? Feb 21, 2024 00:04

madmatt112: Jul 11, 2016; Is that a cat in your pants, or are you just a lonely excuse for an adult?

Balatro. Fun game. Nice music. Lots of dopamine.

# ? Feb 21, 2024 00:29

TooMuchAbstraction: Oct 14, 2012; I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.; Fun Shoe

Bruceski posted:

I think Balatro is going to find very few "middle of the road" folks. Either it's your jam or not, and that's fine but if it's not your jam there's nothing there to entice you to go for it anyway. It's a shame the demo seems to have disappeared,

Demos disappearing is super common these days. I think the logic is that you don't want people to download the demo, play it, think "cool game, but I've had my fill, no need to buy it", and move on. These days, demos are strictly for building hype, not for letting people try before they buy.

# ? Feb 21, 2024 01:19

Ciaphas: Nov 20, 2005; > BEWARE, COWARD

Bruceski posted:

I think Balatro is going to find very few "middle of the road" folks. Either it's your jam or not, and that's fine but if it's not your jam there's nothing there to entice you to go for it anyway. It's a shame the demo seems to have disappeared,

Ciaphas posted:

balatro exists to divide the world between people with Number-Go-Up Disorder (like me) and those without

# ? Feb 21, 2024 01:31

Drone Incognito: Oct 16, 2008; There are no drones here. No way no how.

Balatro happened to be good but who am I kidding? I would have bought it because it's a game that's vaguely a deck builder and I need to chase the Slay the Spire dragon. Almost none of them are as interesting or as well balanced.

# ? Feb 21, 2024 02:09

Tunicate: May 15, 2012

Tendales posted:

Balatro is specifically video poker, not table poker.

So it's actually running a bingo engine for tax reasons

# ? Feb 21, 2024 02:11

mystes: May 31, 2006

Ciaphas posted:

balatro exists to divide the world between people with Number-Go-Up Disorder (like me) and those without

Drone Incognito posted:

Balatro happened to be good but who am I kidding? I would have bought it because it's a game that's vaguely a deck builder and I need to chase the Slay the Spire dragon. Almost none of them are as interesting or as well balanced.

I have number (of deckbuilder games in steam account) go up disorder, I think

# ? Feb 21, 2024 02:14

SettingSun: Aug 10, 2013

I'm addicted to games that represent assets as cards whether they are deckbuilders or not and I think indie devs are finally figuring that out and are collaborating to take my money.

# ? Feb 21, 2024 02:17

TooMuchAbstraction: Oct 14, 2012; I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.; Fun Shoe

SettingSun posted:

I'm addicted to games that represent assets as cards whether they are deckbuilders or not and I think indie devs are finally figuring that out and are collaborating to take my money.

meanwhile, I have the opposite problem, where as soon as you mention that your game has cards, my brain and wallet become closed to what you have to say

# ? Feb 21, 2024 02:31

Magitek: Feb 20, 2008; That's not jolly.
That's not jolly at all!

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

meanwhile, I have the opposite problem, where as soon as you mention that your game has cards, my brain and wallet become closed to what you have to say

Me, but the Survival genre

# ? Feb 21, 2024 02:45

Evil Kit: May 29, 2013; I'm viable ladies.

No Wave posted:

I definitely agree with this and this is an issue I've had with a lot of challenging action roguelikes since Dead Cells in 2017. If you play in the fun way and lose it's hard to draw a lesson from it besides "I shouldnt have played in the fun way", because you already know exactly how you could have gotten past that situation without getting hurt. The best way to make players play the fun way is by making the fun way do a lot more damage and add strict timers, but at the same time, this makes the game no longer at all chill. I like the "battle room" approach that games like Oblivion Override and Binding of Isaac have because it forces you out of safe tedious strategies.

Obviously not everyone has this issue. Judging by synthetik in game chat some people are happy to make the game their lifestyle.

