Caves of Qud
Keep away from the ooze in Ca ves of Qud.
Making a new character in Caves of Qud is just as fun as playing one
My name is Hashur, and I am a mutant. I have four arms, two wings, and the surprisingly useful ability to expel a cloud of corrosive gas out of my pores. I also have a very slim chance that, at any moment, I might spontaneously combust. Right now, I’m bartering with a sentient beanstalk named Yurl. It’s not going very well because I have very little water, the de facto currency of those who live among the jungles of Qud. I’m out of water because I spent it all buying a book from the mayor, who also happens to be a towering albino ape named Nuntu. I needed that book because it’s the only way I can find the procedurally generated cure to Glotrot, a disease that will rot out my tongue and make it impossible to speak.
This is just my most recent playthrough of Caves of Qud, a daunting but brilliant roguelike that focuses as much—if not more—on story and worldbuilding than game systems. Sadly, I don’t imagine I’ll survive much longer. If the Glotrot doesn’t get me, the hordes of goatmen who prowl the jungles outside this village will. And then, like so many times before, I’ll have to start an entirely brand-new character. Hopefully this next one won’t slip in a puddle of black ooze and contract a horrible, disfiguring illness. I guess this is what I get for venturing unprepared into the chrome ruins that dot Qud’s toxic jungles.
I’m not too saddened over my inevitable death. With over 70 mutations to choose from—from telepathy to night vision and photosynthetic skin—making a new character in Caves of Qud is just as fun as playing one. And don’t be fooled by the ASCII-style graphics either, this is one of the most robust and imaginative worlds I’ve explored.
That’s largely thanks to how Caves of Qud uses procedural generation. Though the overworld stays the same, entire fortresses, ruins, and cave systems are randomly generated. Even more interesting, Caves of Qud also creates entire histories and cultures to unearth. That makes each playthrough so entirely different that I never know what to expect. It’s like Dwarf Fortress, only I don’t need a degree to understand what’s happening on-screen or how to play.
Weird world
I’ve made friends with tinkerers that also happen to be sentient bears, spelunked through ancient technoruins filled with lonely robots, and once met a legendary cobbler while being chased by stone-throwing baboons. I’ve also died. A lot. But it uses each death as an opportunity to offer a new perspective into its bizarre, colorful post-apocalyptic world where man-camels trade vibroblades for water, and beneath the procedurally generated surface lies an infinite network of caves to explore. It’s an alien world that comes alive thanks to expressive bits of flavor text that accompany every item and object. It might still be Early Access, but Caves of Qud already harbors more secrets than I could hope to find in a hundred hours.