Having spent decades playing video games I must have achieved some notable feats? Beating the first four Halo games on Legendary, both solo and co-op. Oh plus Reach and ODST. Smashing most of the Super Meat Boy levels with the A+ grade including all of the hardest stages. Completing all three campaigns in StarCraft II (granted more determination than skill). Countless self made up challenges in the Football Manager series. But one genre has eluded me and turned into a three year mission. Beating a Rogulike game. Not even a specific title, just any in this sub genre. With hundreds of games surely this should be a doddle?
Well not so much. As I will go on to explain, these are particularly tough games but let’s first have a look at the history of the genre. When someone says old school games I think of something like Sonic the Hedgehog. Way back in the 90’s on the Mega Drive, the speediest platformer gave you a set number of lives. You play through as much of the game as you can and then when you run out of lives you have to start the game again. Right from the beginning. Damn you Green Hill Zone! The reasons for this are for the most part twofold. Memory was far smaller and you couldn't create save states. But it was a relic of the arcade games where death meant spending more money (or renting the game again to try and complete it).
Thankfully we have come a long way since then, with copious amounts of memory for saves and most games (correctly) not even bothering with a lives system. Death is an expected aspect of most titles. But then we have Roguelikes. I must admit I hated the name until I did a bit of digging. It comes from the 1980 game Rogue, a procedurally generated dungeon crawler with permadeath. Those features with the fantasy setting (massively inspired by Dungeons & Dragons) seem to set the template for all future games in the genre. Hence Rogue-like.
That has totally won me around, even if there were older games that could claim the originality title. This one stuck and who am I to argue? Rougelike, Roguelite, Roguish. The overall difference between a game like this and Sonic is levels and items would be randomised, meaning something different each playthrough. You couldn't depend on the Legendary sword every time and repetition without new strategies was worthless. Which leads you to failure more often than not. Hence my problem.
The Challenge
Although I have been trying on and off for the last few years my experiences with Roguelikes goes back way longer. The Xbox 360 era renaissance of indie games brought with it some of the best titles in this genre. And back when my knowledge was far less than it is now I would play a bunch of these games without really knowing what I was getting into before giving up. Let's just say this was the period of gaming knowledge began to blossom.
Of all the titles I tried the standout one must be Spelunky. A 2D dungeon crawler in which you are basically Indiana Jones! Armed with a whip as your default weapon, bombs and ropes to help you navigate the randomized levels. The idea is you traverse the four zones, beat the boss and escape with the ancient treasure. Obviously this has eluded me so far. Early levels are much easier with the familiarity of enemies like bats mean you can race through these quickly. Later the ice world with tiny ledges and huge drops to your death are far harder, with basically every element out to kill you. Fuck even killing and robbing the shop keeper makes all future shopkeepers come out for blood!
The music is incredible and it looks damn good for an indie from 2012. It's actually the controls that are very solid making moving around a lot of fun. Death pretty much always comes down to your bad decisions and imperfect control skills. Procedurally generated levels are helped with items that can be bought to mix up your playstyle but the fun really lies in the daily challenges. Here are where a lot of roguelikes thrive and keep people coming back for me. Spelunky just got a sequel on PlayStation and PC with rave reviews. Both are due on Switch sometime this year!
I'm not sure my reflexes could ever be described as lightning, not even a simple game of Pro Evo has me showcasing mad skills (though that may be bad decision making...). What about a title that requires brains and gives a bit more thinking time? Well thank fuck for FTL: Faster Than Light by Subset Games. In it you control a Spaceship with a few crew members trying to escape the Rebels by jumping from region to region. At each jump you might come across any number of scenarios ranging from enemy ships, alien shops or abandoned freighters. Usually though you get attacked and must retaliate in real time.
Here are where things go to shit, you have to manage ship health, missiles, money and fuel to make it through the 8 sectors to warn them about the attack. Once you get into a fight there is no chance of escape without either blowing up the other ship or at least pummelling them into submission. You will come across some sketchy situations and might have the chance to get the fuck out of there before anything bad goes down. For the most part; do you take a risk for a bigger reward?
