The category of Roguelike games is for fans of role-playing games. This is a genre of games in which the levels are randomly generated for each run, and the character loses a significant part of the progress after the defeat. In this case, the hero's demise necessitates a fresh beginning. The game character, under the control of the gamer, will have to explore the universe, fight strong opponents, and collect items with attributes. The power of the character directly depends on the items. The stronger he becomes while passing, the more powerful the creatures get.
The map in so-called roguelikes expands as you go. On the game's map, there are always hidden locations with bonuses and power-ups. Roguelikes are primarily visualized using pixel graphics and rigorous simplicity. Since everything in these games is created randomly, they are not about visuals but rather the unpredictability of what is happening. Bagels are immersive. Some send players on a journey through the dungeons, others — to space worlds, and the rest — to hell or an alien planet.
Most Roguelike games are fantasy games, although there are exceptions. In the 1980s and 1990s, roguelikes gained immense popularity among programmers and students of US universities, which led to the emergence of a large number of imitations and offshoots retaining the characteristic features of their predecessor games. The key factors by which you can determine the games category Roguelike:
- The game must be turn-based, with one action and one move assigned to each team.
- Game levels should be produced at random and be distinct for each game.
- The game must have "permanent death," which prevents the player from playing when a character dies.
- There cannot be any additional menus, riddles, or mini-games, and the game must only have one mode and one set of commands for all game circumstances.
- The player should have freedom and a variety of passing possibilities, not just one single linear path, throughout the game.
- The player must independently examine the found objects to learn more about them.
The first projects copied the high difficulty and even modest color scheme of Rogue, but after more than thirty years, the best roguelike games look colorful and can captivate even beginners. The most common "run" is as follows: the player starts with a basic character ability or a random set of items in a safe room.
Moving further through the generated locations, he encounters more and more powerful enemies and also finds new abilities and equipment. Like the terrain, they can be randomly generated or mixed and have no clear pattern of appearance. It's worth noting that many roguelike games don't have endings, and constant failures are the norm. Yes, some representatives of the genre have a plot and even a full-fledged ending, but often, the point is to endlessly replay randomly generated locations and hone your skills.
With the development of computers and the gaming industry, there has been a departure from the classic definition of roguelike games. New Roguelike games often have randomly generated levels and perma-death but no turn-based mode, and the main genre may be action or platform. Players reacted calmly to such a modification of the classic genre, paying more attention to whether the game brings pleasure or not.