Roguelikes are the bad boys and girls of the gaming world. You know you shouldn’t. You will always be running after them, you have to keep working harder and harder to keep things together, yet it inevitably fizzles out. That or you hit a brick wall after a golden run, never to surpass that high score again.
Some people surrender themselves to this crowd, happy to keep taking it. So, let’s have a whole festival of them! Steam is hosting Going Rogue, a festival dedicated to roguelikes and roguelites. If you need a quick primer, these are games that death means death – you lose everything (or almost, aka. roguelites) and start over.
Can you do BETTER this time? We pick ten games worth playing over and over and over and over…
Rogue Legacy 2 [Steam Link]
You might die one day, but your legacy lives on in your children! Yup, no matter how inept, short-sighted or clumsy, they will carry the torch for you! And when they die, their offspring becomes the new hero in this genealogical rogue-lite side-scrolling dungeon crawler. Every time you die, an offspring of your last hero takes over – likely with some strange side-effects such as nearsightedness, colour-blindness or some other slap from Mother Nature.
Noita [Steam Link]
Noita has been a big hit since launching a few years ago. You play as a warlock/witch who descends into procedurally-generated caves, blasting away all that oppose you. And many things will come at you, with the difficulty ramping up as you go deeper. Collect powerful wands to help you explore your way through the hordes, aided by a fantastic pixel-physics engine where you can interact with (and destroy) everything you encounter.
Nomad Survival [Steam Link]
Following Vampire Survivors’ footsteps, face waves of enemies in this top-down auto-shooter. Experiment with different builds and weapons to deal the most damage and see how far you can get! Nomad Survival is big on experimentation and repeat-play rather than trying to beat the game.
Samurai Bringer [Steam Link]
Kill the eight-headed dragon! Which, at first, you have zero chance of doing. Your initial character is so useless that there are even angry reviews about this on Steam. But they have it all wrong – in Samurai Bringer, you grow stronger with each playthrough, collecting scrolls that help you build highly customisable combat moves. This is worth checking out if you like hack-n-slash farming with some great combat ideas.
Risk of Rain 2 [Steam Link]
Drop down to alien planets with three friends and start blasting in this third-person action roguelite. Death is permanent unless someone can reach the next stage, and you find all your upgrades during playthroughs. But you can unlock different types of characters if you reach certain milestones. The longer you take, the tougher the session becomes – so don’t waste time!
Vampire Survivors [Steam Link]
This is, without doubt, the roguelite hit of the past year. Vampire Survivors is notoriously addictive. All you have to do is survive the night, but you need to destroy hordes of monsters coming at you to do so. Collect gems and weapons to improve your odds, with some elements carrying over to the next playthrough. You will have a lot less spare time if you buy this game – we’ve warned you!
Gunfire Reborn [Steam Link]
What do you get if you take something like Borderlands, make it a roguelike, and replace everything with kittens? Enormous amounts of addictive action, obviously: this game is a slick and fun first-person shooter with lots of weapons, settings to tweak different runs of procedural dungeons, and up to 4-player co-op.
Hades [Steam Link]
Escape hell in this stunning isometric brawler, mowing down countless enemies. The gods support you, helping you unlock mighty attacks and buffs. But die, and you go back to square one. Fortunately, the world remembers your previous runs, influencing future fights and interactions.
Source of Madness [Steam Link]
Lovecraftian horror meets side-scrolling spellcasting meets madness in this eerie game. It uses artificial intelligence to change its gameplay, maps and monsters, so things rarely repeat. You can create a unique character every playthrough using different spells, gear and class skills for tons of build options.
FTL: Faster Than Light [Steam Link]
FTL has been around for a decade but still keeps going thanks to its very addictive gameplay and endless variety (not to mention free DLC). Take your spaceship and crew out into the galaxy, fighting aliens and improving your ship to go further. Death is permanent, but the randomised galaxy makes sure no two playthroughs are the same.
