When I was a kid, I often went to visit my grandma. We'd go up to her house for Christmas every year (this was in the early 90s), and while I loved seeing my grandparents, I think I probably loved the opportunity to play video games just as much. You see, she had a computer. It was beautiful. It ran MS-DOS, and she had a HOST of shareware games on it. (She's always been good with a dollar, and figured - why pay for games when the kids will probably never finish them anyway). Looking back, my favorite developer was Apogee Games (or maybe Epic MegaGames). Probably because she got a lot of shareware games from somewhere (I think a computer or video game magazine - she had a few for us kids to read). Those games make up a substantial portion of my childhood - Duke Nukem, Crystal Caves, Commander Keen, Cosmo's Adventure, Word Rescue, Mystic Towers -the only game I remember hating was Boppin'. The reason I say all this is to justify the below. I love this game. I boot it up and I'm in a world where I'm young and excited for Christmas again. Objectively, though, it's pretty average. The platforming segment is just painful, Hocus locking to anything he touches with his feet, making jumping (and walking up stairs) somewhat jarring. There's one combat mechanic, and it's repetitive key-mashing all the way through. It's not difficult where it's fun and not fun where it's difficult - the game just doesn't really work that well. It's not TERRIBLE - the mechanics work, you can get around well enough, and the exploration isn't all that bad, there's just not much to it, and what there is isn't all that good. If you're like me and looking to relive your childhood, this is a great buy. If you're looking for something new, this hasn't really withstood the test of time.
SanctuaryRPG does a lot of cool stuff. ASCII graphics, funny writing, and a bunch of different classes, all in an effort to merge roguelikes and RPGs into something amazing. The fundamental problem is that it doesn't really understand the core of either the RPG or roguelike experience. Roguelikes are great not because you sit around and grind, but because you have little choice but to continue on in dangerous scenarios and use whatever tools you can find to succeed. Roguelikes involve constant expenditures of varied resources to overcome differing challenges. Dying is fun because you're always succeeding by the skin of your teeth, and you learn how to overcome obstacles and think of ways to use resources better. The fun in an RPG, conversely, comes from the battle system being good and interesting. Many RPGs fail at this of course, but combat should feel tactical and thoughtful rather than algorithmic. SanctuaryRPG is a poor roguelike, because you have no disposable items, and only one tool for overcoming challenges (yourself). You never run out of anything, and the appropriate response to any challenge is simply to grind. There is no thought involved, no feeling of overcoming something through cleverness and skill. You win because you've spent enough time grinding. It's a poor RPG for similar reasons. The combat is algorithmic - perform actions, heal on occasion. Despite the plethora of enemy types and status effects, the one-on-one combat means there's no real tactical options beyond 'do X when Y happens'. Reposition when enemy charges. Heal when poisoned. Don't use ultimate on ultimate-immune enemies. Don't get me wrong, it's fun for an hour or two, but there's no depth beyond that.
