7DRL 2011 Reviews - Stygia

Stygia! The very name conjures up memories of ancient lands.

Stygia! I really dug the lighting and the dungeon layouts were awesome.

Sygia! I died. A lot. So many times.

Stygia is a classic (in a good way) roguelike dungeon diver, with a few twists. I like the heating effect. Throughout the dungeon are random “hot spots” that raise the temperature of the otherwise chilly dungeons (this temperature drops as you go down). When you are warm, you can rest to regenerate health. This makes locating hot spots a top priority for each dungeon.

According to the author’s posts on 7drl.org, you can finish the game by getting down to dungeon level 10 and defeating the bad-ass boss. I would love to meet him! I couldn’t get past the 3rd dungeon level. However, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to come back and try! It just means that I have many other 7DRLs to play.

So, stuff that I liked? Title screen! I love a good title screen. The story is interesting without being overbearing and explains some of the game mechanic to you. The libtcod engine looks amazing as per usual. I did have a hard time seeing the grey “g”oblins through the diffused yellow light, but maybe that was just me. Kobolds and ogres were easier to see.

I also dug that the weapons/armor were highlighted based on (I assume) rarity. So, if you see a green weapon lying on the ground, you know it is more rare (better?) than a white or gray one. And it goes up the color scale (white, green, blue, purple, etc) that I learned from Borderlands, but probably started in World of Warcraft or some older RPG that I haven’t played.

It was a little hard to tell which armors were better than others. So if I find a green +2 leather armor, is that better than a gray +0 platemail? It’s entirely possible I was missing something, but my armors did not seem to effect by “Defense” stat.

The other thing that bugged me (that was also maybe a feature) was the enemy movement. These guys pounce! They seem to move 2 spaces for my 1 space. Again, maybe this is on purpose, but it takes some getting used to.

Other than that, the combat felt really solid. I seemed to be bashing monsters with an appropriate number of hits. They were just bashing me much more quickly! 🙂

So, Stygia, I wish you well. I will probably come back and play you after these reviews, but for now I must move on. Definitely keeping an eye on this one.

(Since typing this originally the author has come out with an updated version, which I will try out soon.)