Caves of Qud

7/10. It's okay. It offers a lot of gameplay other games simply can't (available due to its ascii and text based nature), but overall it's still a very limited "rpg" sandbox. The basic gameplay loop will be auto-explore grinding until you get to the next part of your knowledge-puzzle, dying, then auto-explore grinding back up to that point and improving.

Very unique experience for what looks to be a pixel/text-based game. There's quite a massive learning/difficulty curve in the beginning, and It's normal to be lost. Once you get past that point, the game is very fun and also very challenging. There's a lot of content and weird mechanics to learn, and even some very interesting strats and items in the game that changes everything. That also means that you have to pull up the wiki on the second monitor to understand what some items/skills do, which is usually the case. There's also a lot of different ways you can start to make your runs unique, and it can get very out of hand once you get things going. Also you need to have an imagination to make the most out of this game, since the pixel art may be a little confusing. It gets better if you treat this like a adventure book, DnD style game. There's just a lot of things in the game that you might find out more and more each playthrough which makes this game very fun.

This game is a classic roguelike with a unique art style that can be confusing at first, but once you get used to it, it sucks you into the world they have created. The developers are dedicated to constantly improving the game, and with a small but growing modding community, it has become one of my favorites.

Absolutely incredible game. I tried it a few years ago and couldn't get into it. With the new UI and 1.0, this has quickly become one of my favorite games of all time.

Excellent game for a selective group of people. Definitely wouldn't recommend this to most people, but it's a great game!

14 hours already and i've only booted up the game three times. makes me think of pixel dungeon meets dwarf fortress. haven't been this hooked on a game in a long-time, and i know i've only scratched the surface of this.

9 Hours in, and I can already tell this game is something special I'll enjoy for hundreds of hours to come. The lore and the setting are evocative and intriguing. Character progression, and the level of customization in terms of abilities, itemization, and leveling progression are incredible, and interact with other game play system in really clever and transformative ways. Even the UI feels sleek and well thought out!

If you are looking for a deep, rich, open-world sandbox RPG experience which still has a lot of tailored, well-crafted content for you to sink your teeth in—and you are willing to meet the game on its terms; as the retro graphics might put some players off—Caves of Qud provides an RPG experience unlike anything else I've tried before.


First time playing a Rogue-like RPG

In my top ten games of all time. Amazing writing, art, music, and ambiance. Absolutely wild roleplay/build potential. In my first (mostly) complete run I started out with a stun rod barely able to take down the easiest of enemies and ended up as a four armed gunboat/cyborg, mounted with phase cannons, each firing of which took the power grid of a small nation and caused an instant brownout, all the while barely being held aloft with dozens of antigravity spheres. If this sounds remotely cool to you, play this game. It takes a bit of time to sit down and just learn the controls/ui, but once you do it's absolutely worth it. It's clearly made for mouse/keyboard, but the Steamdeck controls are also surprisingly usable if that's your preferred mode.

I bought it because I like procedural, roguelike and turn-based game genres, but nevertheless the first impact with the game was quite strange. I was not sure whether to play it or refund it. Finally I decided to give it a chance and... it is damn good. Even the graphics, which sound rough at first, are extremely functional for the game .... and I love the style of the menus so much.
Caves of Qud is another game that demonstrates that huge CPU and GPU power is not essential to play well and have fun.

If you like the genre, buy it. You will not regret it.

this is literally the best game I've ever played. in what other game wold you be running around as a ball of limbs cutting apart everything you see, or maybe strolling through an ancient tomb as a cybernetically enhanced human flying in the air with a force field around them while obliterating everything in sight with your 4 laser cannons attached to your back.

seriously though, if you enjoy deep lore, difficult learning curves but super rewarding gameplay you need to get this game, the steep price tag is definitely worth it.

The game has a very interesting postapocalyptic setting and gives you lots of freedom. You can play as a cyborg with an implanted gun rack on your back, holding 4 sniper rifles at once. Or you could play a teleporting esper mutant. Not sure if your combat plan will work out? No worries! Just use precognition and decide that everything that happened was just a bad dream if things go badly.

