Browser Game Pick: Nameless Roguelike (Hexedian)
Nameless Roguelike is an entry level roguelike game, where enemies are represented by alphabets while items are shown as special symbols or quotation marks. Press the question mark or slash key to access the shortcut list. Press a directional arrow key when next to an enemy to attack it. Use the O or C key to operate doors, shown as a brown symbol. Bodies of water represented by blue tiles cannot be crossed.
Press the W or P key to equip a weapon or armor. Your equipment is always ordered in such a way that the item at the end of the list will be the most powerful one you'll have in posession. Use the greater than or less than symbols to ascend and descend staircases. Press the Q key to drink a potion, or use the T key to throw an item at an enemy.
Hold '5' on the numeric keypad to rest for a couple of turns, and tap the E key to consume some food. Press the space key to grab an item off the floor. Players unfamiliar with roguelikes can begin the adventure with a human or construct from the warrior class, with a focus on strength and potions of healing as their starting equipment to increase their chances of survival in the dungeons.
Name: Nameless Roguelike
Developer: Simon Pelletier
Category: Roguelike
Type: Browser
Comments
While I appreciate what this game is trying to do, I personally think the best entry-level roguelikes are either Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2 on the DS (which lets you continue after death, and has little to no inventory management involved). The Pokemon Dungeon series is great for kids, or someone who just wants a casual dungeon crawler.
Weirdly enough, my general reccomendation for a beginners roguelike is the latest Stone Soup build of Linleys Dungeon Crawl.
http://crawl.develz.org/trunk/ (Get the Tiles version)
It has a great tileset, a detailed and interactive tutorial that brings up hints and tips as you play further, and the mouse interface is dead easy. Equipping a weapon is as simple as left-clicking it, examining it a right-click, dropping is a shift-LMB (as the tooltip will tell you) etc etc.
I've been playing roguelikes since the original Rogue, and the newest Dungeon Crawl has made me swear off even Nethack. It's great for players of any skill level.
Posted by: Dominic White | June 5, 2008 9:38 PM
I've always liked the idea of these games, but hated the "let's use every single key on the keyboard" style of controls.
Posted by: Jamie | June 7, 2008 5:50 PM
My favorite roguelike is still Iter Vehemens ad Necem. It's just a shame that development on it came to a halt...
Posted by: Brandon | June 9, 2008 1:02 AM
I disagree that Pokemon Rescue Team is a good intro to roguelikes, Dominic White. It's easy and has a "strong" story (that is to say, you're supposed to be advancing a plot), both two things that tend to make roguelikes pointless. Players using it as their first roguelike will get entirely the wrong idea about them.
Dungeon Crawl is very good, but on the other hand it doesn't have a strong focus on item IDing, which was a major aspect of Rogue.
I'd say the best games for learning to play roguelikes are Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (for consoles/portables) and Rogue itself (for computers).
Posted by: John H. | June 14, 2008 1:57 AM