Caves of Qud

This is maybe a twice-in-a-lifetime experience. Maybe thrice. I'm not a numbers guy. Maybe quince. Qaves of Qud, quince in a lifetime.

This isn't the worst game I've ever played, but is definitely one of the worst experiences I've ever had with a game. It's certainly an achievement in several ways, but I won't go into its strengths. There's already a wealth of content gushing about its mechanical freedom and story generation, which is not entirely inaccurate. But it is overstated and wrapped in one of the most hostile ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of a game I've ever seen. Nearly every aspect of the player experience reminds you that, if you are 99.9% of the population, this game was not made for you. It's hard to believe it wasn't designed to be as painful and frustrating as possible.. It's like how online scammers deliberately send emails with spelling mistakes to ensure the only respondents lack critical thinking skills. It feels like Caves of Qud made playing it so psychologically grating that its fanbase self-selects for people with infinite tolerance for emotional abuse and no respect for their own time. The more I've learned in my failed effort to enjoy it, the more it looks like some kind of weird cult. [b]UI/UX[/b] This is perhaps the least accessible game I've ever played. When I play Elden Ring or ToME or another large, complex RPG, I expect to Google things as I go. Like "where's the 8th Borgorite Shard" or "best fleshromancer dex build." Playing CoQ means Googling "How the ♥♥♥♥ do I use the stairs??" and "I'm taking damage and it doesn't say why help me." I've been buying potions at shop screens since I was ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ my own pants, and this is the only time I opened a shop and couldn't intuit how to buy something. The controls are an arcane fever dream of keyboard chords that aren't listed anywhere in game. The devs have, apparently, promised improved "onboarding" since Obama was in office, and it simply doesn't exist. Most game jam games have a more fleshed out tutorial. [b]Graphics[/b] Traditional roguelikes are not known for graphical fidelity, which I knew going in. Qud is on the bleeding edge of modernization for the genre by making the brave decision to actually have graphics. That said, this style leaves a lot to be desired. The overwhelming retro green theme is not only an acquired taste, it's optical terrorism after a few hours. Everything is dark and obscured by filters, with contrast either inscrutably low or brain-bleedingly high. I'm not color-blind, so I can't speak to that accessibility dimension, but I feel like I'm gonna be blind-blind if I spend a couple hundred hours staring at this Fallout terminal of a game. Even if you like the retro aesthetic, the lack of sprite detail often leaves you with no idea what you're looking at. It's essentially trying to create the experience of ASCII graphics without the ASCII. Yes, there is a unique conglomeration of pixels representing a specific thing in an abstract way, but if you don't already know what that thing is, good luck figuring it out by looking at it. As a side note, when I searched for alternate tilesets online, every thread was filled with people saying things like "The game is a visual masterpiece" or "This is a highly intentional and elegant visual style core to the game's identity." Straight up Star-Citizen-whale, Stockholm Syndrome Qud master race comments. I mention it because this seems to be the general approach to the game's design, community and developers alike, borne out in every dimension. If you feel that you [b]must suffer[/b] to assuage your Catholic guilt, and this suffering grants you [b]righteousness[/b] beyond the [b]uncultured heathens[/b], then this is the game for you. [b]Gameplay[/b] Even the pukey graphics, egregious UX and wiki-based tutorialization could be overlooked if the game delivered on its core promises [i]in a compelling way[/i], but it does not. My first impulse was to call its systems "shallow," but maybe "hollow" is more accurate. Qud promises complex systems, extreme freedom and emergent chaos, and it technically delivers. It has systems for liquid simulation, electrical power, gas dispersion, body temperature, explosions, the list goes on. These systems interact, creating a dynamic, deeply simulated world where anything could happen! But "anything," in 99% of cases, means something that will either kill you outright, or make it take 10x longer to do whatever you're trying to do. Like everything else in the game, none of these systems are explained to you, ever, and all of them have been engineered to troll you. Gas physics are less interesting when you're holding down "pass turn" for 45 seconds while a gas-filled hallway disperses over 1200 turns. Then doing it 15 more times because this dungeon is 100% gas bomb fart monsters. This is just an example, but I'm sure some Qud-Anon prelate will rebut that it's my own moral failure for not bringing a gas mask, ceiling fan backpack or whatever the hell removes gas. Qud offers tools to overcome its challenges, sometimes. Highly specific tools you don't have, don't know how to get, and probably don't even know exist. It's an endless stream of inventory-checking grief, because [b]everything[/b] is a gimmick. "Oh you have armor? Here's an armor piercing enemy that snipes you across the map, and spawns in clusters on every screen!" "Here's a completely invisible boss!" "Here's an infinitely respawning enemy you need a specific grenade for, or else you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥!" You've heard of the gacha game, now we bring you the "Gotcha!" game. Don't even get me started on the disease system. Better start fast-forwarding time to refresh vendor stocks to reroll for the 5 random ingredients you need every time you get hit by a mushroom so you don't lose your run. Super engaging. Worst of all, for all its "infinite" content, there's almost nothing to do. You basically have two activities: grinding samey randomly-generated cave dungeons, or trying to advance the sparse main story, which is gated by such brutal difficulty spikes that most of the time you have [i]one[/i] activity. Procgen content will never feel unique or authored, but Qud doesn't seem to try. There are infinity maps and infinity loot piles, but once you've seen a few you've basically seen them all. 99.9% of NPC's have 2 dialogue options: "Trade" and "Bye." There are no random events, basically zero points of interest beyond "villages" with one of 3 radiant quests and "ruins," which are cave dungeons not in caves. There are a handful of lorebooks and a few minor sidequests, but this is basically the entirety of the worldbuilding. Exploration surfaces no meaningful discoveries, and instead results in endless frustration. Grind until you hit a wall, grind somewhere else to find stuff to go back grinding at the first place, but they're all the same anyway. Honestly, I think the only reason this game has any significant profile is its potential as a meme generator. "I cloned the Space Pope, but dogs hate him so the mayor of Dogville gave me super-AIDS" is funny.. the first time, I guess. But it's not fun, because these "wacky" attributes are interchangeable text substitutions that are not meaningfully different from one another in the game world. It's basically a massively overcomplicated $30 Madlibs generator. The sandbox of Qud is so limited and uninteractive, that the [b]only[/b] way to extract joy out of its happenings is to turn them into a 4chan greentext and send them to someone who may be briefly entertained by their absurdity. But the novelty of "lol a spork" random text generation wears out quickly, especially when all its systems are gradually filing down your will to live. It's really a shame, because the game's systems are creative, and the [b]mechanics[/b] of its emergent gameplay are actually compelling. While it would not be easy to make, it's not hard to imagine a version of this concept that's actually fun for people outside its ultra-Orthodox sect of Nethack fundamentalists.

