Xenomarine

Xenomarine es un 'roguelike' difícil pero accesible, con una ambientación cuyas dos principales fuentes de inspiración son Spacehulk y Alien. El planteamiento del juego es muy simple: eres el último superviviente de una enorme nave espacial infestada de aliens y, aunque no tienes ninguna esperanza de salir con vida, al menos quieres llevarte por delante a tantos bichos como puedas. Y ya está. Con esa premisa el juego te invita a ir descendiendo niveles, mientras combates contra montones de 'facehuggers' que, tarde o temprano, te arrancarán la cara. Sé que es algo que suelo decir de casi todos los 'roguelike', pero Xenomarine puede ser una buena puerta de entrada al género. El juego cuenta con un modo sin 'permamuerte' que resulta ideal para habituarse a sus mecanismos, se puede jugar con ratón muy cómodamente, y dentro de lo que cabe, ofrece un número de habilidades y acciones reducidas. Además, aunque no es un juego bonito ni mucho menos, tiene gráficos. Y recientemente he descubierto que tener representaciones pictóricas en pantalla es algo muy importante para mucha gente. Quién lo iba a decir.

A fun science fiction roguelike with a graphical representation. While this game does not appear to have a "classic" sort of end-game, like ZAPM, NetHack, or Pixel Dungeon, it is very fun to play. There are interactions between the player character and the game that are not immediately apparent, which adds to the replay value, not to mention random map generation in spirit of most classic roguelikes. The movement system might come off as slightly awkward, however, I find it refreshing and adds another depth of challenge when dealing with hordes of aliens. My biggest complaints about this game is the map panning is a bit awkward, with subsequent middle-mouse panning resetting the viewport, requiring the user to pan from the player-centered view every time. I also wasn't able to customize the keys, which could use some hjkl or esdf goodness (not to mention I don't use qwerty, so the built in keys require me to change keyboard layouts). Otherwise it's a pretty fun game. There are some slight balance issues, with ramblers almost always appearing far before the player has any sort of effective weaponry, but that's more of a design concern than a definite negative. In some ways I wonder if this is like a Jupiter Hell but not overly basic and streamlined. (Yes games shouldn't be designed for impatient children to pick up, they won't play a hard roguelike anyway.)

Having lots of fun playing in the more relaxed "Adventure Mode". Still difficult at times, but being able to keep retrying the level (and eventually learning how to overcome it!) is quite fun!

Fun little rogue-like with an "Aliens" / "Space Hulk" theme. The feel during play is a bit old school, but it's overall a really great effort from a one-man show. The developer thought of a lot of stuff and Xenomarine has that nice mix of action, crafting, and RPG that keeps you wanting to play. It is tough and you'll die a lot, but there's also an adventure mode that lets you save a level at a time and pick up at the start of the most recent level progress you made. I do wish in the rogue mode your character could offer more to the next attempt, but it's still a good time. There's some dependency on the RNG to treat you right, but I think that's par for the course in many rogue-likes. A good, affordable diversion that you can run on a machine that you bought ten years ago.

Simple but solid turn based roguelike, with nice small touches with sound and light designs to give just enough atmosphere for the claustrophobic alien scifi setting. Imo worth the price to scratch that roguelike itch you have neglected for years.

Only play this if you enjoy suffering. Pretty much every enemy encounter is a 'haha got ya xD' mechanic. The game has a skewed action economy stacked against the player as you lose a turn to change direction while enemies dont. Each run boils down to you vs rng, gambling on did the game give you more medkits than it forced you to take damage. Even if you position optimally and play as safe as possible, the game still likes to throw fights at you that you simply do not have the resources to survive.

It's like after sex. Chill and agony. 4/10

긴장감은 있습니다만 시작하고 나서 보게 되는 컨텐츠의 양적인 면에서 Sword of the Stars : The Pit 에 너무 못미칩니다. 그런데 조작에서 게다리를 중시하는 스타일인 것도 몰입방해(Immersion break) 하는 경향이 있습니다.

