A new wave of Roguelikes

In case there’s any doubt that 2020 was the year Roguelike domination become total (at least within in the indie sphere), it bears repeating that

Spelunky 2 and the full release of Hades arrived in the same week. Along with the likes of Noita, ScourgeBringer and Risk Of Rain 2 – sticking within the bounds of action Roguelikes – it was an embarrassment of riches for fans of procedural generation.

For games taking a fresh run at the genre in 2021, then, the bar has been set very high indeed. Crisp art and responsive action are no longer enough to guarantee an audience. Any new entrants who decide to throw themselves at this particular gauntlet need their own sharplydefined take on the format.

For Hades, this was the novel concept that Roguelikes could tell a story. We’re already seeing the first successors to that approach. Going Under brought a satirical edge to the template, while the just-launched

Gods Will Fall attempts something closer to the XCOM model by generating a band of warriors with procedural personalities for you to grow invested in and, inevitably, mourn. (An approach that might sound familiar to fans of Roguelike tactical RPG Darkest Dungeon, set to return this year with a sequel.)

There are some neat mechanical twists on offer too, from the

Resogun-style circular floors where

Orbital Bullet’s shootouts take place to the corruption that builds over each run in Curse Of The Dead Gods until it spills over into one of the titular jinxes. Then there are games attacking on both fronts, such as

Endless Dungeon, which follows

Hades’ lead in making the Roguelike death-rebirth cycle part of its story, while building on the tower defence and co-op multiplayer elements of its forebear, Dungeon Of The Endless.

Name recognition is another potential route to success. Rogue Legacy 2 (pictured) is resurrecting a founding title of the early-2010s action Roguelike boom, while Ultimate ADOM takes things back even further. It’s a sequel 25 years in the making that offers an optional ASCII graphics mode for players who prefer their Roguelikes, well, a little more like Rogue. For these games, it’s precisely this stubborn traditionalism – a lack of interest in “what have now become the standard Roguelike expectations,” as Rogue Legacy 2 designer Teddy Lee puts it – that helps them stand out.

Still, there’s one way the pair are bending to modern orthodoxy: as with almost every game mentioned here, they’re being released in early access. Supplementary content updates have become practically mandatory for Roguelikes at this point. At least, until someone finds a compelling reason to ditch that approach, and rewrites the rules again. It’s happened enough times in the genre’s history.