How rogue-like!

Die, die and die again.

Let me ask you a question: are you stubborn? I don't just mean ' I played through Dark Souls' stubborn, I'm talking 'I played through Dark Souls, went down the skeleton route by accident, and brute forced my way through armies of over leveled baddies until the game itself forced me to turn back around' stubborn. The kind of pig-headed stubbornness that borders into nigh-on masochistic insanity at times. If so, you may find yourself dissatisfied with many modern mainstream games. 'Why do so few games feel built to reward persistence?', you may think. 'Will I never get a game that acutely challenges the upper limits of my obstinance?' Well, you're in luck, because I haven't just got one game for you, I've got an entire subgenre for you.

The Rogue-like and Roguelite subgenre is a division of gaming that is built around the core concept of challenging the skill of the player rather than their avatar. They're games that face you up against a randomized challenge, with randomized equipment and a tough-as-nails path to victory. And they expect you to die. Over and over again. Each time you are sent back to the start with nothing but the knowledge you gained from that run. The fun comes from mastery. From learning all the enemies behaviours, the uses of your loot, the synergies between items and, for absolute diehards, the behaviour of the procedural generation algorithm. There is no point of mastery that exceeds that person who can predict the layout of a random level.

It is this mix of random chance and skill that makes these types of games so alluring for the speed running community. Which, as I have discussed before, is a community that can be very healthy for your game's life cycle. There is always a new challenge so that players can never reach that state of over-familiarity with the levels, this can help speedruns feel fresh and dynamic. Then there comes the issue of bragging rights. Speedrunners love to prove how well they can utilize a good deck or scavenge a bad RNG run. However, being crowned the speedrunning king of a Rogue-like is not the same as being crowned as the king of Mario 64 runs. That kingdom is built on a foundation of sand, so players have to be constantly on their toes for whatever the next run might throw at them.

For the purposes of this blog, I will be primarily focusing on a subdivision of this subgenre: Rougelites. This is purely because I have the most experience with them. Rouge-likes are games that have all the hallmarks that I described but is limited to turn-based gameplay. These confines do include a couple of games that certainly have my interest; 'Slay the Spire' and 'Darket Dungeons', but I've just never got the chance to actually sit down and play them. Luckily the much more generous list of 'Rougelite' games features many absolute gems that I would absolutely love to talk about today. So let me start with the very first 'Roguelite' I ever played.

There are a few games that are preceded by their reputation. The kind that are spoken about in rumors and whispers from a friend of a friend. Spelunky was one such game for me. It looked simple enough, a cutesy platformer with a few obstacles, but looks can be oh-so deceiving. For those who are unfamiliar, Spelunky is a 2D platformer that revolves around an Indiana Jones-looking adventurer as he scours cursed ruins for treasure. Standard affair, nothing special. The kicker comes from that fact that these ruins constantly shift their layout, just to throw you off your game. But even that is only the tip of the iceberg.

Spelunky's creator Derek Yu decided it would be fitting, in his 2D platformer, for the player to be as vulnerable as a paper vase. As you can imagine, that turns a fairly sparse cave full of a handful of spiders and some traps into a absolute stress-fest as you desperately try to maneuver around each threat in order to reach the exit in time. Oh, but reaching the exit won't do. Afterall, we're stubborn completionists. So then you end up scouring the levels for every bit of bonus treasure and each lost damsel, only to find each level has a hidden time limit that summons an unkillable ghost if you surpass it. So you end rushing through the levels, grabbing all the collectibles, buying all the items, becoming incredibly resourceful and then... you die from a insta-kill trap. You wind up back at the beginning with none of your loot, gold, progression or confidence. At that point it's all on the player to pick up that controller and start again.

That is the beauty of Rougelite games. Your progression through them is based as much on your ability to learn and endure as it is to be skillful. That being said, it is rather soul crushing to start again having gained nothing for your time, and so some Rougelites have systems in place that can reward you even for failed runs. On such game is Edmund Mcmillen's 'The Binding of Issac'. 'The Binding of Issac' retells the biblical story of Issac and Abraham only with a modern little boy named Issac and his unnamed devout christian Mother. She believes that god speaks to her to declare open season on her son and Issac is forced to retreat to his room and hide beneath his- trapdoor? (Am I the weird kid for not having a trapdoor as a kid?) What follows is a fantastical journey through psychological and biblical imagery and symbology as Issac escapes deeper and deeper into his Psyche. Or into his past. Or into a box. Okay, the premise isn't quite so cut-and-dry here but the resulting product is one of the most famous examples of a Rougelite ever.

'The Binding of Issac' is an isometric shmup-eque game. You start off in the attic and end up fighting your way through a whole host of gross, randomized, beasties with the damaging power of your tears. (It's a weird game) This culminates in a final confrontation against your psychotic Mother, represented in your dream-like state through her heeled foot, which I'd imagine Issac must have become pretty familiar with in their years together. Of course, the levels and bosses are also randomly generated and the secrets are always placed hodgepodge around the map. Players have to navigate this maze, collate items and transform your snivelling protagonist into a demonic killing machine by the end. Where Binding of Issac goes above and beyond the usual Roguelite is in the unlockables. Certain actions that you perform unlock new items that you then have a chance to pick up on subsequent runs, some actions even unlock new characters that start with a whole host of pre-acquired items. And just like 'The Stanley Parable' suggests: The end is never the end. Once you beat the game the first two times you will find that your third run has an entirely new final arena with a much harder boss. This keeps building up and up until you end up fighting Mega Satan. Seriously.

But if all that 'religous symbolism' is too much for you, perhaps you would prefer a more sane Rougelite. Well, I've got you there too. As for the last few weeks I have actually been playing a fantastic little indie Roguelite called 'Risk of Rain'. In 'Risk of Rain' you are tasked with conducting history's least organized raid as you blow up a cargo starship and rain it's inventory all over the single most dangerous planet in the galaxy. Then your dumb ass has to go down there and grab as much loot as you can before executing your exit strategy; which is commandeering the ship that you shot down in order to escape. Again, Simple enough, right? (Once-more, no, you ought to have learned this by now.) Everything on the planet desires to, and is fully capable of, ripping you limb from limb, and things only get worse the longer you hang around.

'Risk of Rain' has a progressive difficulty system wherein the more you dilly dally in the level the harder the game becomes until it is unbearable for anyone who hasn't yet reached immortal godhood. Luckily, all the loot that you are tasked with scavenging also happen to double as items that power you up and pushes the you ever closer to the overpowered dream. As you defeat more powerful bosses and clear obscure challenges, you unlock new high-powered gear and brand new characters that fundamentally change up your play style. But all of that pales in comparison to the real reason that I love 'Risk of Rain' so much: Cooperative play! This is one of the few Rouglites that allows you to die over and over with your friends, allowing you to share your torment with those you love.

Roguelites and Rogue-likes are a very particular game for a very particular type of player. Good thing that target audience is abundant enough for games of this genre to do well. Spelunky has a legendary status amongst indie games and is even has an impending sequel in the works. 'The Binding of Issac' has been ported to everything with a graphics chip. (despite the fact that the PC version is really the only way to play.) And 'Risk of Rain' has a fully 3D sequel already out and enjoying updates. If you are the type who seeks validation in conquering difficult tasks, or just finds satisfaction from the act of perseverance, then I'd urge you to give some of these cheap titles a try. You may just find your next mountain to scale.