I don’t really like roguelites. At least I always thought. The only one I really tried was the Binding of Isaac. I never progressed far, I never really got the hang of it and had a lot of unsuccessful runs. I finally gave up on it. So I went for years without trying new ones. Until Hades. I played it quite a lot and had a lot of successful runs, but never fully beat the game.
I returned to it with the recent launch of Hades II into Early Access and finished (except a few achievements) my save. The gameplay and difficulty is very well-balanced for my skill level and it managed to motivate for several weeks. Overall I put over 100h into it and the pull was so strong, I got Hades II right away. I know not very patient of me. Another 40h later and I finished the content that is available so far. I can see myself diving back in for the 1.0 release or a big update.
Afterwards I looked for other well-received roguelites and picked up Dead Cells and all the DLC in a sale. Similar story here. 80h in, I made it to 2 BC and unlocked a most weapons and quite a big chunk of the outfits. My playstyle is rather slow and deliberate, but I enjoy the challenge a lot. 2 BC is kicking my ass a bit and I’m thinking about moving on again.
I’m currently thinking about what comes next. With the steam sale going on, I am considering Hollow Knight, even though I have very little experience mit Metroidvanias. Also Sekiro is a possibility. I never played a From Software game or our souls-like before. (Mostly) fighting human-sized enemies and a focus on parrying suits my preferences well.
If anyone has recommendations for other roguelites or games to jump to, please leave a comment.
I’m glad I tried a genre I had written off before. It resulted in a lot of fun playing hours. I recommend stepping out of your gaming comfort zone once in a while.
You got some big ones. Just know what sorts of games you like to play and look for well reviewed roguelikes in those genres.
I think the problem you may have had before is that you mistook roguelike for its own pure genre, when in the modern sense it’s actually a game format and platform for gameplay, and the gameplay can be anything, from turn based to action, 2d to 3d. Traditional roguelikes like nethack are a genre, but roguelites/roguelikes nowadays can play like anything.
Personally in the FPS roguelike department I’ve been really enjoying Roboquest.
I would highly recommend Rogue Legacy 2 over Hollow Knight. Hollow Knight is more of just a metroidvania, it’s great, but didnt satisfy that rogue like itch for me.
Ok, sticking to roguelites, here’s some other options:
Deckbuilding Style: Slay the Spire, Monster Train, Griftlands, Balatro
Survivor/Bullet-Heaven Style: Vampire Survivors, Brotato, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor
Realtime Combat (I’d put Hades/Dead Cells here): Hand of Fate 1/2, Zero Sievert, Wall World, Rogue Legacy 1/2, Risk of Rain 1/2, Heroes of Hammerwatch
FPS: Gunfire Reborn, Roboquest
Turn-based/Pausable: FTL, The Last Spell, Loop Hero, Dungeons of Dredmor, Darkest Dungeon 1/2, Backpack Hero, Into the Breach, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2
Sure I missed some other good stuff.
Not a roguelite/roguelike but if you liked the combat style of Hades, check out Bastion.
That’s a pretty excellent list. I don’t think I’d call Xcom roguelike since its campaigns are incredibly long endeavours, but they are good games.
I went back and forth on it. The campaign is just the meta progression, the missions are the randomized element. Comparing to Darkest Dungeon for example, it’s really similar in structure.
Noita is probably my favorite game of all time, and it’s an excellent rougelike.
Noita is great and extremely unique, but I dislike that once you find a few orbs of true knowledge your runs always start with getting those first. I’m usually too lazy to get the one at
spoiler
the pyramid
before ending mines, unless I can get a good teleport spell.
I don’t bother with those unless I’m specifically going for all the orbs. Like, I’ll get the closest one, but I don’t bother with the one you mentioned or the one that makes the boss spawn. There’s usually enough health to be had once you know your formations, and if you want mondo amounts of health, there’s always the heart mage trick. I don’t go out of my way to dig gold in the mines for the same reason. You can win without doing it, and it just breaks up the flow too much imo.
Roboquest is one of the most enjoyable games I have played in years, And the devs seem to really care, every update has made the game significantly more enjoyable and they seem to be actually listening to player suggestions and feedback. Highly recommended if you want a fast paced FPS Roguelite.
If you’ve played Gunfire reborn and are expecting more of the same your going to be disappointed though.
Gunfire Reborn is Roguelite first, FPS second Roboquest is FPS first, Roguelite second.
Same concepta executed and implemented very differently.
It has good replayability. Yeah it’s having a surge of popularity but it’s a solid game that’s pretty unique with good longevity for those who enjoy it, I think it’s going to be popular for quite a qhile and probably start getting people making inspired games in the “deckbuilding with real cards” space.
Risk of Rain & Risk of Rain 2 are a couple of my favorites. Have sunk a fuck load of hours into 2 over the years. Mostly solo, but multiplayer is great fun as well imo.
If you like Hollow Knight and Sekiro, Nine Sols is another game I’d recommend. Kind of a combination of the two, the 2D traversal and game mechanics of HK, with the unforgiving parry heavy combat of Sekiro.