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7DRL 2011 Reviews - Rook

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Rook is a 7DRL entry by Joshua Day. The concept intrigued me, and the screenshots caught my eye. (Note to roguelike developers: screenshots!!)

At first, I was at a loss of what I was supposed to be doing. The readme.txt was not very helpful in explaining some of the core mechanics of the game. However, the success post on 7drl.org was helpful:

As long as you’re wearing the orb of the Turk, you can’t die a stupid death — every move you can make has to kill you.  If you take it off, you’re playing a traditional roguelike.  The ring of vulnerability will save you from losing any hitpoints, because every hit you take will kill you, which is forbidden by the orb.

Well, that explains that!

After reading that I felt a little bit stupid. Surely the name “rook” should’ve inspired me with some vaguely chess-oriented thoughts. Once I got the mechanics down it was a very fun little roguelike.

The game gave me a mad pell-mell sort of feel, with bouts of extreme tactical decision making. This is a good combination! I also liked the terrain. The trees (&) were first seen as obstructions, but later, as friends. I can use trees to lose pursuers! That way I don’t have to risk taking off the ring to dispatch them. And always, always, always, trying to move right.

Nice line of sight (through the grass)
A fate worse than death?

Being “checkmated” is a unique way to end the game. Is there some way I can reverse my steps and make different decisions? That would be pretty amazing.

There is one particularly mean bug in that potions and scrolls can fall on obstructed terrain. The author is up-front about it and mentions it in the readme. But it is still quite sad to run out of your way over to a healing potion (!) only to find your way blocked. It is like the game is taunting me. But, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Who doesn’t enjoy a good taunting every now and then?

After a few dozen mad-dashes rightward (yes, it is worth it to go after potions and scrolls) I was finally able to kill the king. Huzzah!

Take that, you evil tyrant of some kind!

I also noticed that the game seems to be using curses? This would make for a great terminal game. Perfect for breaks at work between other games.

Either way, excellent work. Looking forward to the next version.

You can find a list of all 7DR L2011 finishers on roguebasin or temple of the roguelike.

7DRL 2011 Reviews - Benhem

2 min read 7drl2011reviewUncategorized
Next up is Benhem (OK, technically I can’t find a name for it and Benhem is the author, so “Benhem” it is!). Time to fire up the ol’ PuTTY for this one.
I am digging it already.
Benhem is not what I would call a complete game. But it does so a lot of potential. I really enjoy the old-school “gold box” design. The fact that it is played from a terminal is (in my book) a plus. Games that you can take with you anywhere? Just great.
The fact that so much is shown on the screen without any noticeable lag is impressive as well. I am used to playing nethack on alt.org and other servers and there are times when you can definitely tell you are not playing a local game.
I didn’t find any items. But I found lots of doors. And plenty of monsters.
I love the turn-based grid combat. You might say that sort of thing is my bag.
However, it seemed unfair that the monsters could attack me diagonally and I couldn’t attack them. Some terrain would be nice as well, so I could wedge my cleric in the corner while my fighter tanks. The author mentioned he is working on adding abilities and such things. I could easily see there being some fun tactical battles here. Again, no lag, which is nice!
The ASCII art is nicely done as well. It was immediately clear to me which of my dudes was the fighter, thief, cleric, and mage. (The fact that this is so easily done using so little information says something about the artist but also a lot more about our established canon of fantasy game imagery.)
So, not a complete game, but certainly an awesome tech demo. There is lots of promise here. Hopefully the author keeps it up.
You can find a list of all 7DR L2011 finishers on roguebasin or temple of the roguelike.

7DRL 2011 Reviews - Pitman Krumb

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TROUSERS DESTROYED!

Pitman Krumb. Odd name, but definitely worth a play.

I’m a little familiar with the Unity browser plug-in, but have never seen it used to build a roguelike. I am impressed! Especially considering this is the team’s (Friedrich Hanisch & Jana Reinhardt) first entrance.
Having to move the camera manually is a little odd at first, but I did get used to it quickly. I like the look of the game a lot. The textures seem hand-drawn, rather than generic “rock” or “wall” panels. It’s cool to see 2D art represented in a 3D manner. I also liked the items — they lay on the ground like little cards. A slight annoyance — it’s hard to tell what you are looking at until you pick it up. If your inventory is full, this means you have to drop something, pick up the new item, check it out, and then either drop it and pick up your old item, or keep it. But even that is not too cumbersome a mechanic.
The game is surprisingly (for a 7DRL) filled with small touches of polish that make it fun to play. The way the terrain “popped up” when you entered a new area. The satisfying way in which your enemies fall over and then “float” into the sky, off the screen. Also the music was excellent, but I’m not sure how much was composed specifically for this game.
Things I didn’t like? I was confused by what an “exploration card” was at first, and why I was interested in how many I had left. But I figured that out. I was also unclear as to which potions were health and which were mana but maybe that was just me? Overall, most of the things I found annoying were things that I got used to rather quickly. Having every game use the exact same controls and mechanics would be rather boring, after all!
I had to cut my review short on this one because I just kept playing it, and there are at least 40 other 7DRLs to get to. After this game and Vicious Orcs, I think the rest of the competition will be very hard-pressed to measure up. But that is a good thing! It gives us all something to shoot for in 2012.
I’ll definitely be returning to this one after these reviews are complete. Well done, guys.
5 out of 5 @s.
You can find a list of all 7DR L2011 finishers on roguebasin or temple of the roguelike.

7DRL 2011 Reviews - Vicious Orcs

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I had an absolute blast playing Smart Kobold, Jeff’s entry for 2010’s challenge, so I was very much looking forward to playing Vicious Orcs. So my original plan was to save this one for last.
That plan failed.
Vicious Orcs is beautiful to look at. Like many games this year & last, it uses libtcod. But not in an overly obnoxious way. No diffused multi-colored light or particle effects. My personal preference is for roguelikes to look like well, rogue. Games like Brogue are about as fancy I want my graphics to get.
That being said, Vicious Orcs is also amazingly fun to play. It is simple, but in a complicated way. It has enough strategy in it to make it fun. It is rare to see a fully finished game done for a 7DRL.
The combat has a good feel to it, and the town is tons of fun. The limited inventory took some getting used to, but feels necessary in a game like this. I hope the town’s folk didn’t mind me leaving my broken armor lying around.
Speaking of broken armor, I really dug that whole mechanic. Finding a broken weapon/armor in the dungeons is awesome (OMG PLATE MAIL), then taking it to the forge to get repaired is almost inevitably more expensive than your current gold supply. So, it’s off to the dungeon to get more gold. Except then you find an even BETTER weapon. Repeat.
At first the non-euclidian dungeons bugged me (as they did in Smart Kobold), but once I saw what was possible with the Town Portal spell, I was a convert. Simply amazing stuff to see in a roguelike.
My favorite feature might’ve been the “Orcs” count in the top-right corner. Just seeing that ’10’ sitting there the entire game made me REALLY want to kill some orcs. A surprisingly large amount. I’m guessing that was the intent.
I’ve likely started out with one of the best of this bunch of 7DRLs, but I’m glad I did. I’ll be coming back to this one once I am done with these reviews for sure.
5 out of 5 @s.
You can find a list of all 7DR L2011 finishers on roguebasin or temple of the roguelike.