Renzatic on 18/3/2010 at 22:36
It's basically like the old Eye of the Beholder type dungeon crawls. You explore, find neat stuff, and attack monsters in good old fashioned turn based style fighting. The one thing that makes it a little different is that you don't level up at all. The only stats you have to consider (besides HP of course) are on the weapons you find lying around. Beyond the usual +blah to damage, you get bonuses based on certain weapon attack types vs. monster weaknesses. Like if something is weak to fire, and you smack it with a torch, you get a crit bonus plus an extra attack for that round.
Oh, and you get an automap, so you don't have to break out the graph paper.
Despite it sounding so simple, when you mix in the pressure plate puzzles, locked doors, and weapon durability, it's actually got enough meat on its pixelated bones to keep things interesting. I've already spent a good 45 minutes playing, and unlike most RLs, I haven't even come close to getting bored with it. The graphics have a nice, goofy charm to them, the music is nice and atmospheric (though a little repetitive after listening to just that one track over and over again for 45 minutes), and...hell...it's just all kinds of fun.
I heartily recommend it to anyone that likes oldschool dungeon crawler games. Just don't play it fullscreen.
Kolya on 23/3/2010 at 08:27
Transcendence could have been fun but:
Asteroid controls. In a rogue-like.
Ulukai on 23/3/2010 at 18:16
Did you play it Kolya?
As it's more of a space-based arcade exploration game with some rogue-like RPG elements, I can't help but feel that the asteroid controls are much better suited to it than a traditional rogue-like control mechanism.
That said, I found it mildly interesting for about 5 minutes and that wasn't to do with the controls.
Having a great time with Bitworld. Dig those 8-bit tunes.
doctorfrog on 24/3/2010 at 01:10
Quote Posted by Kolya
Transcendence could have been fun but:
Asteroid controls. In a rogue-like.
And this is a problem, how? Actually, how would you improve the controls?
I've been playing Transcendence as kind of a cool-down game before bed, while listening to spacey ambient drones. It's a bit slow and repetitive in the beginning, but it gets better and deeper. A lot of this has to do with the need to build and upgrade your ship, combat up until that point isn't very interesting, whereas with a well-designed roguelike, there are always interesting choices to be made, even at lower levels. Fortunately, any disaster you fare can be reversed, since gamesaves don't autodestruct.
That said, if the gameplay turns you off initially, it'll never really turn you on. I actually think that Transcendence could do with some of the design philosophy of Crawl, with regard to no no-brainers and avoidance of grinding.
And branches. Crawl-style branches would be awesome set in space. (Not sure if Trans has branches, haven't gotten far enough to know for sure, but doubt it.)
Not the best action roguelike in the world, but it'll do until Crawl 0.6 final.
Can you tell I'm really looking forward to the next Crawl?
Kolya on 24/3/2010 at 16:47
I played it of course before writing my comment.
Personally I think Asteroid controls are a relict from a time when it used to be okay for video games to let the player fight the controls more than anything else. But it also largely depends on the way they're implemented:
- Automatic breaking for example. Now I can already hear someone say it: "This is space, no friction!". But don't be so foolish, because of course it's not space, it's a game. It ignores lots of other aspects of space and rightfully so, because realism isn't always fun.
- Mousecontrol, see (
http://www.oddgames.com/rymdraket) Rymdraket for an example of how to do Asteroid controls right with mouse controls.
So in conclusion, I have a problem with this sort of traditional Asteroid controls, because they're clumsy, imprecise, hard to control and imho they don't fit at all into an RPG where you often want to reach specific goals, have to manage resources carefully and so on, but - oh no! - you just drifted a few million miles past your target planet (again) and into a field of enemy ships and turrets. Yay.
tl;dr: Kolya sucks at Asteroid and therefore doesn't like Transcendence.
doctorfrog on 24/3/2010 at 19:55
It's cool, man, those are valid criticisms. Though it's moot for you at this point, I've gotten used to braking with:
* Period, which is an actual brake
* Docking with a nearby stationary object
* Thrusting in opposition to my current movement
Combat is actually kind of a drag until you can get homing weaponry, and over time, you can also get some slave ships that do combat for you. The early game really is kind of an un-fun grind.
Bluegrime on 24/3/2010 at 23:58
So I got Transcendence, but I feel the exact opposite of Doctor Frog. The early game is actually enjoyable, whereas the late game becomes pretty tough to actually have fun with. Charon, for all the cheapness of having frigates/infinite spawning pest enemies track you down from the second you leave the star gate, is tame compared to the later systems. I used a Stone of Despair ( My second one. I booked it the hell out of there the first time I used one, assuming some eldritch horror was going to eat my ship whole ) to jump to Eta Ceti..
Home of the device damaging enemies. Which might not be too bad if they stuck to "devices" like the bonus doodads you can put on your ship. But when a single enemy destroys my weapon, backup weapon, shield generator and engines in a game where I can't get any of those things repaired, I call it bullshit. The only thing that makes that worse is the armors with the "device protect" properties are otherwise useless, even to the actual damage done to your ship when you get hit by the enemy that damages your stuff.
Another nasty problem is fighting the Sung Slavers, who are a double shot of being able to stun lock you to death and their tendency to kill the slaves your supposed to rescue from them. But not on purpose as some kind of "We're about to get busted, destroy the evidence" thing they do. No, they'll be trying to shoot you and continue firing even when theres a slave pen between you and them, even though there is a 0% chance of that ever hitting you. ( It gets even more illogical when you think of the fact that their destroying slaves. That their supposed to sell to people. )
And also, the late game swap to another currency. Especially hilarious since the merchants who use it (And also the only late game source of fuel you don't have to kill stuff for/repairs if the system your in dosen't have a dry dock/military outpost) don't let you sell them stuff to actually get any.
That said, I've had quite a bit of fun playing it. But I'm probably just about done with it, since gaining a bit of perspective on what the game will turn into down the line.
doctorfrog on 26/3/2010 at 05:07
7DRL contestants have been weighed with ratings now, so perusing them invites a little less tedium and madness:
(
http://www.roguetemple.com/7drl/2010/)
Top three appear to be:
* PrincessRL - A roguelike version of Princess Maker
* Harmless - A spell-based roguelike
* Toby the Trapper - A roguelike based on killing enemies by setting traps
... which is merely to indicate the variety to come out of this competition. I wouldn't expect many of these to make lasting impressions, given the experimental focus of the competition, it's more for creativity and speed-to-completion.
