Caves of Qud: Wild-Eyed Roguelike Excellence

It should surprise no one, given the length of delay since last post, that I've gotten distracted again. The culprit this time? Caves of Qud, an early access, tile graphics, weird post-apocalyptic sci-fi Roguelike. Throw two parts Gamma World, one part Stephen King's The Dark Tower, one part ADOM, and a burnt capacitor into a broth of frenzied genius and stir: maybe you'll get something like this game.

Why has Qud so hooked me? Here's a few standout features:

1. An Enormous World to Explore

Bigness, in itself, doesn't usually appeal to me. Most games that promise immense settings to wander through feel bloated, not boundless, with ostensible freedom to roam rendered dull by plodding expanses of downtime travel in between moments of excitement and novelty. (See: Skyrim, No Man's Sky, etc. etc.) Not so Qud. Its setting is mind-bogglingly vast: every tile on the map pictured above represents nine screens' worth of (mostly) procedurally generated deserts, canyons, jungles, and ruins, beneath which lie as many levels of cavern network as you want to descend, without limit. (Other Roguelikes might have one "infinite dungeon" as the core location or a side gimmick. Qud has an almost fractal spiral of them.) And yet a combination of breezy progress through or over each screen, plus myriad ways of finding points of interest--lairs, workshops, ruins, historical landmarks--within each map tile mean you're always moving on to the next shiny discovery before tedium sets in.

2. Interwoven Procedural and Hand-Crafted Worldbuilding

I love me some computer-generated weirdness. I've spent dozens of hours reading, manufacturing, and even playing actual games with Magic: The Gathering cards created by recurrent neural networks. I'm a loyal reader of Janelle Shane's blog of AI-created absurd humor. I know, though, that the best use cases for procedural content are as supplement and inspiration to good old fashioned meat-brain creativity, and Caves of Qud pulls off that harmony with aplomb.

The game's quests, major locations, and dialogue glow with homemade brilliance, painting a setting that's alien yet inviting, its talking fungi, vast dunes of salt, and spacetime vortices a baroque backdrop to a culture rustic in its charm. Meanwhile, the game's algorithms churn out lore that's unique every playthrough, from the unintelligible ramblings of Markov-chain novels to random but thematically coherent exploits of age-old sultans. A sultan's obsession with prisms and mirrors may be randomly selected, but the fact that sultans obsessed with light-manipulating devices are a thing comes straight from the mind of the game's creative team, as does the character skill that lets you discover that sultan's history via divinatory interpretation of trash piles.

3. Intense Roguelike Action

My most successful Qud character to date was a cyborg with metal-boned fists, who as an opening move would punch an enemy so hard its hurtling body crashed through walls. Prior to that, my best success had come playing a deer centaur who could run down an opponent and simultaneously hack them with an axe (possibly severing limbs), gore them with antlers (causing profuse bleeding), and bash them with a shield (bowling them over). Next, I think I'd like to try somebody with four arms, each of them equipped with a deadly blade.

The core gameplay is recognizable Roguelike, with tile-graphic critters (or ASCII glyphs, if you prefer) bumping into one another to trade blows in dice-rolled style reminiscent of tabletop RPGs. But your tactical options, and the environments you'll do battle in, show off variety that's both impressive and memorable. You'll do battle with disease-riddled ghouls atop conveyor belts, with vents belching forth streams of acid across the battlefield. You'll skirt pools of tarry asphalt, only to have them set ablaze by flame-throwing swine, choking the air with smoke. You'll tiptoe through the chilly halls of a suspended-animation facility, only to have a wild-eyed cannibal get hold of a rocket launcher and blow open the cryogenic tanks, reviving an ancient warrior out for blood. These are set pieces worthy of film, and they'll get your heart pounding despite the turn-based pace!

4. It Keeps Getting Better

Caves of Qud is in Early Access, its main quest line perhaps half to 2/3 finished. While that does mean you'll run into some bugs here and there, it's actually more blessing than curse: every Friday, the devs release an update packed with new gameplay systems, content, and fixes. So if you play even once a week, there will be new things to discover for months to come!

If even that's not enough for you, there's a healthy amount of modding activity, where players step up to tweak and augment the game's features. I've even published some of my own!

Caves of Qud is $10 on Steam and will soon make its way to GOG and itch.io.

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