The Curse of Yendor is a compact classic Rogue-like game which manages to streamline the typical processes and user input of the genre, allowing for faster gameplay than most titles on the market. As a benchmark, my usual preferences of these types of games are centered around deep complexity, zounds of options and limitless unique loot to keep the mind reeling through waves of impossible foes and difficult tactical situations.
However, The Curse of Yendor (referred to as CoY henceforth) approaches the genre a bit differently as character development is autonomous through gameplay, requiring no user input to adjust attributes or skills upon leveling up. Your health, mana, buffs and magic power will increase automatically with each character level. This means more time actually playing the game instead of configuring your build, because there's not really much you can customize or control from what I have seen thus far. Now, before some of you stat-tweakers hit the back button, please open your mind and continue reading.
Your character's inventory is also very limited, starting with a paltry three slots to carry loot, in addition to the items you equip to use. However, playing the game will expand the number of inventory slots over time, requiring less trips to the Merchant to sell your gear. As you visit the Merchant to sell loot, items may occasionally be available to purchase, but just don't expect Wal-Mart with isles of products. Again, hardcore players might be getting antsy reading this, but hold on...
The Wizard character is the primary spellcaster of the three available player character options, and yes, the number of spells is limited as well. You start off with ice bolt, fireball and earthquake, and use these in conjunction with melee or ranged attacks, depending on the gear you decide to equip. It's also possible to equip items that are non-specific to class, so if you want your Wizard to tote a Warhammer around, knock yourself out! I have not yet gained any more spells than the default arcana in one run, so I do not know if there are more available in the game at some point. These spells are powerful, though, as the earthquake will level some walls revealing hidden areas and shortcuts, and the fireball can create a massive brushfire if you aren't careful. It's truly amusing to launch a fireball at a foe in the middle of a dead forest, only to regret it due to running for dear life after you set yourself and the fields on fire. It's also quite possible to kill the Merchant easily, so watch your aim! Expert players might be getting impatient, but keep reading!
As I was a bit on the fence with all this streamlining, it turns out that this game is remarkably fun, as well as very challenging. With the lack of fiddle-time with character development, stat-tweaking and reading massive chapters of lore and legend, you'll find yourself engaged simply playing the game. With no metagame to deal with, you are left to simply jump in and go...and probably die within ten minutes, because you underestimated how difficult it is to survive in CoY. Similar to most all Rogue-likes, things can be going well with a simple foe here and there to dispatch...until you dart around the corner and stumble upon a thriving lair that is restless due to COVID lockdown. Yeah, the monsters aren't messing around in there whatsoever.
What I really enjoy about CoY is the plethora of tile sets, environments and layouts that are randomized every level. You honestly don't know what you'll get one game to the next, which adds greatly to replay value. Every other Rogue-like is limited in this aspect with the same old graphics, textures and levels that might change occasionally. CoY will have you running through different settings every single level, and I really love that! Variety is the spice of life, and there is plenty to discover and see within those dungeon walls.
Throughout the course of the game you will have minor puzzles to solve, which are mostly the same, that will result in a reward that boosts your stats. As the puzzles themselves are easy, your foes sometimes have other ideas to make you fumble them, causing you to miss out on your bonus if you're clumsy. In fact, the entire game plays like this; rewarding those who are careful and spiting those who rush without thinking. You experts out there will soon be decorating the pavement with the best of them, believe me.
The challenge is indeed present in CoY, and its simplicity through streamlining is a bit deceiving upon first glance. What is clearly evident is the desire to jump back in to start another game, only to die yet another painful, stupid death. And you can do all that without missing dinner! Instead of one more turn, it's one more run. Dead. Done. Dinner time now!
Restoration items such as mana and health are found in limited supplies on the levels through gameplay. You can also rest to restore those levels, but you require food as well. Resting too much will cause a starvation problem, and we all know how that goes. I haven't tried to rally on one level, so I'm not sure if that's possible, but it seems unlikely you'll spend too much time on any one map as food is scarce.
I also found it amusing to mix classic 8-bit game sounds with a nice Dark Ambient soundtrack, and somehow it just works. I usually mute the music for games like this and play my own Dark Ambient music through Steam's built-in music player, but I skip that process with CoY as the music is just right for my taste. It's not overbearing, loud or distracting, it just simply blends in nicely with the scenery. To me, the graphics serve the game well and are colorful and easily identifiable at a glance. I'm not a huge fan of the old-school ASCII character format that leaves me guessing what I'm looking at, so it's nice to have vivid tiles and sprites that look proper.
CoY also requires heavy use of the keyboard for fast gameplay, so you mouse-only types will need to adapt to get up to speed. The mouse can be used exclusively, and there are different movement modes for the character, but keyboard is King with this game. Auto-explore or skipping across the screen is probably a really bad idea in this game as you can get in over your head very quickly.
The price point is fantastic for the amount of fun you'll have, which I absolutely must mention. Whether you pick it up on sale or full price, you're getting a great deal. CoY will definitely reside on my hard drives for some time, probably forever, because it's a very small install, which is another selling point for laptop users, especially. I won't even bother with 30 gig games anymore, it's absolutely pointless when you have great games like this for a micron of the file size.
My next stop is Approaching Infinity next week, which I missed initially, and that offers quite a bit more depth from what I hear. I feel the two games would compliment each other very well, and add to my already very large collection of Rogue-likes.
I'll have to highly recommend CoY for what it is without offering any comparisons, and if you truly love Rogue-likes, you have absolutely nothing to lose at this price. Stop horsing around and purchase it now!
