Fetch Quest

I like roguelikes. Or rather, I like the idea of roguelikes. I can't actually say that I like them, because I don't play them. Why's that? Because anytime I try to, I end up sending the game to the recycling bin within fifteen minutes of my first time starting them up. The learning curve of just about every game in the genre is just too devastating for me. Maybe I'm just too impatient, but if I play a game for fifteen minutes and feel more confused than when I started, I don't keep playing. It's really a shame when it comes to roguelikes, because they have this really stellar retro charm that just keeps drawing me back in to them. So what's a guy to do when he wants to play a roguelike without really playing a roguelike?

Crypts of Despair (CoD) reminds me quite a bit of Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, and no, I don't mean that as an insult. In the same way that Mystic Quest stripped the console role-playing game down to its barest essentials, CoD is the quintessential roguelike-lite. It's got the turn-based gameplay, random levels (the floorplan doesn't change, but the monsters/potions/doors do), beautiful barely-there retro graphics, one life with no continues, sky-high replayability - all the things you'd expect from a roguelike.

So what makes CoD different from those others that so easily frustrated me? One very specific thing: a vastly gentler learning curve. In the same fifteen minutes that it took for me to be left scratching my head with confusion with a regular roguelike, I had all but mastered the general gameplay of CoD. I knew the power level of the monsters. I had memorized the handful of keyboard shortcuts. I understood my goals and how to achieve them. Basically, instead of having to spend my time learning how to play the game, I could just, you know, actually play the game. And I like that.

Granted, there is one downside from all this simplification: there isn't near the depth you'll find in a normal roguelike. Depending on how strong your "just one more game, gotta beat my high score" mentality is, you may have seen enough after only twenty or thirty minutes. Even if you are as charmed by CoD as I was, I wouldn't count on getting more than a week or two's worth of game sessions out of it. But hey, what do you expect out of a freebie indie game? Who knows, maybe it'll be your stepping stone into a full-fledged roguelike. Probably not in my case - Crypts of Despair is rogue enough for me.

Download [Crypts of Despair]