I’ll go ahead and say that I like roguelike games a lot, so this particular game is definitely in my wheelhouse. Other roguelikes that I’ve enjoyed without a doubt are Risk of Rain, Risk of Rain 2, Inscryption, Slay the Spire, and the list goes on, really. I think for me as well there’s a lot of hours that you can tend to get out of a roguelike game. There are so many iterations of a playthrough that you can do that there are limitless options. There’s a replayability factor that is up from the beginning and continues to go up once you realize what you can combine and do within the very large bounds of a roguelike game. Caves of Qud takes that idea and presents you with the ability to do mostly whatever you want.

I was interested in this because not only has it been in development for a while, but I’ve seen that it’s had an upward slope in quality, at least from what I’ve seen of the different releases. There’s also a “feature Friday” that they do, which is kind of neat to go to play the game and see a little patch note about whatever they’ve done to update it. That’s nice to see a game that is still being actively developed no matter how small the updates are.

While normally I do have some hesitancy with playing a game that’s been in early access for a while, because it can show that the developers have potentially abandoned the game, it piqued my interest because it’s a roguelike RPG, which seems like an unusual combination. I wanted to see what it was about, and here is what I think so far:


There is a lot that I can say about Caves of Qud that is good, and my mind goes to a lot of different places when I think of the good things that are in the game. I feel like despite the fact that I have almost 60 hours in the game, I’ve only scratched the surface. It takes the roguelikes that I’ve listed above and gives it more options. Here’s what I liked so far:

✅ Difficulty curve – When I think about the difficulty of Caves of Qud, Dark Souls 1, 2, and 3 are some games that I consider, but then others like Dwarf Fortress, and Darkest Dungeon. These all have varying levels of difficulty that some may consider difficult, and then others shrug it off because they’re used to these things. For me, Caves of Qud introduced a new way for me to understand and play a game. I gradually had to increase my knowledge by trial and error and encountering new things. It engages the way I think about the game, and also the different game modes. I’ve mostly played Classic (which is permadeath), and it has caused me to be more and more careful with how I treat the game. But for the first 20 hours of the game, I was wondering why I couldn’t just get past the first two areas. I was annoyed, but then you have to rethink the way you’re playing it, and it allows you to get better. Caves of Qud is difficult and fairly consistently so, but it isn’t prohibitively difficult.

✅ Character Iterations – I put it this way because it seems different than “Character Creation.” I realize it is creating my character, but the way that your character can change in the game is so vast. And I recognize that sometimes games give you items to be able to change the appearance of your character, but I mean the nonphysical attributes and the things that affect the way your character plays. Even if you play the same starting class every single time, you can continue to mutate your character in such a way that it isn’t the same Marsh Taur that you built the first time. You’ve gotten the ability to take a different mutation the second time and the third time.

✅ The story – There are some places in Caves of Qud that are generated consistently every single time. The two starting areas, for instance, are in the same place every time. And typically as someone who starts out playing the game fresh with no knowledge, it seems best to be able to learn the game from here. Now, you don’t have to at all. You can begin wherever you want. And that’s what makes the story different every time. Not only this but there are… hundreds? Of books. I haven’t even been able to keep count of the different books there are. And the books range from one page to five pages. If I were to try and absorb all of the material, I don’t think I would be able to. So there is a dual interest here of wanting to play the game and completely ignore the lore—which I occasionally do sometimes—and actually try and understand the lore of the game. It’s also interesting, because you can pick up items, observe them, and they can have some descriptions that relate to the world.

✅ The Art style -When I was originally playing the game, I thought that the art style was an eyesore. It would make sense if someone or many people griped about this. But if I’m being honest, not only has it grown on me, but it makes me understand that with all of the features that are in the game. I’m uncertain if there would be an ease of being able to add all these things in the game if it were similar to how Risk of Rain 1’s 2D style were adapted into Risk of Rain 2’s 3D style. Not to mention the movement of the characters is specific. This ASCII-esque art style works well for Caves of Qud. I can easily understand what everything is, I understand when my health is low, I love how shale is a specific color to indicate it’s rock, and I can also easily see that some things are glass or metal. After playing the game for some time, I feel like the world in my head is rich and lights up in a different way than I’m just seeing on the screen.


➖ No tutorial – This is a specific point, because I could see how this would turn people away. Now I do recognize that Wander mode seems to be Tutorial-esque, but if there was an introduction to the game, I think it would be more welcoming. It’s similar to how Dark Souls 1 seemed to be crushingly difficult with no guidance in sight whatsoever. In Dark Souls 3, and especially in Elden Ring, there are considerations for the user and it’s designed in such a way to teach you to how the game flows. I realize there’s pressing the F1 key, and reading all of that text. But if there was a tutorial, maybe it might be a bit more welcoming?


❌ No system of Reward – This is the biggest criticism I have of Caves of Qud that exists in other Roguelikes that I play. I’m thinking more specifically of Atomicrops and Risk of Rain 2. You died? Well, that’s okay. You still got something throughout the game to show that maybe you can improve your odds next time! Caves of Qud? You died? Okay, well. That’s it. There’s no ladder rung to hold on to. It’s a free fall back to the bottom. You can understand how you died and be on edge the entire time you play, but nothing will save you from the weird encounter of a legendary creature and a conga line of other creatures in front and behind you that maybe you have accidentally run into because you’re on the 10th hour of your run at level 17. It would be great to be able to have something that would be some sort of progression system or a reward for finishing other than being on a high score board. I would almost classify it as an arcade roguelike RPG in this case.

Where does this leave us? Well, I would definitely recommend the game. With as much as games are costing the consumer these days—Forespoken being a notable example at $69.99? I almost understand Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s cost at this same price, but the cost to the consumer has increased and I’m not sure the quality has gone up.—But at a $19.99 price point not on sale, Caves of Qud has plenty for someone who would enjoy a roguelike experience that maybe they haven’t had before in other games. I can think of combinations of games that this game gives you, but I can’t think of one that I’ve played quite like this.

Strong 7 to a light 8 out of 10 ✅✅✅✅➖