Fantastic. Takes be back to when i was playing Nethack on a used laptop instead of doing the reading for class.

Befriend a glow crow and ask him to come with me. He brings his friends including 3 Dawngliders. My face when I suddenly have my own militia.

Go one square over on the world map instead of walking over a few screens. Get mobbed by goat men and die. my face when i realize I could have just turned on fly and probably survived. Oops new character

First time I died because of a crocodile, 2nd time due to a mosquito.

Now on my current playthrough, I had fungal infections, sore throat, got my limb cut off. Met a six arm ape and have him as companion. Got buried alive and then got swallowed by a giant clam. And still have a long way to go before I can finish my adventure.

I don't usually review things, but with the number of hours Steam is telling me I've put into Qud since 2017 I definitely owe it to the developers to post one. I'm not sure what is left to say about Qud that hasn't been said already at this point, but as a lapsed gamer it has single-handedly made me reconsider what games as a medium are capable of and renewed my interest in games. I wouldn't expect everyone to walk away with that experience necessarily but a big part of what makes Qud great and my go to rec for almost anyone with an interest in games or science fiction is the way it respects your choices of how to interact with it. Want to ignore the deep literary (often profound or hilarious) bits and descend as deep as you can into the earth? Totally fine and very fun. Want to just chill and bypass the brutal permadeath where you're likely to get one shot or permanently lose most of your limbs in many areas? That's also okay, no shade. Despite everything the game does, it lets you pace yourself and doesn't inundate you with grasping all of its systems and lore at once, by assuring you that you will die anyway. Often, IMO, difficulty in games today can lead to over focus on the meta in ways that ultimately limit the player's sense of freedom, but Qud's systems are designed to be broken and the sheer number of tools at your disposal to do this is actually staggering and creates a sense of player creativity that I think is very rare in gaming. It really makes the role playing elements of the game feel iterative, something that even many "infinitely replayable" games can struggle with. This isn't even considering the way that Qud weaves its hand-crafted set pieces and narrative with world's procedural generation that makes every run unique but still intentional. I want to 100% it as it also has the best implementation of achievements of any game I've seen, but even at this many hours I don't feel especially close.

I have to comment on usability too: the earlier UI had its charm, but the UI overhaul in the lead-up to 1.0 release is a big QOL improvement and I'd encourage anyone who may have been put off by the UI in an earlier version of the game to give it another try. And I'm just amazed how well the game plays and controls on Steam Deck, I really didn't think it would work but it's better than keyboard.

I know this review is scant on details about the game itself but I believe these are best experienced first-hand and it's better to go into the game at least somewhat blind. Anyway, as many others have said, Qud is a singular achievement and is well worth its price and your time. Live and drink!

Qud, it hits different. Whatever you're expecting from this, you're probably right but also so very wrong. There is so much magic hidden in this game. I think this is my first review ever, so yeah, it's that worth it.

Caves of Qud is a masterpiece of digital manipulation—a game so densely crafted it will convince you that your hundreds of hours spent within its systems represent meaningful experience rather than elaborate entertainment consumption. You will love it precisely because it respects your intelligence while quietly consuming your time. Its greatest achievement isn't its complexity but how it makes you complicit in your own obsession.

I've always been enamored with classical roguelikes and thier complexity and aesthetic. But I don't like PLAYING them. I hate my progress resetting when I die, and I die a lot, because I like trying before I think on occasion. But with this game's new mode, which provides save checkpointing, I've finally found a classical roguelike I can really get into and enjoy. And enjoy it I did!

The gameplay is excellent. There are builds. They get crazy when done right. Really what I love in every RPG. But this one truly has enjoyable things in it. Mutate yourself! Install cybernetics! Stack on quasi-metaphysical relics! You also don't want to miss any of the writing or descriptions. The author of them has a beautiful and unusually evocative way with words I could never replicate. I love the graphical style, too.

Now, don't get me wrong. It's not an easy game still. It IS a classical roguelike. I've achieved a minor victory, but I haven't managed to get to the endgame content and win in a major way yet. But I soundly think that I enjoyed this game and I will enjoy it many hours to come. It's really something special with a lot of love put into it.

