Rogue and Rogue-like games have been outside my RPG experience. But times are lean, so I decided to take a look at one, called ZangbandTK (ZTK). At least it has graphics instead of the usual ASCII characters.
The look is circa Ultima III, which is fine with me. Movement is with cursor keys or numpad. The cursor keys are supposed to be for running, but I find that the keypad zooms the character around, too. Fortunately, I can click with the mouse to move one step at a time.
The display is all little windows, with a large one for the main screen. The windows float, too. You can drag one around and see your desktop underneath. So far, the game has been running well under XP, although in one session, the game did crash a couple times. Have no idea why, but it’s been okay since then so far.
ZTK is not for the faint of heart. If your character dies, game over, man. Yeah, this is really hardcore, and I must be crazy to attempt it, especially as one also needs (gak) food. Wow, I’m desperate as wll as crazy.
You have a bunch of races to choose from. Along with the usual suspects of human, elf, dwarf, etc., we have the less-seen Half-Troll, Half-Titan, Half-Giant, a few undead (hey, be a Zombie instead of killing one!), and several other interesting races (haven’t you always wanted to be a mindlfayer?).
Classes are more typical: fighter, mage, fighter/mage, rogue, ranger, paladin, and so on. However, included in the mix are the Mindcrafter (psionics) and the Chaos Warrior, for those who enjoy unpredictibility. You never know what will happen when a Chaos Warrior levels up, and some of those “happenings” can be bad news. I am not trying that one anytime soon.
Character creation is what you would expect: pick a gender, race, and occupation. Then you go to the roll-up screen. You can re-roll until you get a set of numbers you like. That can take awhile, or it can happen quickly. Give the character a name, and you’re set. By the way, any time before the final acceptance, you can back up and start over. Nice.
There’s a starting town called Outpost with the usual range of shops and a (very expensive) black market. Just outside town to the east is the dungeon. Farther east is another town, called Telmora, and some more in other directions. You’re not expected to stay in Outpost forever.
ZTK is also not for anyone who finds modern games complicated. Most commands are done from the keyboard, and I count, hmm, seems like 49, plus the movement keys. Yeah, it helps to have a list handy while playing ;).
So I’ve been fooling around with a few characters of standard variety, none of them past level 2 in experience. Oh, forgot to mention: when you walk out of the dungeon, it generates a new layout next time you go back in. This can be good or bad.
Finally decided to see how far I could get with a Hobbit Rogue. She was doing fairly well, then died on level one (I haven’t been lower than that yet), thanks to an insect swarm.
I started a new one. Her luck was terrible. On the way to the dungeon, I somehow managed to run her all the way east to Telmora. Zip! That’s running. Poked around the shops a bit, then headed back west. Zipping right along, and suddenly she was dead. Just like that. Apparently I ran right into a raven (never saw it) that wiped her out very quickly. Darn, she hadn’t even got started, really.
So I worked up a third one. She was moving around the dungeon, and entered a room where a Greater Hell Beast was snoozing in a corner. Uh huh. I turned around, and tip-toed right back out again. Like I said, sometimes generating a new layout on re-entry is a Good Thing.
Unfortunately, on her next visit, despite being a Hobbit with good Dex and whatnot, she managed to set off a trap. There she was, surrounded by a fruit bat, an Ewok (really) and a silver jelly. This was hopeless, of course. I tried a “Quit Without Saving” maneuver, but reloading found her right back in the same situation. She’s still there; I don’t have the heart to continue to the obvious outcome.
I’m on my fourth Hobbit Rogue now. If she bites the dust too soon, I’ll probably give Rogues a rest and try something else. This game is certainly going to require dedication.
Will I finish? Hard to say. I looked at the forum for this game. Didn’t notice anyone saying they had completed it; lotta messages about dying, though. And I dunno how long it will take for me to either (a) give up on the “one death and game over” or (b) play cheater and start copying save files. Only time will reveal just how much of a masochist I am ;)
Only time will reveal just how much of a masochist I am ;)
as if living in NYC wasn’t a big enough clue!
