Couldn't agree more on this.

Call me a cynic but I feel a large amount of games that go for procedurally generated levels, do so explicitly because it takes a whole lot less effort than actually planning out and building cohesive levels.

Procedurally generated level doesn't mean NO level design, quite the opposite actually.

It does tend to easily feel "samey" but when it's well done, it's quite decent. Procedurally generated games are special tough, much more inclined to show their game designs and mechanics more than their levels.

It feels like they've taken their 1996 feel and added a more present game design bit.

Anyone is free to like it or hate it tough. Of course.

This discussion is fun. For most 'Roguelite' games [correct: RPM] - especially FPS types - 'randomly generated' has absolutely nothing to do with 'procedural generation'. Levels/Rooms usually are handcrafted just as it was in Doom etc. but their appearance and/or order is randomized.

So yeah, I am definitely looking forward to STRAFE. Who knows if it'll actually be good but at least I'm gonna play it before throwing around any educated opinions. ;)

Oh, I'm not saying procedural design is either easy or devoid of creativity. Some of my games use procedural levels. I just think the technique is more suited to some genres than others. Dungeon crawlers and platformers for example can work quite well procedurally, whereas FPS and RTS games benefit more from hand-built levels that allow for strategy and cunning item placement.

I'm not saying this game is doomed (heh) to fail. Just that it would probably be more rewarding for me as a player if it had meticulous level design rather than modular. It's like the difference between a professionally prepared meal and a buffet - the buffet you can keep going back to, but it will never beat a meal precisely and lovingly prepared. Not to say a buffet is necessarily a bad thing, just not my first choice for this kind of "food".

That was tongue-in-cheek, not a typo. :P
I rather like your term (for the uninitiated: "RPM" in this case is "randomized permadeath machine"), and hope it catches on. Maybe then "roguelike" can slumber in obscurity once more. (It's a beautiful dream, anyway!)

Yes! I'm so glad this game is coming to GOG! It looks like a roguelike homage to Quake 1.

As someone already told, looks like Quake 1 but with bilinear filtering disabled in QuakeGL. Also some textures gives that neat Doom feeling. ;p

I don't think that procedural generation should be exclusive to a certain subset of genres but I agree with you on the fact that some gain or lose more from such design usage.
Well Rogue must be the first RPM then. But it's true because I prefer the term rogue lite myself as most of the games put in that categoiry nowadays do way too many things differently then Rogue.

Having enjoyed Tower of Guns & Ziggurat, I'll probably give this a shot depending on the price offered. While this type of games tend to get "more of the same" the longer you play, if their gameplay is refined they're can actually be quite entertaining in shorter doses.

https://www.gog.com/game/tower_of_guns

Wouldn't winning in an unknown map require more skill, however?
If you learn the layout of a level, at a certain point you'll just end up repeating the same N tactics* over and over.
(often copied from other people)

YES! I expected this to be released at GOG since it's a game published by Devolver Digital and most of their stuff get's a GOG release. This will be an instant buy for me. Is the release date for GOG the same as the STEAM version?

Don't forget and [url=https://www.gog.com/game/ziggurat]Ziggurat!

That's not 1996. In 1996 levels were crafted manually by leveldesigners who knew what they where doing.
:p

My thoughts exactly! Modern games don't hold a candle usually to the masters (e.g, Duke 3d, Unreal 1), let alone a roguelike being able to.