Recent reviews by Solar Boy Tai

I bought this after hearing the news that the game had finally released in 1.0 after 17 years of development. I wasn't immediately enamored with it due to several "clunky" aspects of the gameplay:

• Menus upon menus
  
• Confusing stats and terminology thrown at the player quickly
  
• Punishing permadeath
  
• Rough UI
  
• Somewhat unpolished controls for Steam Deck.

Because of all this, I decided to refund the game after playing for an hour and went on with my day.

But my mind remained in the Caves of Qud. The deep lore aspects, carefully interwoven through the procedurally generated elements, makes this game's world feel like a living, breathing simulation in a way that's very difficult to describe and have very rarely seen in video games of the past decades. Various races and factions vie for control and resources and your actions within this world can upset the delicate web of connections between them all. This game gives you as much as you're willing to put into it. Read everything, study history, talk to NPCs, study combat, mind your water supply (the universal currency and lifeline), mutate your genome, install cybernetic implants to give yourself an edge, live and drink.

As for the controls, it's clear that they were meant for keyboard, but the official controller layout for Steam Deck provided by the developers is very close to being perfect. I'd definitely recommend making alterations to fit your needs or check one of the great community provided layouts.

And so I bought the game again and once again embarked into the Caves of Qud...