I'm not really what one would call a roguelike connoisseur. In fact, the ASCII visuals that permeate most roguelikes have been enough to keep me at bay since discovering the genre.

"I wouldn't say graphics are everything, but ASCII graphics? Come on man, really?"

That's what I was saying last night at 9PM while on the phone with my best friend after he (strongly) recommended Brogue. Five minutes and a small download later, I ended up playing until 330AM.

This game really really get's the imagination churning, which is something a game hasn't done like this in a long time.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED... PROBABLY EVEN BETTER WITH BEER OR OTHER SUCH RECREATIONAL INTOXICANTS OF ONE'S LIKING, I DON'T KNOW FOR SURE THOUGH AS I HAVEN'T HAD THE CHANCE TO TRY YET. WILL PURCHASE BEER ON WAY HOME FROM WORK TODAY AND WILL WRITE A REVIEW OF INTOXICATED BROGUE-ING TOMORROW.


https://sites.google.com/site/broguegame/

Oh, yes. Brogue is beautiful. I know it' wierd to call ASCII game beautiful but it's. Also no classes, no race no stats only strength - it's quite smartly streamlined, ideal for new people and quick for seasoned veteran.

One of my favourites.

The ASCII thing already disinterested me ( I am a huge roguelike fan but not one of those who can handle staring at ugly symbols) but what you wrote here has insured I will never bother to try this game. Not a fan of dumbing down crpgs. 'Classless' is fine (depending on how well developed the RPG system is) but the rest of that...

Yes, it is a simple and easy to learn roguelike. But also hard to master and finish.

I don't didn't really like the ASCII thing either... works nicely here though.

And Brogue is quite revolutionary in that, 'cause there arent just symbols, but you see what it is and what is it doing. Clever. I'd say, it is not dumbed down. It is not for Bioware/MassEffect fans. It's more like logical game based on roguelikes with risking.

At first, i was like you - "Bah, dumbed down. Quit." But i came back after several months and saw the geniality. In simplicity is the brillliance. (Slightly modified czech saying) As he said.

I love roguelikes, I'll try this one out tonight. It looks like a variant of the original Rogue, which had no classes either, but with some game play tweaks. I don't mind the ASCII, in a way it actually lets you do much more with the game play as you can add and change things without the need to create models and animations. Funny story, I installed the graphic tiles for NetHack a few years ago and couldn't play the game anymore because I did'nt know what letter all the pictures were supposed to represent. So far the only roguelike that I have been able to play with the transition from ASCII to graphic tiles is DoomRL. Although I am starting to get the hang of the new TOME, it helps that the tiles are much more detailed.

The ascii graphics style has always seem clear to me. Letters mean monsters, numbers mean shops and punctuation is dungeon features/gear/everything else. Once you get that it is not a problem at all.

I also think its interesting that the game still has this whole level up thing. It doesn't add anything to the gameplay but its still there. Possibly for historical reasons. It would be interesting to see how the game would feel if it done away with levels and experience completely.

Also roguelike radio made an episode of this game right here:
[url=]http://www.roguelikeradio.com/2011/09/episode-3-brogue.html[/url]
So if you have a little time to spare I can recommend this podcast.

ASCII is awesome and can be quite pretty. ADOM is one of my favourite games ever.

I have to check this Brogue thing people are talking about.

Do! It's awesome. It feels so silky and smooth compared to other roguelikes.

Fair enough except to say that I am perplexed about your "Bioware/Mass effect" reference? For starters I do not and will never play such games. I am an old school RPG and roguelike fan. And secondly because you seem to think that Mass Effect/Bioware are the 'NOT dumbed down' RPGs?! Like talking about FPS games and saying "Well Blood 2 is no Dungeons of Daggorath but...".

But yeah the game might be fun but I am just not a fan of such games so I could not enjoy it if it were the most brilliantly designed simplified/dumbed down CRPG ever released.
Yep. Played quite a bit of DC:SS. It is a mixed bad though for me. The design is a bit wonky and, as is usual for roguelikes it is infested with the horrible D&D mechanics IIRC (been a while since I played).