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Mad Mage is a fun concept. I was curious to try it out after reading the initially summary. Here’s the gist: you (the wizard) are slowly (or rather quickly in some cases) going mad. This means the reverse of the standard roguelike identification system. All of your items (scrolls, potions) are identified to begin with, but become unidentified over time.

The great thing about this is that it sort of becomes a meta-game outside of the game. You start thinking to yourself: did I put that scroll of murder in my sash or in my robe. Was it slot a or slot b? Oh well, I’ll just toss this random potion and see what happens!

It’s a mad world

Mad World has a nice old-school look to it. I personally like my roguelikes to look like roguelikes. I didn’t have any problems running the game on Windows XP. It also does a nice job of mixing up the scenery, which is strangely not done very often in roguelikes. Your mad mage travels through grassy plains, caves, dungeons, deserts, and swamps on his quest to find the… something? In particularly mad fashion, I never was able to end the game by finding the ossuary.

Scroll of Mass Death. Why don’t more games have that?

Deserts look like deserts

The various potion/scroll effects are great. The randomized enemy names are very charming. As is the inventory system. When I first looked at it I was annoyed: WTF… I have to put stuff into 9 different slots?? After playing the game for a while I figured out why. It’s a great way to organize your items and help you remember things. Like I said, it’s charming too. It’s fun to think about a wizard wandering around with random scrolls in his hat and potions in his boots.

I put on my wizard hat and robe. And boots.

The charm comes out in the random messages your wizard says as well: now where did I put that…? What did I have for breakfast this morning? Excellent stuff.

I’ve seen other reviews of the game talking about the map generation. Personally, I found it to be a little annoying. I ran into way too many dead ends. But hey… maybe it is just part of going mad right? The levels are also huge; I never really got that feeling of “everything is explored” that you do in other roguelikes. I always felt like I was missing something, but really there was nothing leading me in any particular direction, so it was a little frustrating to me, personally. Now, I am the kind of guy who has a label on his label maker so it could just be me. 🙂

Mad Mage has a lot of charm and I am hoping to have time to go back and beat it once I’ve played the rest of the games. Great job!

Ok, 13 out of 45  7DRLs reviewed. Almost 30%!

If the rest of these games are as good and complete as the ones I have played so far I am in some serious trouble.

On to the next game: Light, by Kaw.

This is another libtcod game! Man, this thing is everywhere. Maybe I should actually sit down and look at using it? Nahhhhh.

First off, Light looks great. As expected from a game called light, it handles lighting really well. The diffusion is great and the independent light sources are amazing. It’s rare to see actual lighted MONSTERS wandering around, casting light as they go. I had to keep from running into the glowbugs because I didn’t want to actually kill them.

All of the lights.

It has a very limited inventory, which normally forces some interesting tactical decisions. However, in Light I didn’t feel like I could give up my light source, and I couldn’t figure out how to drop my tinderbox, so I really only had one ‘spare’ slot for one of the many potions I came across.

The dungeon features were cool. I like pulling switches and jumping down holes and all that.

Unfortunately that is about all I can say about Light. It crashed a few times on my windows machine and I never got past level 3. (I did let the author know, since that is what I would want someone to do for me.)

But finishing any sort of 7DRL that runs is considered an accomplishment in my book, so kudos!

Regicide!

Bart: [watching Flanders] An ax.  He’s got an ax!  I’ll save you, Lisa![tries to walk on his leg, falls back] Uh, I’ll save you by calling the police.  [dials 911]

Voice: Hello, and welcome to the Springfield Police Department Resc-u-Fone[tm].  If you know the name of the felony being committed, press one.  To choose from a list of felonies, press two.  If you are being murdered or calling from a rotary phone, please stay on the line.

Bart: [growls, punches some numbers]

Voice: You have selected regicide.  If you know the name of the king or queen being murdered, press one.
— The Simpsons, Season 6, Episode `Bart of Darkness`

I had been looking forward to playing this game since I saw the name. I also vaguely recall being very interested in the author’s previous 7DRL, Chompy (looks like he went ahead and finished it, awesome! Will have to check that out after these reviews are done).

So, Regicide! The plot is pretty simple and drives the theme very well. You are tasked with dispatching an evil King. The game starts in a prison, and the prisoner mechanic is very nicely done. Throughout the prison levels, there are prisoners that you can free with keys. Some are fellow revolutionaries and will help you. Others are vicious murderers, and will attack you! I wasn’t sure how to tell which was which before I let them out but I suppose that is part of the game! (A fun part, too)

I’ll admit that when I first freed a prisoner I wasn’t sure what would happen. I was pleasantly surprised when he started bashing the prison guard with me. I was hoping that would happen!

I was hoping that would happen.

From the display side, this is another libtcod game. I could’ve used bigger fonts… I had trouble making out the doors (+) from the walls (#). But, that could just be the fact that I am a) old, and b) destroying my eyes by playing so many roguelikes! Playing in full screen mode greatly alleviates this. I also really dig the scrolling levels. Nice and smooth.

The friendly revolutionaries were helpful, but not very good at avoiding my dagger when I walked into them, or following me through doors. According to the author, the next version fixes this. It would also be awesome if they could follow me downstairs, although I did learn later to not waste gold on prison guards and to save it instead for the Royal Guard down below. This bribing feature is one I really like. I guess we both independently came up with it, since I included it in my 7DRL, GnomeSquad.

Once you get past the prison level it gets crazy. There are worms that spit acid and destroy your armor! And the rock walls! Having monsters destroy the scenery is an awesome feature. I don’t know of any other roguelikes that do that. Can someone enlighten me if I am wrong?

Arg! My armor! (destroyed by acid)

This is as deep as I got 🙁

So, at this point I died. A lot. I really want to go down and kill that stupid king but no amount of potions or scrolls of fire seem to help me. I am looking forward to going back and trying once I have finished these reviews though! This game shows a large amount of polish for a 7DRL. Very full featured but simple in all the right places. (e.g. no need for giant inventory, just pick up a better weapon if you find one) Even the little things, like the way the prisoners moan or the murderers yell stuff, and the way the message buffer slowly fades over time.

Very promising stuff, keep it up!

And I will be back to finish off the king later!

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.

This happened a lot.

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.

Title screen!

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.)