This is kind of an off format post for this blog. I've never done anything with a video game before, other than the mini reviews on the Star Wars blog. But, Doom: The Roguelike is on theme, a great game, and I spent a bunch of time the last couple days playing it instead of Shores of Hell.
Since this isn't a gaming blog, I'll throw out a quickie definition of "roguelike" games. As the name implies, they're (to varying degrees) based on/inspired by Rogue, developed in 1980. Rogue was one of the first games to do a whole list of things that aren't relevant here. Today, Roguelikes are generally defined as having:
1. Randomly generated levels that change every time you play
2. Permadeath: Once your character dies, you're out. No reloading a save.
3. Turn based, not real time.
4. Broadly based on fighting your way down levels through some kind of dungeon-like structure.
There's a whole lot of other characteristics that some people will include, distinctions between "Roguelike vs Roguelite", but that's a good enough for here. Doom RL checks all those boxes, though I'd argue it's definitely on the "lighter" side, compared to something like Nethack, which requires memorizing (or looking up) hundreds of pieces of information, and often years of practice to beat.
What makes DRL (as it's apparently called now, cause Zenimax) special?
The Doom theme is obvious, and it's a great starting point for a game. I talked a little about it in the first Doom entry, and I'll go into it more when I actually cover Shores of Hell, but the techno-hell sci-fi/fantasy mash up of Doom is a great setting. And, like any good non-commercial game, it's full of refences to other franchises like Warhammer 40K, Hellsing, Trigun, and Megaman. (This is one of my favorite things about indie games. The old versions of Defense of The Ancients had Warcraft, Final Fantasy, Starcraft, Slayers, and who knows how many other franchises running around. Nethack has Tron cameos.)
It's a (mostly) ranged combat based Roguelike, which used to be very rare (and still isn't the default). That said, the variety of approaches supported is pretty wide. Melee challenges are common, as is pacifism. Different weapon families play differently (a bursty shotgun build vs a rev up your chain gun one) just like in the original game. And it does a great job of tracking all that with different modes, achievements, etc.
More than anything, I think it's the pacing that makes it fun. A lot of Roguelikes are very slow, intentional games. Check the 15000 things going on, line up all your buffs, etc., etc. And that's fun sometimes, and you can play that way. But mostly, DoomRL is a run and gun kind of game, and it even has mechanics like dodging to emphasize that.
Honestly not really doing it justice here, and maybe I'll come back and edit this or do a second entry later. It's a Hell (HA!) of a good time, and it's free. What more do you really need?
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