It's impossible to really capture the depth and breadth of Caves of Qud in a mere few sentences of a review. The world is vast and full of wonders to discover, the combinations of character builds and equipment are practically uncountable. You can be an ape , a turtle, a crow, and that's just the premade characters! I really don't know how to convey just how many and how wildly varied the possibilities are, this could easily be the last game you ever need.

Great character creation-Amazing world building-Incredibly interactive systems-THE best Roguelike or RPG you could ask for- 10/10

I've played a lot of traditional rougelike games and there is nothing like Caves of Qud. Caves of Qud forgoes the normal fantasy setting for a post apocalyptic world so far in the future that it feels truly alien and unique. While having depth that rivals any of the greats in the genre, I think most players will find this game's learning curve to be reasonable. Having a static overworld map and a few "hand made" locations, a majority of the game is procedural. This includes an entire history that is unique to your current game. A great feature is the ability to play without permadeath...this game will respect your time. Of course, you can go all in on classic mode and get as many "one and done" runs as you desire. Don't let the minimalist graphics fool you, they are beautiful and compliment the gameplay perfectly. You can play this game with keyboard, mouse or controller (or a mix of these). The devs should release this on as many platforms as possible (they will get my repeat business). Without a doubt a 10/10 game.

Caves of Qud is a masterpiece. I have played 22 hours and I feel I barely touched its surface. But also, different from other expansive and complicated games (e.g., Dwarf Fortress, Rimworld, all of Paradox games) I do not feel that I am missing out on something or that I need to read the wiki every moment.

Playing Qud feels, in a way, like reading a book. The simple graphics leave so much space for my imagination to think about what I am seeing, without having to be imposed by the developers.

For anyone who gets frustrated playing the game even in Roleplay, I recommend the mod Campfire Checkpoint which allows one to save progress more often. This is particularly true important if you do not have that much time to play and don't want to keep losing progress...

It's very inconspicious game. One you can easily overlook when scrolling through Steam. I did that initially. On the first glance, it's nothing interesting. Just a roguelike with bizzare world. But oh my God, what a world it is. Filled with most peculiar creatures, odd factions and character building options that will make you question your sanity. The further you delve into this cave (pun intended) the more hooked you become. And the best part is, it can be not a roguelike. I play it as a rpg, with saves done when I leave safe places, and I'm having a blast.
What I love the most about the game is that it's YOU who writes the story here. The plot and narrative are minimal. So it's up to you to create narrative behind the events on the screen in your head. It's almost like playing tabletop RPG, only the game master is a computer.
In my most recent run I'm 6-handed, winged desert scorpio with a beak and 3 eyes. Oh, and there's an unholy orb I ripped from an underground demon's corpse floating around me. Fun!

Beautiful game, both innovative and loyal to the traits that distinguished the cult classic roguelikes from the forgotten .exe files of the wide web.

A Steam review hardly does it justice.

An excellent game from start to finish. Very fun and the loot loop is addicting. That being said, for God's sake play it on the wander difficulty if you're starting out. Perma-death can get very frustrating given how quick this game is to kill you.

This is likely one of the best video games I have had the privilege of playing over some odd 25+ years of playing video games, I whole-heartedly recommend it!... to its intended audience.

That is the short version, however, I think the long version is important here, because that comes with MASSIVE caveats. There are MANY people for whom this will simply not be an enjoyable game, no shade to them, and if that's YOU, I don't want my glowing review to trick you into bashing your head against a wall trying to enjoy something you won't. This is NOT the game for you if:

- A unique, new weird and biblically-inspired writing style that isn't always immediately accessible without a dictionary in arm's reach would be more annoying to parse for you than it would be exciting to read.
- Spending hours carefully RPG-grinding together a character with unique rare gear and unlocks only for them to perma-death as is normal in a Roguelike would make the experience more frustrating than engaging.(ALTHOUGH they have non-perma death options)
- Staring at an art-style that is quite literally just one step up from ASCII art in its rudimentary depiction of.... everything doesn't have a sense of charm for you.
- If the amount of information you're asked to absorb up front feels like too much, even after you are dozens of hours and/or deaths into the game.

