For the uninitiated, the roguelike genre is the meanest branch of the RPG evolutionary tree. They are typically story-light, turn-based affairs where a lone hero progresses through a lethal dungeon gaining power. But unlike the usual RPG, roguelikes balk at the idea that games should be easily-accessible dispensers of fun and entertainment. They wield their learning curves like swords: they combine lessons by trial and error with permanent death. (No going back to a save point!) When you fail, and you will fail, you start over at the beginning with a level 1 hero armed with a bent paper clip and a passing notion of how it’s used. Though this might sound frustrating, it creates a uniquely rewarding experience. The growth and rewards happen within the player as they master the complex systems within these games, unlike other games where the rewards are on-screen as the player’s avatar advances instead.

Surprisingly, this brings us to Doom. When Doom was released in 1993 it was the king of on-screen rewards. You ran through the most immersive 3d environments ever created blowing up over-the-top enemies with equally over-the-top weaponry. Doom was amazing, but little happened within the the player. It seems like the polar opposite of a roguelike, doesn’t it? It was a story-light affair where a lone hero progressed through a lethal dungeon gaining…

God damn. It was here all along! Thank goodness Kornel Kisielewicz at Chaos Forge is smarter than all of us and made Doom: The Roguelike. Seriously, it’s free, so you should probably stop reading this and go download it.

Thy RPG Consumed

DoomRL’s core is a love letter to its ancestors: permanent death, random dungeons, RPG-style character progression, complex timing-mechanics, increasing gear complexity, and monsters that get more and more unfair. However, Kisielewicz doesn’t include anything that might distract you from what Doom promises: reducing things to bloody messes.

You can craft items crucial to your survival, but you’re crafting bigger rocket launchers that load four rockets instead of one. You do gain meaningful special abilities as you level up, but they’re all passive modifiers that assist in more killing and less dying. There are complex time-management mechanics, but you’re measuring how many seconds it takes to pump a fresh shell into a combat shotgun as opposed to a double barrel shotgun. You never do anything in DoomRL that isn’t a single degree away from running, gunning, and using the occasional item from your inventory.

This laser-focused design lends an air of heart-pumping action to traditional and rewarding turn-based tactical roguelike gameplay.

Knee-Deep in the @

Roguelikes historically have minimal graphics. Most opt to use colored ASCII letters and symbols to represent the environments and objects in the game. Thankfully, DoomRL uses colorful, instantly recognizable 2d graphics hand crafted by that Derek Yu. The little gory touches add a lot as your marine tracks blood through squares after he occupies the same tile as a corpse.

Roguelikes are also usually silent, but DoomRL wisely deviates from tradition by being full of iconic sounds and music. When you hit “R” to reload your shotgun, you’re greeted with a satisfying and recognizable cocking sound. A palpable sense of dread is created when enemies make sounds off screen; the chattering of imps and the howling of hellknights in the distance make for tense dungeon crawling. The ageless soundtrack of the Doom games presses on you forward, making you feel like you’re playing an action game.

As a roguelike, the presentation in DoomRL is perfect. It’s simple, instantly knowable, and downright Doom-ish.

Ultimate Roguelike

When you’re in a genre this niche, it’s hard to pick a favorite. As labors of love tend to do, they all bring something unique and special to the table. But only using the criteria of fun and hours sunk into delving, DoomRL is far and away my favorite roguelike game.

Every part of it is accessible, allowing you to understand just enough gameplay to have fun. The game gives you a solid platform to enjoy while you peel away and digest delicious  layers of game mechanics. Despite the game being about a marine running around shooting mechanical plasma-shooting spider-brains, DoomRL still delivers the “aha!” moments that drive roguelike players.

Again, this game is rewarding, it’s clever, and it’s free. Go get it right now. And when you get it, know that you’ll die. And then you’ll die again, but this time you died on a lower level because you didn’t let those pinkies get close to you this time. And then you’ll die again, but that run you beat the Chained Court special level. And then you’ll die again, but this time you beat Hell’s Armory. And then you’ll die again…