The most efficient way to get past a given situation is not always the most safe way in Synthetik imo, but yes to echo everyone else who's touched on it you are inflicting this on yourself and that's entirely fine to do if it's what you enjoy. Getting the hang of CQC takes some practice and eating poo poo till you recognize when it's fine to do and when you need to pick a few things off first before going in.

You don't need to stand 3/4 of a screen away if everything dies in a 1.5 seconds or less in a series of explosions and shotgun fire though, Breacher is seriously some of the most fun the game has.

Fwiw though, Synthetik 2 is much better about curtailing extreme sightlines and makes even the "sniper" class more of a flexible assassin class that is good at long range but also works well closer up. Highly recommend making the jump, I'd probably have sunk a lot more hours into it if there weren't so many good games out to play.

# ? Feb 21, 2024 03:31

madmatt112: Jul 11, 2016; Is that a cat in your pants, or are you just a lonely excuse for an adult?

Imp zone game club or whatever it�s called just announced a roguelike� festival? Party? Event? Idk, I only just discovered imp zone somehow so I don�t have a lot of the shared context that a forum builds up over time. But it looks neato

# ? Feb 21, 2024 04:28

victrix: Oct 30, 2007

Magitek posted:

Me, but the Survival genre

I thought I was this way but then I played Subnautica. And Pacific Drive in a day or two.

So I think it's specifically 'survival without a main questline/purpose to the crafting poo poo' that I don't really care for one way or another

Where's the survival roguelikes

# ? Feb 21, 2024 05:00

Ciaphas: Nov 20, 2005; > BEWARE, COWARD

victrix posted:

I thought I was this way but then I played Subnautica. And Pacific Drive in a day or two.

So I think it's specifically 'survival without a main questline/purpose to the crafting poo poo' that I don't really care for one way or another

Where's the survival roguelikes

project zomboid maybe

# ? Feb 21, 2024 05:01

Drone Incognito: Oct 16, 2008; There are no drones here. No way no how.

victrix posted:

Where's the survival roguelikes

UnReal World already exists.

I also recall one that was pixel art and you were trying to survive on a tropical island or something.

# ? Feb 21, 2024 05:03

goferchan: Feb 8, 2004; It's 2006. I am taking 276 yeti furs from the goodies hoard.

madmatt112 posted:

Imp zone game club or whatever it�s called just announced a roguelike� festival? Party? Event? Idk, I only just discovered imp zone somehow so I don�t have a lot of the shared context that a forum builds up over time. But it looks neato

Yeah it's a great time to initiate, come on in. Quoting the post below.

Sub-Actuality posted:

SPECIAL EVENT FOR MARCH

Roguelike Hell Month - Deadline 3/31/24 11:59EST

_{Though Beneath Apple Manor predates it, the 1980 game Rogue, which is an ASCII based game that runs in terminal or terminal emulator, is considered the forerunner and the namesake of the genre, with derivative games mirroring Rogue's character- or sprite-based graphics. These games were popularized among college students and computer programmers of the 1980s and 1990s, leading to hundreds of variants. Some of the better-known variants include Hack, NetHack, Ancient Domains of Mystery, Moria, Angband, Tales of Maj'Eyal, and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.}

We're all going to play a bunch of roguelikes through the month of March. Welcome to hell

There are trophies for 6 major roguelikes, and you can choose any roguelike of your own for a couple of extras.

Roguelikes are dungeon crawls through procedurally generated levels with turn-based gameplay, grid movement, and permadeath. Roguelites are not roguelikes. remember that

e: where to get the games courtesy of Fungah

editor's side note: googling "roguelike" in 2024 is ~very depressing~

Link to the game manual:
lol. lmao

-----------

*IMPORTANT: POST YOUR NETHACK YASDs*

we've prepared a bunch of unique secret trophies for the first imp who earns specific YASDs in NetHack, so post every dumb way you die!