Awesome roguelike. Like DoomRL and DCSS had a baby

I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of Xenomarine and the amount of fun I got out of it. I habitually buy lots of cheap indie games (especially around the holidays) in the hopes that they will be good and sometimes that pays off greatly and this was such a time. In fact, I almost didn't buy it because the screenshots of the graphics and some other miscellaneous aspects of the Steam page made me think it may be yet another cheap indie game that didn't deliver but I was quite wrong. Xenomarine does a great job of delivering on its promise: no other game I've tried captures the feeling of Alien-like sci-fi gameplay dynamics in a turn-based game as well as this one does! It feels more authentic and captures the desired feeling of a xenomorph infested environment substantially better than certain other turn-based sci-fi (traditional) roguelikes do. Xenomorph creates the feeling of managing the space around you and your own movements through it that embodys that feeling well. In particular, some things about this game that may seem awkward at first glance (and did to me too on the first 2-3 runs I tried) are in fact elegant strokes of gameplay genius once you actually fully appreciate them in the context of really grasping how to play Xenomarine well. The net result is that optimal play of Xenomarine rests precisely in behaving like a soldier traversing a tech complex in a xenomorph sci-fi setting. That is a great achievement: that optimal play resides in the proper fantasy and not so much in abusing mechanisms (at least until late game, if you accumulate enough resources and power). Most notably in that respect are the facts that (1) movement is only in the four cardinal directions (no diagonals) in such a way that *turning* your facing direction also takes a whole turn (just like moving or attacking) and you can only attack in your facing direction and (2) one-tile corridors are *much* less common than in virtually all other traditional roguelikes (in fact, 3x wide corridors is the norm in Xenomarine, thereby making corridor kiting tactics less often effective and hence the gameplay more strategically interesting when enemies potentially flanking you is accounted for). You can also strafe to move in just one turn but *without* changing your facing direction. Choosing what do with your facing direction and turning vs strafing both in the heat of the moment and planning that in advance matters a great deal in Xenomarine. Alongside that dynamic, a subset of actions such as turning flashlights on or off or using your proximity ping radar devices or switching to a *prepared* (quickslot residing) weapon consumes *zero* turns and thus a very thoughtful and simulation-appropriate dynamic is the result in full context. Admittedly, the graphics are not great, but in practice such graphics also feel substantially better in-game than the game's Steam store page would lead you to believe. So, I was surprised by how little the graphics bothered me and how easily I was drawn into and immersed in the feeling of battling xenomorphs in a sci-fi tech complex. The greatest weakness is probably actually that the game would have benefited from having activated abilities (like "spells" or "feats" or "specials" in other games) for enemies. As it stands, the enemies *mostly* just engage in direct combat and each has an element type that also has an associated status effect that has a chance of applying to you on each hit. This is interesting enough up to a point, but does limit the potential hours of fun you'll likely get. For me, at around 14 hours in and having completed basically all the most substantive things in the game, the gameplay has largely played for me but could have extended for a couple dozen more hours if the gameplay had had more substantive variety. A few enemies do special things besides status effect hits, but it is rare (e.g. creating smaller alien summons). Nonetheless, don't let that deter you from trying it if you like turn-based roguelikes and such. A significant portion of the players who dislike this game probably haven't given enough time to figure out the corridor management and anticipation and planning dynamic that makes this game fun. The fun is definitely there once the big picture of that dynamic clicks for you. More broadly speaking, if this game had sufficiently better graphics and deeper gameplay (such as spell-like interesting abilities for most enemies) then it would go from merely being good as a game in general terms (and *great* as a turn-based xenomorph battling simulation specifically) to being all-around awesome and much more popular. It's a classic example of how "little" things like that (one or two aspects of a game that warp people's perceptions greatly) can really decrease how many people end up experiencing and appreciating the underlying fun of a well-made and satisfying indie roguelike like this. As long as you give it enough of a try that you figure out the intended flow of play then I think you'll like it if you like turn-based sci-fi roguelikes at all. I'd estimate 5 to 20 hours of fun depending on your tolerance for repetition and your personality as a gamer. Enjoy!