There is no computer game I have spent as much time playing as Brogue. Brogue’s your standard person-goes-in-a-dungeon-and-kills-stuff sort of game, but more importantly, it’s a roguelike, a particular style of game born from the ancient-in-computer-years game Rogue. In a roguelike, the world you play in is randomly-generated and the gameplay is exceedingly hard. Together this makes scenarios you can’t win even with perfect play. And there’s no save-and-reloading, so forget trying multiple ways to get out of a bind.
This sounds so frustrating, but it’s perfect. With its short gameplay and arbitrary chance of success, Brogue is a game I can play for 15 minutes and die in, or play for a hour and feel adrenaline-fueled and on edge. The further you get in the game, the more every move matters, and I feel more suspense than I get from any other game.
Above, you can see me very close to death. I’m in a special area, the goblin warrens, and am surrounded by enemies. At the top of the screen, you can see text about what’s going on: apparently, I have really pissed off a goblin warlord. At the bottom, you can see description about where I am: of course the ground is spattered with blood. The map gives us a lot of information. The bright area is what I can see; the dim area is where I’ve been; the pinkish area is what I know from using a scroll of magic mapping.
The most compelling parts of gameplay for me are the unknowns and the strategizing of tough situations. You have a limited set of resources: potions, scrolls, wands, and the like. When you get them, you have no idea what they do at first. You have “a pink potion,” or “a scroll that says hgwfers”, or “a crimson wand.” When you use these things, you usually figure out what they do, and you’ll know if you find another one. Sooner or later, you have to try something unknown, and there’s lots of bad things that can happen. In a tough spot, though, you try it anyway. What if you get a potion of life or a scroll of teleportation? (That’s what I was hoping for in the above screenshot. I didn’t get it.)
The other part of strategy is combined effects. I played Brogue for months before realizing that gases (poison gas, confusion gas, paralysis gas) are flammable. Throwing a potion of confusion into a room, waiting a few turns for it to spread, and then launching a flammable dart in there: that’s a way to clear a room you couldn’t take on. A potion of levitation, a wand of beckoning, and a pool of lava: now you’ve got the ability to kill any creature (that can’t fly or isn’t immune to fire.)
You can see the litany of horrors I went through to get there. The tension and stress I felt on level 26 – the last level of Brogue – were off the charts. At that point, there’s no directly taking on problems: it’s all sneaking and avoiding. I never thought I’d achieve this victory, and I felt dizzy and amazing and more successful than I’ve felt in most real-world situations.
I haven’t stopped playing; I haven’t won again.
You should download and try Brogue. Play it 10 or so times before reading the beginner’s guide to the early depths. You’ll appreciate the guide more after having a lot of mishaps.
Expect to spend a lot of your time looking at brightly-colored screens of text. You will not regret it.