These are just part of how this game works and they're traits that for many are outright never fun, to which there is no fix for that. If none of that drove you away, buy this game immediately. It is simply that good.

This game single-handedly sets a new bar for procedurally generated WRITTEN content, with every item description, random book, or colorful individual you meet managing to have genuinely descriptive, witty, and sometimes thought-provoking things to say or see held up by writing that somehow manages to highlight the human touch present in the prose even when that prose is being randomly assigned to new stories or new purposes on a new seed. A lot of the game leans on an unchanging sub-set of characters whose dialogue and questlines are not randomized, but their presence does not make the writing *around* them that lacks that anchor feel notably weaker in comparison, which feels like outright lunacy. It just shouldn't be possible to do this, but I have borne witness.

This goes wonderfully in hand with the art style the game landed on, where simple pixel depictions that lack a sense of true size or scale (every creature and object, no matter how big or small, occupies 1 tile within the grid, even though some are clearly massive) are given that scale by textual descriptions that take advantage of relatively simple representations to paint detailed *life* into every creature and object. Everything from a basic semi-auto pistol up to a otherworldly cherubic guardian of lost tombs is given a loving, thoughtful rendition in text to make sure your mind is filling in blanks up to the limits of your imagination.

The mechanics of this game are simple to summarize, but their depth is not. It's a turn-based RPG not unlike many you've played before, with a D&D-ish set of stats, XP, leveling, skill trees, abilities, and bonus stats from equipment and the like, but its the granularity to which these have been executed that excites, here. Everything from gaining (or losing!) limbs of all varieties, undergoing full physiology transformations, becoming a plant or fungi, reconstructing yourself with cybernetic enhancements, developing psionic abilities... There are nigh endless outcomes of the character creation and question process; a common outcome for more than a few players has been winding up a *sentient, walking door* upon their adventure, and that's not even *that* weird of an outcome.

Then you realize that *every single creature in the world* is also operating under the same fundamental stats and abilities system, realizing that some of the enemies you wander into are subject to the same levels of complexity that you are. Simply Stunning.

If it feels like I've been vague despite having a lot to say, its because I have. I did benefit a lot from going into this experience blind, and only starting to look up or learn about things within the game in more detail *after* working my way through my first couple of encounters with them. I'm trying to pass that benefit down if this review happens to be what finds you into the game as opposed to simply watching someone stream gameplay or something.

But seriously, if you got this far, gave this barest review this much time, you should already be playing this game. Just pull the trigger, you will not regret it.

If you have a short attention span, this game is not for you. If you love completely immersing yourself into a game, throwing yourself headlong into the mechanics and lore, this game IS for you.

Now go forth and venture.. into the Caves of Qum.

This is certainly not a bad game. It's a solid roguelike with rpg elements, but in my opinion it just tries too much to be quirky and random. Examples:
- interacted with clam, without warning got teleported to some random underground area, near "impossible" enemies: dead
- in underground: saw a group of bugs, throw explosive grenade - damage gets reflected back: dead ??
- also underground: mid fight got a fungal infection on the back, that forced dropping the equipped backpack which in turn got me overburdened: died when trying to drop enough equipment. Overall getting random infections during random times seems to be a big gameplay element.
On top of that comes the extremely cumbersome inventory management (no sorting by weight, weight not shown in trading menu, no favorites, no item details shown when equipping item, no comparison of selected items to equipped item when trading) and also a pretty boring area design (long chains of samey "randomy" areas when exploring).
The chaotic nature is just too frustrating. At the time of writing only about 16% of players finished the rust wells intro quest, so I guess it is not only my opinion.

Wish I hadn't given this dev a dime.
I don't know the history of what is going on in this "community" but they are equal parts hostile, toxic, and insane, and I got all that just from lurking. DO NOT SUPPORT THEM.

