How Rogue Ended Up On The Sofa

I suppose you could say that this new editorial on Gamasutra is a Rogue: The Adventure Game retrospective, as it breaks down the dungeon-crawling elements that gave Epyx and Artificial Intelligence Design’s its uniqueness and then proceeds to profile some of the other roguelikes and RPG hybrids that have utilized a similar formula over the years. Nethack, Torchlight, Diablo, Borderlands, and Demon’s Souls are all referenced:

Diablo is a fine game, but for me, the way it binds combat to loot, and both to progression, is where it starts branching away from the Roguelike tree and becomes it’s own game. It’s a game I’m fond of, and doubly fond of its offspring, such as Torchlight and Borderlands (oh, Borderlands).

But it’s not quite Rogue. Out of that growing emphasis on grind, the hectic combat against many foes, the game becomes less casual; more demanding of attention and skill. Despite its challenge, Rogue was always a measured game: you took it at your own pace. It was casual because it was a break from grind in all its forms.

Where, then, are the Roguelikes now?

I don’t really want to talk about Torchlight more than I have, but it fills a Rogue-shaped hole for me. It’s a logical successor to Diablo; more relaxed, more endearing, gentler on the player, and yet with enough room for advanced players to push themselves. It’s not as exploratory as Rogue, but nor is it as punishing. As a relaxing challenge at the end of a busy day, it’s ideal.

The spiritual successor to Nethack – for me – has to be Demon’s Souls. It’s dense, complex, full of systems hinted at (but poorly explained) that need to be be taken into account. It demands small, repeated assaults on the same piece of terrain, progression being as much about the player gaining understanding as their character gaining experience. It returns to slow, measured combat – a mirror to the lockstep movements of the Roguelike.