-----------

Trophies:

NetHack is an open source single-player roguelike video game, first released in 1987 and maintained by the NetHack DevTeam. The game is a fork of the 1982 game Hack, itself inspired by the 1980 game Rogue. The player takes the role of one of several pre-defined character classes to descend through multiple dungeon floors, fighting monsters and collecting treasure, to recover the Amulet of Yendor at the lowest floor and then escape.

: Reach Minetown
: Complete Sokoban
: Reach the Castle
: Complete your Quest
: Reach the Valley of the Dead
: Ascend

: Ascend for your first time ever (PLATINUM)
: Ascend with one or more conducts (PLATINUM)

: Ascend for your first time ever using only posts in Imp Zone and your own notes (EXTREME PSYCHO PLATINUM)

* plus some secret bonus trophies for YASDs

Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM) is a roguelike video game designed and developed by Thomas Biskup and released in 1994. The player's goal is to stop the forces of Chaos that invade the world of Ancardia.

: Rescue a puppy
: Clear either the village dungeon or the druid dungeon
: Enter the Caverns of Chaos
: Retrieve the Orb of Elemental Fire
: Reach the Casino
: Beat the game

: Beat the game for your first time ever (PLATINUM)
: Get any variant ending (PLATINUM)

: Beat the game for your first time ever using only posts in Imp Zone and your own notes (EXTREME PSYCHO PLATINUM)

DoomRL is a roguelike video game developed by ChaosForge based on the first-person shooters Doom and Doom II. It has been in development since 2002, and was released for Microsoft Windows, Linux and OS X. Following a cease and desist notice from "Doom" trademark owner ZeniMax Media, the game's name was changed to "DRL" in 2016. Lame.

: Beat the Game
: Defeat John Carmack
: Beat the game with an Angel Challenge
: Reach the Rank of 2nd Lieutenant

: Beat Archangel of 666 (EXTREME PSYCHO PLATINUM)

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (DCSS/Crawl) is a free and open source roguelike computer game and the community-developed successor to the 1997 roguelike game Linley's Dungeon Crawl, originally programmed by Linley Henzell.

: Slay Sigmund
: Enter the Lair of the Beasts
: Get three runes
: Worship Jiyva
: Cast a level 9 spell
: Ascend

: Ascend for your first time ever (PLATINUM)
: Ascend with all 15 runes (PLATINUM)
: Ascend as a Felid, Octopode, or Mummy (PLATINUM)

: Ascend with 15 runes as a Felid, Octopode, or Mummy (EXTREME PSYCHO PLATINUM)

Tales of Maj'Eyal (ToME) is a dungeon crawl featuring a customizable graphical interface that integrates classic roguelike keyboard commands with a mouse-driven interface. In a departure from many older roguelike games, Tales of Maj'Eyal has full-color graphics, can be played almost exclusively with the mouse, and despite permadeath the player can earn extra lives through various ways and by leveling up.

: Unlock three classes or races
: Get a fortress
: Eat the sandworm queen's heart on Adventure or Permadeath mode
: Beat the Master on Adventure or Permadeath mode
: Beat the game on Adventure or Permadeath mode

: Beat the game on permadeath mode (PLATINUM)
: Beat the game on a difficulty higher than Normal (PLATINUM)
: Slay Atamathon (PLATINUM)
: Slay Linaniil (PLATINUM)

Caves of Qud is a roguelike actively developed by Freehold Games, set in an open world that is partially pre-made and partially randomly generated. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic science fantasy setting and is partially inspired by the pen-and-paper role-playing game Gamma World.

: Finish Mehmet�s first quest
: Enter Grit Gate
: Find Klanq
: Build a Golem
: Kill a Legendary Creature

Choose and play any roguelike you want, on any system.

: Die 25 Times
: Beat it

---------------

Event starts 3/1/24 12AM EST

Thanks to Fungah and Arrhythmia for helping to set this up & for their encyclopedic roguelike knowledge. Good luck imps, you'll need it!