Well here is where I don’t cover myself in glory. In my third run I made it to the fourth sector through sheer blind luck and I have not even come close to this again. In like two years! It is a tough game and meant to be replayed over and over. There are numerous ships to unlock which you would hope it would make things easier. Or at least have something that gives you a decent strategy. The upgrades can get crazy with the ability to board enemy ships sound like great fun! Amazing game. Crap player.
And this, dear reader, is where my mental blocks on roguelikes kicks in. It's obvious that this game is beatable but it's seems totally beyond me. Is there something else that I could conquer?
My Attempts
I could list so many damn games that I tried and gave up on but I will keep it to a few. Not all of them were good games I would recommend but there's only so many times I write about failing before hanging up my game controller in disgust. The game I have probably had the most fun (outside of Spelunky) is Dead Cells, the action platformer by Motion Twin.
It came out in the middle of 2018 and has been receiving regular updates, both free and paid for DLC. The support is as amazing as the 2D game itself. In it you play as a slime creature who takes over the body of a beheaded prisoner. Armed with a sword, shield and bow the player must kill the enemies you find and escape. Each level can take a few minutes to complete, with lots of secrets and hidden items to find.
Combat is great fun, with an excellent dodge roll complemented but a bonkers amount of weapons. It’s hack and slash but with enough variation in the weapons that you find during runs. There are additional pick ups along the way with traps to snare enemies and grenades to blow them up. The first few runs are tough but get easier once you know enemies attack routines. It’s when you meet the bosses that it jumps up a gear and here is where you regularly meet your demise. Death is not the end and you will splodge out in the prison cell again (hence Dead Cells) ready to take another run.
My biggest problem with these games is usually nothing carries over so you are back at square one with only a hope that the next run will give you weapons that compliment your stats. Fortunately you have cells (blue orbs dropped by enemies) which can be spent to unlock a bigger coin purse, starting weapon randomiser and other upgrades. Players can collect blueprints to permanently unlock weapons which is very cool but it all takes time and repetition. It turns out I am not the most patient.
All in all, a great game that while decent I am not good enough to beat. The developers have tried hard to aid players, adding mini versions of the bosses to train you for them and for PC having every build playable of the game. Looking through it you can go right back to the beginning and play the bare bones version but most of the changes are quality of life ones so probably best to keep them.
As combat is no longer my strong point maybe I need a title that has a little more strategy about it? Bad North is a game I have talked about before but now with its final updates and quality of life tweaks it seems much more approachable for new players. Given an army (of nine troops) you must move from island to island defending houses against an onslaught of Viking attacks. Real Time Strategy is probably the most apt description.
You position your group on the small island grid and try to hold each wave of enemies coming to burn down all the buildings. You gain additional groups and can upgrade to specialise in Sword, Pike or Archer, which has the usual Rock Paper Scissors strength and weakness. Units can be healed during a battle but then will be timed out for a level so it takes care planning of which route you take on the world map. It has an identical world map to FTL which might be part of the problem for me. It’s little islands are beautiful and it looks glorious. Unit movement is hilarious as the quickly scramble around at your command. The early levels are great.... Moving swiftly on.
Arming yourself with better weapons is obviously a common theme, none more so in Slay The Spire, a deck building roguelike. You are dealt a bunch of cards that produce damage, buffs or defence whilst you take on enemies in turn based combat. As you navigate your way to the big boss fights you can purchase and receive new cards. The biggest question for deck building games is do you keep a lean deck so those best cards keep turning up but limit your options or go as big as possible to cover many more scenarios but run the risk of drawing dud cards in a fight?
There are three different characters to run and whilst I enjoyed each one none of them really warmed to me. I could look up strategies and pull the exact cards I need but then where the fun is that? That keep going until you get the 'right' roll of luck is beginning to put me off the genre. I get the pull of this game but it’s just not working for me. Will anything? Well this title does have the advantage of letting you ponder your choices, allowing you to step away for a while. Maybe that is the secret for me, something that allows intense pondering?
I did it?
Of course I missed out on maybe one of the best games of the last decade, as tight and well designed as any other made. My last bastion of hope was the chess like Into The Breach, a mech combat turn based strategy game. The premise is simple, you are given three mechs who must take out the Vek (giant evil bugs) who are attacking humans on number islands. If you lose all three mechs or the power grid goes to zero (Vek destroying human buildings) then you die and must start the run again.