The game itself is a below average tedium-fest that wishes it was CDDA or even dwarf-fortress adventure mode. Wide as an ocean, shallow as a drop. The game is much more fun to watch than play. Want a rougelike with a story, play Moonring, not this. Want a roguelike with extreme depth and make your own fun? play CDDA, not this. Want a roguelike with ballistic difficulty and addictive but punishing design? Play Quasimorph, not this. Long story short, give your money and time to devs that don't hate both you and fun.

To be fair to the game I'll highlight the mechanics:

1. A disease system that would make morrowind blush.
2. A Difficulty curve that looks more like a contour drawing of the rocky mountains.
3. The initial story depth of a one hand game of poker and an emergent narrative that Moonring laughs at and says "Hold my potion... mostly because god will forsake me if I drink it but that's besides the point."
4. Random generation that gives 90% of NPCS the incredible depth of: Trade or leave.
5. A mutation and cybernetics system that has fun built into it, but in the same way that a kid pretends to be a monster while knocking over a city of legos that he didn't build: You get it, break it, there's a little satisfaction, then you step on a galgal shapes lego and end up instantly in the fetal position.
6. Exploration of thousands of areas! Where you'll do the same thing without variance, save slathering yourself in weather proofing like you are playing "Yearly front porch maintenance simulator" now with extra sealant!
7. Charming pixel graphics!... actually, yeah, this game has a neat look to it.
8. Cooking, which is a neat idea that can have an impact but only on how long you hold "wait" to heal between bouts of strangling knockoff kobolds.
9. Loot!
"Loot, loot everywhere, and not a drop to drink" - Confused QUD village elder with gas induced psychosis, probably.
There is an obscene number of things you can pick up in this game, 95% of which will be useless, 3% you'll already have too many duplicates of, and 2% that will be new and exciting right before you get insta-killed by a chain stun from across the map.
10. Fast Travel! A QOL feature where your character will wander off the beaten path, get lost, and need 8+ screen transitions to figure out where they are so they can fast travel again and get lost again doing so.

This game is not fun by design. The fun you have with it will vary by how you are wired but since the Dev hates you, it is my opinion that you shouldn't waste the time figuring out if the game is worth risking your money and time on. I wish I had read the negative reviews before playing this, lesson learned.

Maybe this is par for the course with true roguelikes but the game doesn't tell you anything about how to progress, has practically no tutorial as to how the game works and the difficulty ramps out so outrageously that I have no idea how to keep up with its outrageous demands.

I like playing games I can finish. If I'm expected to "figure a game out" in order to finish it then I'm fine with that, but this game seems like it is designed by sadists who just want extravagant difficulty for the sake of extravagant difficulty.

If you're like me and you like games with a SENSIBLE gameplay and difficulty structure then you might want to rethink purchasing this game, not because of the money mind you, but rather because of the time investment. You can always make more money, but you can't give back the time you've wasted.

If you do not care about reaching the end game and just want to bugger around with gameplay mechanics then yeah it is absolutely fun to waste some time in, especially with mods. I got one to become a slime and RP'd as the blob eating the world.

[edit]

I managed to finish the game.

I advice that you exploit cloning draughts to clone merchants like crazy and get yourself domination, beguile or proselytize so you can either control them to drop all their gear in a nearby box you dropped or ask them to give you all their items so you can sift through them.

Then go after Sunslag 10 times, Neutron Flux like 40 times and then save any Eater's Nectar Injector and use the meta gel on it to clone the item. Get Drop Of Nectar and cook it whenever you can and just grind your stats silly.

At least then the game stops being ridiculously difficult.

However due to how unfun the design of enemies are at around the 60% mark of the game the last 40% just felt like a tedious slog to go through so I probably will never finish this game again. It is fun to muck around with stuff though and try out new builds but due to the tedium of building yourself up to even stand a chance to take on anything mid to late game it is just asking for too much for me to bother with it.

There are so many bad design decisions in the game though that my review will stay negative, mostly due to how uninformative it is and how much I needed to exploit the game to even stand a chance.

