A wonderful world full of secrets, interactions, lore, and most importantly, sudden and immediate death. Die by getting swarmed, die by stepping into a vat of electric eel-things, die by cloning yourself and having your clone disintegrate you. Die because you pissed off the wrong person. Die because you accidentally got in between an ally and someone they hate. Die because you teleported into a wall. Die because you forgot that vine-creatures liked your last character, but you started in a different region this time and they definitely want to kill you. Die because you forgot that you picked the spontaneous combustion perk as a joke. Die because you didn't realize that you can't fly inside a cave.

Die, die and pick yourself back up again. There's so much more to discover. So many silly little guys, so many silly little items, so much silly little lore. It all begs to be found. It all begs to be understood. And next time, maybe you'll know what to do.

Caves of Qud is a traditional roguelike RPG adventure game set in a science fantasy world of swords, guns, and psionics as you explore a vast and detailed world one square at a time. It sounds amazing but in practice if you aren't a tried and true aficionado of the old-school roguelike club your mileage may vary.

As I started playing I realised this was made for the old school, by the old school. The world is vast, the options are vast, the potential is incredible - but it's entrenched in the anachronistic trappings of doing things as complicated as possible that a few people learned to master 30 years ago. Hundreds of keyboard shortcuts must be memorised that make performing even the simplest of tasks require a 4 step operation and you can only learn 2 steps exist from the keyboard controls screen.

Adding to the complication is the 'replace half the words' approach to fantasy writing that some call immersive, but I find frustrating. Especially because the dedication to being as retro as possible means there's no onboarding, everything is made as obtuse and inscrutable as possible. You get dumped in a little village and if you want to know the difference between two plant tiles or what anything is called you have to manually check every single thing and figure it out yourself.

Overall Qud is impenetrable and I think all the reasons I don't like Qud is every reason that the fans love it. It's built for a specific group of people who already know how it works and want to discover everything themselves. It takes absolutely no steps towards accessibility. Even the fan base will only let you in the discord if you're inducted into their literal club with an application form.

It's the game equivalent of wanting to hang out with your older brother, but him and his friend have to discuss it and whether to let you in on any of the inside jokes.

Caves of Qud is a roguelike with a very unique style. Mutations, cybernetics, reputation, lore, immersion and a general sense of subdued wackiness. Sadly, not all is so good: the menus are cumbersome, finding stuff in the general map is hard, some systems are annoying to deal with, it could do with a bunch of QoL improvements and a better introduction to the world/tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3UecVZ143s). I also feel that the game, while complex on its own, could do with more layers of complexity (more illnesses, more deep factions, a bigger map, more skills and types of weapons,...). I will definitely check it out once it comes out of early access. This post puts my thoughts in a more verbose way (https://www.reddit.com/r/cavesofqud/comments/rmqvxa/the_tension_at_the_heart_of_qud_and_why_i_quit/)

Caves of Qud is a classic roguelike with a very creative and evocative world to explore. Some structural problems don't really stop the character customization and world building from carrying this game to a really incredible experience that I will be following for a long time.

The world-building here is amazing, especially considering it is very procedural, stringing together a Gamma World sort of environment with generated factions and communities for you to explore and discover. The consistent themes of self modification (through mutation or technology), discovery (from ancient technology to the local recipe for soup), and collaboration makes the world of Qud an amazing and evocative one to explore. This also leads to Praetorian death squads warping into the map and killing you instantly on occasion, which can feel bad. The unpredictable, dangerous, and weird bend of everything around you does serve to keep you on your toes despite some structural monotony you can run into.

Structurally it is similar in a lot of ways to Tales of Maj'eyal. There is an overworld that is static from seed to seed but a higher level of fidelity than ToME makes every piece of this world generated and explorable. This ends up giving you a specific goal that is always the same while the individual places you explore, creatures you meet, and items you find are different.
I found this static structure to be the biggest weakness of the game. Creating unique builds and characters is fun but the actual experience run to run ends up feeling very linear and samey. You will always progress to Grit Gate, Golgotha, and Bethesda Susa and the experience of each will be largely the same. Like ToME, the level-based danger of these areas means you will probably go through the same steps to surmount them as well making the beginning of the game feel like rote preparation for these challenges.

Creating your character in Qud is in-depth but made simpler by a bunch of premades that give varied experiences and work well. Broadly you are choosing between a mutant or a 'true-kin' (full human able to install cybernetics), and then specializing in a number of abilities, weapons, or attack types. It feels as cool to put together a 4-armed freak with a turtle shell who zaps people with super-charged static electricity as it does to roll around the world cobbling yourself into a cyborg death machine from discarded ancient technology. There are a few things that feel like traps or vestigial remnants of old development explorations, but the constant rate of updates to this game sees many things get phased out and replaced with interesting new toys.

Qud is a beautiful game, going a step beyond ascii to a character set that is evocative, expressive, and interesting. The color palette works especially well here. I love the muted colors that are still varied and used expertly to delineate different areas, creatures, and dangers.
Some size wonkiness and wildly swinging threat levels can make things play a bit badly on occasion. It is weird to see a crystalline structure the size of a mountain that takes up the same amount of space as a snapping turtle. It can be a bad experience when a guy that looks basically like most other wasteland guys you see kills you from across the map with a high-powered laser rifle.

The sometimes weird balance aside, playing Qud is an experience that isn't replicated in any other game. This is the Dwarf Fortress of classic roguelikes and has as much depth, interest, and fun as you would expect from that description. Freehold Games has created a classic here and I expect it to only get better as they continue to expand and refine it.

The most Numenera-ass game this side of Numenera.

It's Very Big, but also just really nice to chill out in. Each time you roll for new mutations, some wild options show up and it's incredible.

It's still Early Access, and it's just so massive. I put in 30 hours in the span of like, 2 weeks, and I barely scratched the surface of it. It feels huge but it's also not a chore to explore. Using the world map lets you travel chunks of land at a time, but you can also explore each tile on the world map more fully. This can also mean that if you travel on the world map you could get Lost, and have to travel screen by screen until you can gain your bearings, either by finding a place you've been before, talking to someone, or just having your internal compass kick in (which can be enhanced with skills/equipment)

The game builds a history for your world through random generation of historic events and interesting historical sites, ruins, encampments, and so on. One of the first statues I found was there to commemorate a Sultan finding a cool mask in a market, buying it, and then having it stolen. It owns.

I struggle to articulate how I feel about this game besides going "Hey this game's vibe, setting, and core gameplay loop rocks".

I plan on going back to it one day, but for now, I enjoyed my time with it.