I know a lot of geeks love roguelikes, but I’ve never been that fond of them. Aside from the incredible influence of the random number generator, the games are pitilessly hard. Usually, I play one for about an hour, get nowhere fast, get killed a dozen times, and get sick of it all. If I need massive luck on top of massive skill to succeed, I’ll try something more immediately rewarding.
Moderate hint for the food problem: in many roguelikes, some monsters’ corpses are edible. Eat them quickly, because they spoil. Have (fatal) fun figuring out which are poisonous from the get-go, too.
I got really hooked on MORIA once upon a time. Old roguelike. Very cool. Every once in a while I’ll break out NETHACK. And I keep trying to get started in Dwarf Fortress (though it’s more of a strategy game than an RPG).
atleast your playing again scorp hehe. the only roguelike games I played were the Thief games, you know FPS, First Person Sneakers hehe. And I still play it occasionally when I have the time, which is a very rare commodity these days for me.
If you enjoy your roguelike experience you could have a go at one that I made last summer.
http://www.tinyfrogsoftware.com/cavernsbeta
Played in a browser, has graphics and is only about 2hrs long (if you don’t die)
IMHO, Rogue-likes are fun for a brief time when I’m bored with everything else (sort of like Freecell, I guess). But in an RPG, I like to get attached to my characters. Permanent - and frequent - death interferes with that.
At the same time, the tactics/strategy angle is too limited, since your character usually dies due to bad luck, not because of your poor decisions.
That leaves exploration, which will keep me going for a little while, just to see what the game features. But there generally aren’t any ‘wow!’ moments in these games, so I get bored quickly.
(Yes, Coyote, I love Dwarf Fortress - in Fortress mode, anyway - but that only shares ASCII graphics with Rogues. It’s a completely different kind of game. And not really an RPG, although you do get to care about the characters. And any game where the characters grieve for their fallen friends has got the right idea behind it.)
sturm, I don’t think Thief counts asa “rogue-like”.
Coyote, Dwarf Fortress is really a strat game with maybe some RPG elements. I’ve heard of Moria, but haven’t played it, of course. Do you think it’s worth a look?
WCG, yeah, luck seems to play a big part in these games.
Verb, I’ve heard about eating monster bodies. Will skip that one if at all possible ;)
Joshua, thanks. I don’t do browser-based games, but perhaps some others here will take a look at the game.
No browser based games? Why not? Some of them are becoming quite good. I mean sure, generally they are in the same “have fun for a few minutes” type of thing, but they’re also free generally. Here’s the last one I spent time playing:
http://www.kongregate.com/games/garin/monsters-den-book-of-dread
Nah, I wouldn’t really recommend Moria anymore. I think its pretty dead now, and I’m sure many of the more modern roguelikes are just as good or better.
Coyote, thanks, I’ll skip that one then.
DB, browser-based games use Flash and/or Javascript, yes? I avoid using those myself. You know never know what might be in that stuff.
Scorp: re: “browser-based games use Flash and/or Javascript, yes? ”
Not all. AFAIK, this one –
http://fantasymasteronline.com
is coldfusion/server based. It’s also somewhat unique (sp?) in that cooperation, rather than competition, is rewarded.
Another consideration is that usually browser based games require you to be online and Scorpia isn’t on broadband.
That can be a problem; however, FMO is turn-based, so speed is not of the essence. Even if you’ve invited someone else to assist you in a battle (the only “multi-player” option while I was playing), a simple “I’m running at 1200 baud” message would suffice.
Most, if not all, of the people I met there are nice, helpful, etc., etc. — in fact, I’m probably the meanest, no-goodnik that ever played the game (for some year+).
I really think it’s a game most of you would probably enjoy (at least for a while) since it’s 2D old school.