S-02 · Sublayer review
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup
A deep, fair, open-source roguelike: one character, one dungeon, a quest for the Orb of Zot, and no second chances.
The review
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is, to our mind, the finest open-source roguelike there is. You make one character, walk into a dungeon of randomly built floors, and try to reach the bottom and come back with the Orb of Zot. Death is permanent, but the game is scrupulously fair: almost every loss can be traced back to a decision.
The project is run by its community, with a wiki, forums and an IRC channel, and you can even watch other people's games live from the front page. It runs in the browser through online servers or as a download, and there are no adverts or paid extras.
A way in
Pick a Minotaur Berserker or a Gargoyle Fighter, ignore most of the menus, and read every message the game prints. Dying early is part of learning.
A place to stop
Choose a staircase to stop at before you begin, such as the end of the third floor, and leave there. A full run takes many hours over many evenings.
Before you play
- It is long and absorbing; set a session length before you start.
- Watching live games on the front page is a good way to learn without playing.
- Keyboard play is much easier than clicking.
Also on the shelf
- Colonist: A free online take on the island-settling board game: trade, build roads and race to ten points.
- HexGL: A slick little futuristic racer that runs in the browser: one track, a hover-ship and a time to beat.
- PuzzleScript: An open-source engine for making small block-pushing puzzle games, with a gallery of games other people made.