I've owned this game for 4 years and despite continually being drawn back to it, I just didn't get it. I could see the potential and really wanted to enjoy it, but it was too overwhelming and I just couldn't get my head around it. Well, finally 4 years later and with 36 hours in game, I get it now. I'm still dying all the time and have so much more to see and understand, but I'm having so much fun. Here are some tips that helped make it click for me: - Play classic mode and just randomize everything each time you make a character. It's easy to get decision fatigue from so many options, so just roll the dice instead and make do with what you have. Each time you play you'll get exposed to new mutations, abilities, strengths and weaknesses. - Familiarise yourself with whatever abilities you rolled, use them as much as you can. - If you don't know what to do, start with the Joppa quests. It might feel repetitive, but you'll encounter various things (that are random each run) while traveling across the map trying to complete them. - Use autoexplore, even on the surface. Use it in Joppa and the graveyard to the north. It'll help you discover things you might not otherwise have noticed as a new player. - Always examine new unfamiliar enemies first, don't just go in swinging. Get a feel for their toughness first. - At the beginning, rest between every fight until you're healed and restore your abilities! - Run away when health gets low, when you see a tough enemy, or when positioning is not in your favour. Use the sprint ability liberally. If an area is too crazy, go and do something else until you level up, just wander around elsewhere until you see some action. - You don't need to get to the bottom of each dungeon. Underground goes very deep and it gets tougher and tougher - grab what you need then get out and go elsewhere. Most quests give XP and being on the surface gives you a chance to restock. You can always come back when more powerful. Eventually, after dying dozens of times you'll start to work out which mutations, attributes etc. you want to pick instead of randomising everything. This game was a slow burn for me, but it's so worth it.

I need that game on spanish plss

Caves of Qud is a wholey unique game. It is a game which evokes a very specific feeling in me, and it does so all the way down to the minor aspects of its presentation; Qud does an amazing job in making its world feel large and inhabited. Everything can be spoken to, and is to some degree alive; every class of being, living or dead, animate or still, is part of a faction and will react to you as such. Everything has knowledge to share, and relations with the other life in the game. Qud's particular brand of (occasional pretentious) prose, minimalist visuals leaving much to the imagination, and dedication to a robust but unique way of handling the inhabitants of its world builds a psychedelic, capturing experience that pulls you in to get lost in Qud itself. There are things to see, impacts to have, and ways to progress that engage you *wonderfully* in this game, and on every run, or on every goal if you play with saves, you will find the game able to accommodate the urge to interact with and explore the world's depth. This is what everyone praises it for, and I will not disagree... entirely. People describe Qud as deep correctly, but I feel it needs addendum, so let's run with that terminology and imagine a body of water. People describe Qud as an ocean, vast and deep in equal measure. I do love Qud, but having truly dug my head into this game for ~180 hours of exploration and experimentation until my save file just plain gave out, I have to say otherwise. Qud is more akin to a pool, which like most pools, has a deep and shallow end. Qud is a very large pool, and has quite a sizeable deep end it directly drops you into. Joppa, Red Mountain, the Canyons and the Watervine Marshes are the game's most robust areas, filled with the most to see, given the most thought, with the most engaging creatures and concepts. There is a massive variety in terrain and mob types in these areas that make them feel completely alive, and make it easy to go tile by tile and not feel things become too repetitive; the premade villages and dungeons present in this area especially support this. The problem is that as the pool expands, and you reach its edges, it becomes shallower very rapidly. When you exit the starting areas, and the prebuilt story areas, Qud rapidly devolves into a very same-y pattern. This pattern is interesting to explore, but every area falls into the same one - once you have grasped the world as it exists in any individual jungle tile, you understand most or all of them, and other tiles are often the same thing with different mobs present. The incredible variety of mobs mostly fades when you reach Qud proper, and the terrain becomes less navigable and more individually obstacle-ish, making it less satisfying to explore. Lairs stop being interesting when every individual lair is the same thing, often with the same mob. The world stops being alive, and starts to feel very distinctly procedural, simply because these areas do not differentiate themselves like the early game does. I still think it's good; my point with this is that Qud is often discussed as a massive ocean of content. I would recommend it with an understanding not to get too lost in the parts of the game that can't support the interest the first part drums up, it's almost disappointing how still good but short of amazing the rest of the game is. As invested as it is easy to get, the world is not prepared for the kind of investment you can give the intro areas to continue to the rest of it, and I think that is Qud's biggest weakness, and the most important thing for someone thinking of playing it to know.

