I couldn’t find a thread for this game, so here it goes:
I’ve stumbled upon it today and it completely hooked me. The gameplay and turn transitions are incredibly fast, UI is clear and functional, and the game is surprisingly tactical - it also seems as if the level of randomness is somewhat lower than in other roguelikes, the game features a ingame email/messages system that give out clues about loot or hazards on maps so you can plan ahead at least a little bit. You are also able to store your level up points (not sure if just 1 or more, haven’t tested yet - edit: you can store more than 1 point, very useful in the beginning) in case you’re not sure which way to go with your character. The builds seem quite fun, I was initially very apprehensive about playing melee but then actually ended up winning my first (easy) campaign with a melee stealth Scout!
The best part for me? Mark Meer as voice actor :). Otherwise the game is very derivative, it liberally borrows phrases and other things from games like Duke Nukem and Doom. Soundtrack is pretty great too.
It’s really good. But honestly these days, the only reason to play it over Jupiter Hell is either because it’s free or because you really need it to be explicitly Doom themed w/ the music etc. There was a point in development where I bounced off Jupiter Hell, it just didn’t feel like DoomRL. Full release, that was definitely not an issue.
I backed it on Kickstarter just because I liked the idea and the original DoomRL but bounced off one of the earlier iterations as well. Which was expected, glad to hear its in good shape now.
Made another run, this time on Medium with a Marine - lucked out and found some unique plasma assault rifle with endless ammo that made things really easy. I have to say, I wish the game was a little longer, a decent run seems to take about 1.5h on average.
I started on easy because I had no idea what I was doing and it was the default choice. It has taught me a few things but I think I am going to restart on normal because I just cleared the first planet and I am overflowing with med kits and ammo. This is inspite of me making a large amount of mistakes - most of those based around learning the controller interface.
Really liking it otherwise and looking forward to playing more.
It’s on sale for $10 now. I picked it up, and maybe I can give it a few hours this weekend. They just added mod support in v1.7. How does (what I guess is) such a small title receive big updates two years after launch? Regardless, more power to the devs.
Technically, DoomRL is 20 years old, so those last 2 years are just the tip of the iceberg!
I’m curious how this feels with a gamepad. I’m getting mouse-ache symptoms again. The game page says full gamepad support. Is it playable with a numerical keypad alone as well?
I spent all my time in this using a controller on the TV, and yeah it’s solid.
It’s 4-way movement, and not a heap of bindings or anything. D-pad movement only. It uses the face buttons for the weapons, and then doubles them by having you hold a trigger to also use them for skills.
I’ve been very pleased. The shooting is as satisfying as in DoomRL. There is lots to do. I don’t really see the need for 3D graphics as the sound is what conveyed and still conveys it all. Beautiful gamepad support, with very sensible button mapping.
Agreed. And they made it easy to switch wait to a bumper instead of a stick press. Jupiter Hell gives a good template that I would be happy to see used in other roguelikes.
Same! I died by committing the cardinal sin of playing late and panicking when something bad was going down, so I just quickly hit movement buttons and got myself blown to bits. It’s turn based! How does it get under my skin that way, where I feel I have to react in the moment?
I played ToME earlier this year, long enough to get a win. Quite enjoyable, but it has the sort of math that feels very MMO to me–clear number tiers needed for damage and defense. Probably ToME has other approaches than the way I see it. I’m not great at exploring synergies and tricks–I think I won with a barbarian.
I have Cogmind, but I’m waiting on it to hit 1.0, though it looks very full-featured already. My start with roguelikes was Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. I highly recommend it if you haven’t played it.
Actually, the marine got a pretty crazy skill (hellrunner? or something?) that gives you very high dodge when on the move (you can see the number popping up when you move, in my case it was 80% while moving!). I made it quite far until they resorted to massive splash-damage from everywhere on my 4th character!
