Gather ’round, folks. Time to RIP and TEAR!
What do you get when you cross-breed a classic first-person shooter with the roguelike genre? Well, no need to hypothesize or fantasize, ’cause we got this little old game we all know as Doom, and it just got the hots for some roguelike lovin’. Sweet in its gameplay, yet cruel with its permadeaths and random number gods, the genre known for its toughness brings a new spin to the fast action you know from Doom.
The game itself starts like what you’d expect. Our Doomguy, just another lowly UAC marine at Phobos. Just another day… and all of a sudden, all hell breaks loose. And if you haven’t played the games yet, I’m meaning that literally. Demons appear in red planet, and they’re pretty much eager to turn that whole place blood red. A familiar rocking tune is heard, and with a handgun in tow you get ready to blast yourself through hell and back…
It’s a story that many FPS gamers may already know. The Roguelike version does not have much to change in the way of story, so what’s the big difference aside from the genre shift. Well, honestly, the big change is the shift in genre, and what a change it is. For those unfamiliar with Roguelikes… you could say that it’s like an RPG. There’s a big focus on exploring randomized dungeons. You pick up items, you fight monsters, and you level up and get new skills. In between those three things, you try not to die with all your might. The deeper you are, the higher the chances that you get killed and start all over again. As most roguelikes have permanent deaths for characters, this is a very, very, very bad thing.
There’s a certain amount of strategizing involved. Fair amounts of planning is required if you want to survive and succeed in a Roguelike, where the computer is designed to make your life a living hell as you play. How do you get that and combine it with a series known for fast-paced action that requires a certain amount of animal instinct to shoot everything on sight? You’d be surprised.
As you might have expected, a large amount of combat in DoomRL involves shooting up stuff from a distance, just like the original. While most roguelikes start you off with only your bare hands (or in some cases, a stick and the clothes you wear), you get a handgun and some ammo from the very start. It’s just a pea shooter, but you can go around and shoot some demon ass. Yeah! Unfortunately, that means that you’ll also be facing an equally armed force. At the very start, you have a group of former humans all too happy to return fire with their own pistols, and some with a shotgun to blow your silly face back one space. Sadly, you don’t get to see your face slowly turned into a beaten pulp.
Expect a large majority of enemies to try to kill you from a distance. Along the line, you get access to some familiar firepower. Shotguns to spread your love! Rocket launchers to make a big bang! BFGs to make bigger fucking bangs! Somewhere in between, you also get a chainsaw to do some up-and-close lovin’. And on top of it all, in true RPG/Roguelike fashion, the game expands from the original by adding some special and unique weapons. Wanna go gun kata with your own rapid fire pistol? You betcha! Chop up some fresh meat with your cleaver, or upgrade your weapon into a bigger fucking gun.
Aside from those RPG elements, you have armor and boots, and some healing items. All are subject to the harshness of a limited inventory system. You gotta think about your gear and build as you go down and level up. Leveling up itself here is pretty basic. After you gain a level, you can learn a new skill to help you out. Having a set of skills can unlock a special skill, and some might block others. You can probably stick with the basics and fight the forces of hell without much problems, if you’re lucky. Most of the time, you need a certain amount of planning if you want to finish off those barons of hell.
Now, the game comes in two flavors. You could go at it with the traditional roguelike graphics; ASCII-based stuff. Colorful, but a bit too basic for some people. You can choose to play again with the sprite-based graphics, which provide a very nostalgic feel to the original. Whichever you choose, expect some rockin’ remixes to play out, and know that there will be blood to spill. As you move around, you get alerted to the presence of enemies from the growls you’ll hear. When you hear imps, ready your shotgun. When you hear mancubi, find cover.
The game is pretty linear, much like the original Doom. From Phobos, to Deimos, to the very gates of Hell itself, you’re gonna find the exit to each level and try to not die. Adding to that, in between some levels you get to enter some special areas. Unlike the normal, non-boss stages, the map of these special areas are not-so-randomized, so you can at least expect certain set challenges. A skilled player can reap the rewards, if they can take on difficulty that’s usually harder than what they have been dealing with. You can save between stages, but as permadeath can’t be turned off, one has to be very careful and very skilled.
On top of that, the player can select the difficulty of the game, and what class of character to use. You got the Marine, Scout, and Engineer, each with their own set of skills to learn and passive starting skill. If you want something harder, you can go unlock a number of challenges to make life in Mars much more tough, ranging from only being able to use shotguns (moderately hard) to having fallen enemies revive after a number of turns (insanely hard). There’s even a challenge where your life is reduced to a very small fraction of the usual (suicidally hard).
All in all, DoomRL is a wonderful remix of an already classic game. You get a certain amount of nostalgia from it, due to the sprite based graphics, while providing you with a fresh way to play the series. Due to the randomizations of certain factors, you won’t get all the items in one go, and there’s a certain fun in trying to get the biggest fucking gun or get a certain the hand-cannon of a certain Vampire…
Go ahead and try this, folks. It’s fun and it’s free!
Linkeez!:
http://doom.chaosforge.org/ – This is where you get the game for free. You can also access the game wiki there, but don’t expect to see the details for the secret secrets to be unlocked. Get your Doomguy working on it!
Also, you can find links there for ASCII Roguelikes for Aliens, Berserk, and Diablo. Try it! It’s hard! And fun!