izigame.me

Right, so, first things first, if you're like me and have played some games like these (ToME, DF, CDDA) and are put off by the graphic style, get it. While this has a very similar interface and looks similar, it's not anywhere near as stodgy, confusing or clunky as any of those games, While it looks like a purely ASCII game, it's not really, as it features smooth scrolling, animations, floating numbers and nested menus. Hell, you can even play it with a gamepad (although I'd recommend the quick menu mod for that). The graphics are what you see, but it plays much better than how it looks. Get it. Now.
Now, for the rest of you normies, please let me try and explain why this is one of the best RPGs I've ever played.
First of all: graphics eww, right? Hear me out: Caves of Qud is a game set in a weird, weeeiiirrrdd place. A strange world of salt flats, sentient plants, cyborg implants, shotgun-toting goatmen, magic frogs and the ruins of a hyper advanced civilization. It features descriptions of weird ass beings and a procedural, rich lore. This is a game that dumped the "graphics" stat in favor of everything else, but has done so in a way that can deliver it in a synthesized, streamlined manner. It's not pretty, sure, but it like, interfaces with your brain in a way that you stop seeing those symbols on screen and get drawn into it, if that makes sense, like that bit in the Matrix when that guy says he doesn't see the code anymore. Thanks to its UI and QoL improvements over other similar games, it's the best entry point to these kinds of games if you're new to the genre, and a welcome evolution for veterans. If you won't like it, you won't like it, but take it from someone who has been sitting in the fence for a long LONG time: it's not as bad as it looks.
Now, beyond the graphical presentation: how does C o Q play? At its core, it's a very orthodox turn based roguelike game, with a strong randomization element, high replayability, and permadeath. Do quests, explore the world, delve into ever-expanding caverns, find items, get levels, that sort of stuff. Oh, yeah, and it's COMPLETELY FUCKING INSANE.
I'll fully admit that at a tender 40 hours I'm still basically just getting started, but Caves of Qud does something incredible with the roguelike conventions: If there's something I've learned through iterations 1 to 12 of my character is that for a game that can be this unfair at times, it does respect your time as best as it can. Not only does it offer several game modes (permadeath, checkpointed, exploration and peaceful) but also it offers a number of different starts, clusters missions a decent distance from each other, offers premade classes, hell, it even offers you to auto-route to the next level of a dungeon and gives you a teleporter to cut down on backtracking. It helps a lot in getting through those first few levels when your character is at its weakest and help you get settled into the game, because when you do get that ball rolling, boy can you get up to some shenanigans.
See, C o Q is a game that can and will be unfairly difficult. It can throw you into tight and absurdly laid out dungeons, with incredibly powerful enemies that will chase you down, teleport you around, incinerate you with their minds and make you wink out of existence, but that also will allow the player to participate in the same hilarious, unbalanced horseshit through items and skills but ESPECIALLY thanks to its mutation and implant system.
I've only played as a mutie myself, so I can only speak of the former, but mutations are, essentially, superpowers. Multiple legs. Multiple arms. Phase through walls. Mind blasts. Forcefields. The ability to fucking FLY. Precognition, teleporting, expelling poison, and every. Single. One of them is cheatcode levels of powerful if used right. You will start with a budget of points that you can spread around, but as you level up you will be able to both level up your mutations, AND buy new ones. You can end up with anything from a psyker capable of popping the heads of an entire horde of enemies in the blink of an eye, to an agry pile of limbs mutilating their way through a fort, and it's glorious. Not only that, but you'll also receive skill points that will further gain you access to powerful skills, cooking, crafting, navigation, and more.
While it is inevitable to run into a few walls while figuring the game out, difficulty is usually pretty well signposted and, while yeah, it is entirely possible that the game will flood the first fucking dungeon with tar and populate it with fire-shooting kobolds (RIP Otto the 10th) if you are careful it is actually relatively easy to keep yourself alive. Dip your toes into a biome before risking getting lost while exploring, make sure you get some defensive mutations and skills as you level up, keep your teleporter charged, always try to have an escape plan at the ready, and you can inch your way through the game by grinding currency and experience more or less reliably. There's an absurd amount of caves, ruins, villages and camps to explore, and knowing how far can you push it is incredibly important. There's plenty of stuff to be found in the extensive, EXTENSIVE cave systems and traders are commonly found even there, so get ready for multi-day cave dives if you feel like it.
Caves of Qud is a power fantasy and yet a fight for survival. Intricate and yet streamlined. Involved yet replayable. Rudimentary and yet evocative. And above all, a fucking blast to play. A game that is less "unfairly difficult" and more "fair but hilariously OP", and it feels incredible when you go from running away from a threat to cleaving through hordes with little effort. And let me tell you, it's going to sting like a motherfucker when Otto the 12th finally bites it, but I can always kick it down to checkpointed progress. And try a different build. Or a different archetype. Or a completely different class of character. And I'll also have a blast with Otto the 13th. It may be ugly as fuck, but underneath the presentation lies an absolute masterpiece of a game very much worth experiencing.
9/10