The element that I most love about roguelikes is also the element I most hate in roguelikes --

-- permadeath.

In my experience across dank, bloody dungeons, gleaming scifi space vessels, and monster-infested horror-scapes, there is nothing more exhilarating -- and potentially soul-crushing -- than watching your valuables and your most valuable, life, expire do to a wrong move, greed, or having taken one "bridge too far." That desperate tension can make the experience beautiful... and then instantly terrible. But the cortisol of that fight-or-flight highwire act is addciting...

... and thank goodness it's just a game!

Indeed, permadeath in real life would be a real bummer!

What I enjoy most in this kind of games are the action is always right in the corner... the time you spent to play the game is reasonable, you can play them bit by bit. The atmosphere is always there, immersing you while you delve into something unknown or life threatening kind of deals /situations / stories. And you get to form different style of strategies by forming a group of people with different jobs, skills, abilities, weapons, weaknesses, etc. So it feels like they are actually living in an environment where anything can happen and their lives are at stake. Surviving or fulfilling their misions or purpose has a huge impact too. The stories and or side quests are what makes them whole.

Allure of the unknown,
destiny to be sewn.

Questing for glory and riches,
only to miss death by inches.

Twisted by chaos, ruled by no law,
dark paths lead to places nobody saw.

Tough decisions to make, cold steel to wield,
we shall prove our worth on the battlefield.

The thrill to survive another grim day,
the experience and loot after the fray.

Till we meet our end in the darkest den,
to begin our tale all over again.

I like roguelikes because every time I lose/die I learn something new and bring over that knowledge to do better so there's a sense of progression that makes me keep coming back.
In many roguelike games, winning isn't so much the point as exploring the game, thus making roguelike games well worth my money with their replay value.

I believe that all my first games were Rogue Likes, or so, hehehe.
I started playing MSX games and later NES games.

But my first Rogue Like when I knew what Rogue Likes were was FTL (Faster Than Light)
It was really hard for me !
Until I managed to get the dual Machine Gun Cannon and good shields to rip the final enemy ship apart...

I have also played 20XX a lot, but I still have not been able to finish it...

I really enjoy the difficulties of learning the mecanics of a new Rogue Like...

And I am looking forward to try new ones !

Roguelikes are unique due to their structure. They require understanding with how the game works, what systems interact and in what ways. After cracking the code, we exploit those to be able to advance and fight bigger bosses, and then beat the game.

The game actually expects you to figure more things out as you advance.
It's about observing and adapting, so it is more interactive as opposed to watching an interactive movie that has been preset.

I find that roguelikes focus on gameplay over story, and I love this. A lot of them use procedural generation, which requires gamers to use reflexes and skill rather than memorizing enemy placement or repeating the same pattern over and over again such as of dodge dodge attack.

You might not even encounter the enemy you expect. Items and enemies surprises me sometimes and that is what`s part of the fun!

Darkest Dungeons is one of the few games ive actually sunk time into considering i buy heaps and heaps but very few of them i sink more than a few hours into. FM series is one. Darkest Dungeon is another. Roguelikes are simply...awesome IF you understand what your getting into and work within those limitations.

Huh? What's that?

I like the fact that roguelikes, just like real life, have procedurally generated levels. Due to that, there are advantages and disadvantages, but it's hardly ever boring!

What I like most is the unpredictability, the chaos and mayhem of rougelikes. Pattern recognition is out the window, it's all about survival.

Thank you, and congrats to the other winners!

Congrats to the winners!

Thank you GOG staff for the fun contest and for liking my post, and congratulations to all the winners!