The really clever part of this game is that each level is an 8x8 grid in which you are told where the Vek are going to attack on the next turn. This allows you to position your mechs to either kill or more likely negate their attacks by pushing them out of the way or blocking. It really is like chess, planning your next moves although the stress of being outnumbered quickly moves us away from that analogy and into some kind of robot slaughter simulator.
The idea is to clear out each island before taking on the final world where you have to hold out until a bomb explodes, killing all the Vek. That is my aim, just to see this ending once!! You have pilots who level up and gain bonuses and can unlock weapons and power cores along the way. Once the Vek make their move you basically have a few options of how to deal with them, death being the optimum but not always possible.
You position your mechs then attack, though in the early playthroughs many stupid mistakes are made particularly if you move and attack without thinking. Moving mechs can be reset multiple times though you will get locked in after one attack. Usually each level has five turns to survive and you are able to reset an entire turn if you truly fuck it up. Like losing a mech and killing a pilot through carelessness.
In theory you beat all four islands and then take on the final volcanic land with the bomb. But the game ramps up so quickly that my strategy of carefully does it really doesn't cut the mustard. Upgrading health isn't that helpful when you have bugs doing huge damage to buildings. I need a way to optimise this. How can I make this as doable as possible? At this stage I just about reach the final world but I always got overwhelmed by bugs who do insane damage. My mechs survive but I always run out of power. Is there another way?
Yes. Some of the reasonable changes are the mech team. Having experimented with numerous different teams the original Rift Walkers are my best bet. I get what each can do, with all three able to do damage without too many compromises. Next up, let's cut out the last two islands and get straight into the volcano. I can't get any better unless I am regularly getting to it and trying out different strats. Plus two Islands is the optimum speed running choice! Choosing the right pilot was easy, Issac Jones you are my saviour. Another additional reset per level really allows me to iron out (multiple) mistakes.
The final choice was a big compromise but I stand by it. Sticking the game down to easy. Sure this is quite a big cop out but the general consensus online is to build up your knowledge of the game quickly. The Vek attack patterns are the same but you are dealing with fewer of them. Keeping the number down to three per attack is crucial to staying on top of them. A look online shows the top speed running category is Two Islands on easy so I stick by my decision!
And so to that fateful run where I fucking finally did it. In the end I managed to power up my mechs to do enough damage and have some power left over in the final fight. Seeing the mushroom cloud bloom over the earth was the moment I had finally beaten something after so many years. It took so much planning and several tries but I got there in the end! The release of emotion was huge, this is maybe my best achievement in gaming in years.
What’s Next?
Yes my finest achievement in years was on easy. What of it?! You go beat it! I had a lot of help from Chris (check out his Twitch), who sporadically streams his Hard runs on ITB, well worth a look! It actually sets me up very nicely to go and beat the game with other mechs and get a feel for stepping up. Normal is within reach and just need that good roll of luck. Four turns from glory in the last run, I can almost taste it. That is my next barrier as I love this game and it’s no hardship to keep trying again and again. Particularly as its on Switch. Finally a roguelike clicks!
I could go back to any number of other games I have started but I always long for the new. Hades sounds most promising, a hack and slash roguelike that has spent a couple of years in early access refining itself. On the wider front I should beat a JRPG at some point, Xenoblade Chronicles Definite Edition looks like it could ease me in. A Pokémon Red speed run in less than three hours has huge appeal if not a steep learning curve. I played Dark Souls a couple of weeks back so just beating that this year is probably top of my list.
With the emergence of stronger backwards compatibility it's not challenges that I am being pulled to but entire series I have either missed or barely made a dent in. There are so many old games that are readily available (though honestly through emulation you can pretty much play anything). Metal Gear Solid, Fire Emblem, Resident Evil, Uncharted, Metroid, Final Fantasy to name a handful. I feel like I ought to fill in some of the gaps of my gaming history. I completed Pikmin 3 and though I found it easy it was hugely enjoyable. This is my push for 2021. Any suggestions on a series and where to start would be gratefully appreciated!
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