Developed by: Thomas Biskup , Jochen Terstiege , Zeno Rogue , Krzysztof Dycha , Lucas Dieguez
Published by: Thomas Biskup
Released: 16th Nov 2015


ADOM is one of the 'Gods' of the traditional roguelike genre, starting as a MS DOS game in 1994, continually being development to this day. It features several dozen different dungeons, some with fixed layout and others randomly generated each time you play. It also has an 'overworld' adventure map, which was an unique feature in ADOM's young days.

There are a lot of different character types you can make from a big selection of races and classes who can pursue multiple different endings. Save the world from ChAoS as a Troll Paladin, or maybe take the place of the elder chaos god Andor Drakon as a Hurthling Farmer? Anything goes.

ADOM has always been and will continue to be freeware, downloadable from the developer site adom.de. Recent features include the graphical Noteye tileset that vastly improves the visual appeal.

On Steam, the Deluxe version promises a slew of additional features, many of which at the time of this review several months after release have not been realized in the game. This is a point worthy of critique. The small development team working on ADOM have always done things in their own pace, which is perfectly fine for a freeware hobby project. However with a Steam release comes expectations of promises being delivered on. As much as I love the devs and the wonderful game they've created, this must be pointed out. While ADOM is a complete game in its own right, the DELUXE version is far from complete.

That bit of complaining aside, ADOM is a beautiful game. It is a brutal, oldschool roguelike with such a staggering depth that even with the community wiki on hand, it can take years to uncover all its tricks and secrets. It will kill hundreds of characters, often just when you felt they were getting somewhere before you can even think about beating the whole game. It has the replayability for the game to still be addicting to play for all those attempts, with all its character variations and random generated nature. In fact, I recommend this game not for the story and reaching its ending, but for all the journeys your poor doomed characters embark on before they inevitably get crushed.

If you like turnbased dungeon crawling, traditional roguelikes with deep systems that you will keep learning new things in even after years of playing, ADOM comes strongly recommended. However! I would suggest playing the freeware version on adom.de first. Unless you just want to support the developers of course (which you should!). The Deluxe version of the game on Steam doesn't as of yet add much of features to justify a price tag. Once implemented I think the Steam version will be safely recommended, as well.

[h1]Ancient Domains of Mystery[/h1] [i]Developed by: Thomas Biskup , Jochen Terstiege , Zeno Rogue , Krzysztof Dycha , Lucas Dieguez Published by: Thomas Biskup Released: 16th Nov 2015[/i] [h1]Impressions and thoughts:[/h1] ADOM is one of the 'Gods' of the traditional roguelike genre, starting as a MS DOS game in 1994, continually being development to this day. It features several dozen different dungeons, some with fixed layout and others randomly generated each time you play. It also has an 'overworld' adventure map, which was an unique feature in ADOM's young days. There are a lot of different character types you can make from a big selection of races and classes who can pursue multiple different endings. Save the world from ChAoS as a Troll Paladin, or maybe take the place of the elder chaos god Andor Drakon as a Hurthling Farmer? Anything goes. ADOM has always been and will continue to be freeware, downloadable from the developer site adom.de. Recent features include the graphical Noteye tileset that vastly improves the visual appeal. On Steam, the Deluxe version promises a slew of additional features, many of which at the time of this review several months after release have not been realized in the game. This is a point worthy of critique. The small development team working on ADOM have always done things in their own pace, which is perfectly fine for a freeware hobby project. However with a Steam release comes expectations of promises being delivered on. As much as I love the devs and the wonderful game they've created, this must be pointed out. While ADOM is a complete game in its own right, the DELUXE version is far from complete. That bit of complaining aside, ADOM is a beautiful game. It is a brutal, oldschool roguelike with such a staggering depth that even with the community wiki on hand, it can take years to uncover all its tricks and secrets. It will kill hundreds of characters, often just when you felt they were getting somewhere before you can even think about beating the whole game. It has the replayability for the game to still be addicting to play for all those attempts, with all its character variations and random generated nature. In fact, I recommend this game not for the story and reaching its ending, but for all the journeys your poor doomed characters embark on before they inevitably get crushed. If you like turnbased dungeon crawling, traditional roguelikes with deep systems that you will keep learning new things in even after years of playing, ADOM comes strongly recommended. However! I would suggest playing the freeware version on adom.de first. Unless you just want to support the developers of course (which you should!). The Deluxe version of the game on Steam doesn't as of yet add much of features to justify a price tag. Once implemented I think the Steam version will be safely recommended, as well.