Caves of Qud is a "science-fantasy" roguelike by Freehold Games. It's currently in Early Access, but I've already gotten a lot of hours of enjoyment out of the beta. It has a lot to offer for those who enjoy exploratory dungeon crawling, tense strategic situations, varied playstyles, and a good deal of mystery in their games. Here are some of the highlights, in my opinion:

Character creation: Your character can be created with a huge number of physical and mental mutations, and gain more as you level up. These act as your spells and passive bonuses, and come in a really wide variety of forms. Physically control your adrenal glands for a quick boost of speed in combat, release an EMP to disable enemy grenades and robots, or even manipulate time to produce several clones of yourself. Trying out new combinations of mutations really keeps me coming back to the game. My only real complaint is that, at the time of this review, physical mutations seem less powerful and interesting than mental mutations overall. Rebalancing is sure to come in the future.

If you're looking for an alternate playstyle, you can also choose for your character to be a "true kin," a non-mutant human who lacks special powers but starts with useful artifacts and higher stats.

The gameplay: True to its genre, Qud has randomly generated levels, randomized loot, and permadeath. If the latter is really a dealbreaker for you, it is possible to turn it off in the "debug" option category. Graphics are either ASCII or a clean, if simple, set of tile icons.

Unlike other staples of the genre such as Nethack, there is not one ultimate goal (fetch the amulet) but a series of main quests with other objectives you can find on the side. There are also various ways to complete the quests, from what I've seen. Another feature of Qud is the world map, which can be used to quickly travel between locations in the game at the cost of running down your hunger and thirst quicker.

Enemy balance is pretty good, in my experience: you may run into a really strong monster, but as long as you stop to think, there is usually a way for you to escape and return later.

The world: Caves of Qud takes place in a setting where it seems as if almost anything goes - yet, it's very good at hitting its own specific tone. The weird world of Qud, while putatively post-apocalyptic, has a lot more in common with The Dark Tower than Fallout. The dead civilizations you ransack are old, and the artifacts you dig up range from your everyday hand grenade to more exotic types such as the "shade oil injector," which will cause you to phase out of reality for a little while. I admit I am a bit of a sucker for the trope of forgotten technology aging and turning into artifacts of myth, and Qud does pull it off well. Lore is tantalizingly doled out in item descriptions and NPC dialogue.

Overall, I'm very excited to watch Caves of Qud develop. It's already quite large in scope, and should only be getting better. As another plus, the devs seem to take player feedback very seriously and are active in the forums.

Caves of Qud is a "science-fantasy" roguelike by Freehold Games. It's currently in Early Access, but I've already gotten a lot of hours of enjoyment out of the beta. It has a lot to offer for those who enjoy exploratory dungeon crawling, tense strategic situations, varied playstyles, and a good deal of mystery in their games. Here are some of the highlights, in my opinion: Character creation: Your character can be created with a huge number of physical and mental mutations, and gain more as you level up. These act as your spells and passive bonuses, and come in a really wide variety of forms. Physically control your adrenal glands for a quick boost of speed in combat, release an EMP to disable enemy grenades and robots, or even manipulate time to produce several clones of yourself. Trying out new combinations of mutations really keeps me coming back to the game. My only real complaint is that, at the time of this review, physical mutations seem less powerful and interesting than mental mutations overall. Rebalancing is sure to come in the future. If you're looking for an alternate playstyle, you can also choose for your character to be a "true kin," a non-mutant human who lacks special powers but starts with useful artifacts and higher stats. The gameplay: True to its genre, Qud has randomly generated levels, randomized loot, and permadeath. If the latter is really a dealbreaker for you, it is possible to turn it off in the "debug" option category. Graphics are either ASCII or a clean, if simple, set of tile icons. Unlike other staples of the genre such as Nethack, there is not one ultimate goal (fetch the amulet) but a series of main quests with other objectives you can find on the side. There are also various ways to complete the quests, from what I've seen. Another feature of Qud is the world map, which can be used to quickly travel between locations in the game at the cost of running down your hunger and thirst quicker. Enemy balance is pretty good, in my experience: you may run into a really strong monster, but as long as you stop to think, there is usually a way for you to escape and return later. The world: Caves of Qud takes place in a setting where it seems as if almost anything goes - yet, it's very good at hitting its own specific tone. The weird world of Qud, while putatively post-apocalyptic, has a lot more in common with The Dark Tower than Fallout. The dead civilizations you ransack are [i]old[/i], and the artifacts you dig up range from your everyday hand grenade to more exotic types such as the "shade oil injector," which will cause you to phase out of reality for a little while. I admit I am a bit of a sucker for the trope of forgotten technology aging and turning into artifacts of myth, and Qud does pull it off well. Lore is tantalizingly doled out in item descriptions and NPC dialogue. Overall, I'm very excited to watch Caves of Qud develop. It's already quite large in scope, and should only be getting better. As another plus, the devs seem to take player feedback very seriously and are active in the forums.