Summary
Roguelikesare one of the most versatile genres to date. Anything from arcade-style beat-em-ups todiscomforting horror sensationscan wind up using the randomness and difficulty of roguelikes to challenge and compel players for hours.
Whether it’s through the procedural generation of dungeons or thechallenging survival mechanics, open-world-styled games are an especially good fit for difficult and RPG-heavy roguelikes who want to leave the world in players' own devices - for better or worse.
5Stoneshard
Fantastic Style And World Design
This grim, early-access roguelike already boasts hundreds of enemies and a classless character-building system that synthesizes over 200 abilities.Stoneshardis inspired by many old-school roguelike tropes,such as limited savesand the quintessential perma-death that many roguelikes offer.
A main quest, centered around the quintessential “Stoneshards” is one of the game’s various features consigned to the tapestry of dreams and promises known as the development roadmap. Currently, small-scale quests and the drive to explore more of this artfully rendered world are all that push the player forward, providing an open-world experience that will only grow stronger as development continues.
Moreso than other genres, roguelikes fall along a fairly neat spectrum regarding how “rogue-like” they are. On one end there are the cute and cozy roguelites, and on the other end, players have the ASCII-touting grandmother of the genre,Rogue.Caves of Qud, with its blinding difficulty and unique, minimalist tileset, occupies a distinct niche towards the latter side of this spectrum.
The surreal,sci-fi-fantasy blendofQudhosts psychic vampires, sentient inanimate objects, and a dangerously vital world unkind and uncaring as far as humanity’s fate is concerned. This is not a game for the casual player, as gate-keepery as that sounds. For players who can adjust to the minimal graphics and incredible depth on display, however,Caves of Qudprovides an intensely rewarding, intensely open-ended experience.
Pioneered and directed by the iconic DarkGod,Tales of Maj’Eyal 4is an open-world roguelike, driven by a series of quests, but able to be tackled in a non-linear way. The expansive lore and culture of Maj’Eyal, still being enhanced today 12 years after its initial release, hold innumerable hooks to draw players further into this world.
Tome4 is not an experience for the faint-hearted, asone of the longer roguelikes, and an alternative to one-life-perma-death that is still punishing. It’s a high-stakes story set in a high fantasy world, saving the continent amid mage-druid feuds and encroaching darkness.
2The Doors Of Trithius
Play Through Ever-Changing Worldstates And Factions
The entire world ofDoors of Trithiusis randomly generated upon the start of a new file. The factions warring with each other, the landmasses, and the geography, are all procedurally generated to ensure no two playthroughs are ever the same. Like many roguelikes on this list, difficulty is a driving force of this game, encouraging players to craft and experiment to overcome the overwhelming odds against them.
This game is an exemplar of the roguelike-open world genre, fusing the intricate character customization players expect from roguelikes with the strong emphasis on exploration and discovery that is the cornerstone of most modern open-world titles. Players hungry for replayability would be amiss to not grab this title.
Few open-world games offer the level of experimentation and broadness thatBattle Brothersoffers. The world is entirely open to players from the beginning, from the farthest northern reaches to the blazing southern deserts. There’s no main quest, no call to adventure, no higher purpose than the almighty gold coin. Players control a group of enterprising mercenaries, going from village to village, taking jobs, and recruiting warm bodies.
Besides serving as the inspiration for other in-depthmercenary simulators like Wartales,Battle Brothersexemplifies open-world, sandbox design in a roguelike format. Every individual mercenary is suspected of permadeath (or permanent injury, if they’re lucky), and if the whole party goes down, it’s game over.Battle Brothersinsist upon rebuilding and persevering from near-losses, building up a mercenary company after a job gone wrong amid a sprawling, procedurally generated world.