I wish I could give this a mixed rating. Positives: The setting- The world is very unique and creative, and it truly gives you a 'stranger in a strange land' type feeling. Exploring and finding weird creatures or environments is very satisfying because there's so much and it's so outlandish (in a good way). The vibes- By this I mean the music, the art style, the cool overlayed particle effects, the UI, all of that IF it clicks with you, and that's a big IF. For me, I think this game is gorgeous, especially the inventory management for some reason? I just found the inventories and the colored fonts for items very satisfying. The breadth- This game is HUGE. I've got almost 60 hours and I feel like I've just scratched the surface; there's so much of the game world I haven't encountered yet. Negatives: The depth- Contrary to what many say, this game doesn't feel very deep to me. it feels WIDE. There is so much STUFF in this game and most of it is very interesting and unique. But the core gameplay is just a basic rpg loop: you explore, kill stuff, get loot, level up, sell loot, buy better loot, repeat. I think the different fluids interacting is maybe the most interesting part, and of course there is much of the game I haven't seen, but I think 50+ hours is enough to get a feel for it. The combat is at its best when you are exploring and have to fight when you are outnumbered or overpowered and it forces you to rely on powers / mutations / items / your wits to overcome or escape difficult odds. But at its core it's a very basic "my stats vs. your stats" thing. Again the sheer volume of weapons, creatures and various effects they have keep it interesting for a while, but once you have the better stats, or the right strategy (like carrying a rifle in the desert) it becomes much more repetitive and predictable. Also the towns, the factions, the caves, many of which are procedurally generated just feel kind of flat, and don't really interact with each other or you in an interesting way. Everything in the game world is for you to kill or get gear from. Or do quests sometimes, but the procedural quests are largely the same and uninteresting, and the main quest REALLY could benefit from being designed in a way that makes it easier to access and find. Which leads to my next negative: game design- what I mean by this is that there are a lot of things that this game should just explain to you to make your experience more enjoyable. But the game explains the basics and not much more than that. And I can get behind games that want the player to discover things on their own, but so many times I had to look something up and i went "wow, it would've been really nice if that were made clear somewhere". I honestly have no idea how anyone played this game and enjoyed it on rougelike mode, because there are so many situations that will instantly kill you if you are unaware of them, but there is no way besides 1) dying firsthand or 2) looking it up that you would ever have the knowledge for some of these encounters. Also related to this, I think the writing is terrible. It has a certain poetic, artsy charm to it, but the descriptions are so wordy and obtuse that most often, I have no idea what the f*ck is actually being described to me. So I guess that means I have to 1) experiment with the risk of dying and losing either my whole save or progress from a checkpoint if I'm on the more forgiving mode or 2) looking it up to figure out, what is this thing? what does it do? is it harmful or helpful? So many times I just wish the game would tell me some things straight out instead of relying on the wiki. Ultimately I feel like this game has a lot less going for it than it initially seems. However even despite that, the sheer amount of interesting things, the solid if simple gameplay loop, and the aesthetic beauty of this game still pulled me through 50+ hours of playtime, and that tips the scale towards a thumbs up rather than down. Just be aware of these shortcomings, but if you like it, you'll surely have a good time.

Just isn’t for me. I can see the hype for the game but it’s too complicated for me. Doesn’t mean it’s bad. But I see why people rock w it.

i'm not much for writing reviews -- i'm not very good at them. but this game is spectacular. i'm old. so i played rogue. and angband, and zangband. most importantly, i played mission: thunderbolt. which, i suspect, few people have. this is the perfect successor. it's difficult. it's deep. it's quirky. i'm only on my second or third run, but i suspect it is infinitely replayable. if you understand the words that i wrote above. you must play this game. if you don't understand, you should play it anyways.