[edit2]

Final note, and I wanna stress this part the most as it is a great example of what my problems with the game is, yknow how many people have beaten the game and got the achievement that they beat the game?

0.9%

Not even 1% of all players have reached the end of the game. Why do you think that is?


[edit3]

So I fiddled around with another character to try a different style, see how it works. Entered a village, saved as I exited it and the map I loaded into had two enemies in it at the edge where I am at that instakilled me so now am I hardlocked with that character so that every time I load the character the enemies instakill me.

That's QUD. So those hours on that character are down the drain apparently. [EDIT] Thanks to an item I had that allowed me to use flight I tried pushing the button to turn on flight and hope it could activate in between their attacks, it could and I survive the second attack and moved back into the village. If I did not have that item on me and used it I would not have been able to survive it or use the WISH (console commands) system and it would have been a hard lock. Point is, the game can hard lock you even if you aren't playing on Iron Man because the developers thought for some ungodly reason that the save point should be when you move into the next map outside of the village rather than INSIDE of the village.

an amazing work of art:
i really cant recommend this enough. there is an entire world contained in this simulator that you have to experience to really get it. the more i play, the more i realize the oldschool look is really a cheatcode to get my brain to play with imagination just like i did when i was a little kid. the music is also of the era with lots of fat fuzzy textured synths. there are a lot of games that look similar or play similar, but for myself, this is the one.
Live, and drink.

What a game. A true rogue like. From the writing, to the maps, the combat, characters, music, it's all here. Don't let the graphics shy you away from it. You'll die, you'll learn to do better, and proceed onward. I'd of liked to see the price be more around the $20 mark, but for the devs of Dwarf Fortress, they can do $30. The content and depth is there for the asking price. And the future of updates for probably a decade or so. This is a gem in the midst of Steam's libary of so-so games.

I first bought the game awhile back and played 118 minutes and refunded the game. It wasn't for me. I couldn't have seen the beauty in it then. Then i learned more about rogue likes and their purpose and the history of some of the greatest to be made. So bought it again to try and if you take your time to read and enjoy it all, you'll love it.

All in all, worth a try. Soak in one of the best games on Steam. Good luck out there.

Wow the depth of this game is huge! Sure its like playing an old Atari game but once you finish a couple quests it starts to get deep. I own a few other games of the same genre but this is by far my favorite. 40 hours at time of this review and im barely scratching the surface. Found a tattoo gun and cant wait to find out what to do with it :D

A masterpiece - an endless well of emergent storytelling, deep simulation, and evocative, dreamlike worldbuilding. Its soundtrack can be a warm hug or hauntingly atmospheric. The geography echoes Israel-Palestine, with Qud’s lush east and arid west mirroring its real-world counterpart. The lore drips with Kabbalist mysticism, weaving esoteric themes of interpretation, transcendence, and recursion into a rich narrative. The game brilliantly combines fantasy and technology, with beautifully written descriptions and dialogue that immerse you in its world.

Steam Workshop mods add even more depth, with features like settlement building and expanded mutations and cybernetics.

Plus, you get to meet cute science bears, have an army of infinite clones of yourself, destroy the minds of esper hunters and absorb their consciousness, get swallowed whole by a giant sand worm, contract a disease from slipping and swallowing sludge, get high on extra-dimensional drugs to talk to a fungi... but most importantly - you can literally become a chair.

A must-play for anyone who loves thoughtful, unique RPGs.

I'm not sure what I just played.
It seems deep but it's not. It feels like a half made RPG.
If you're walking around without the wiki open, the world feels slightly empty. If you're walking around with the wiki open, it'll tell you the world is empty and 1 in 10 items you can pick up does have a purpose but that purpose is extremely specific and you just wasted a braincell remembering that.

If you ask the internet if Caves of Qud has a story, you'll be told it's procedurally generated and that it's called lore, not a story.
I'm not sure why, as there is a main quest which I assume has a story, but I don't know because it bugged and I'm only now finding out the guy in Joppa was supposed to give me a fourth quest.

I don't really think I want to play an RPG of combat encounters with monsters created by a half asleep Dungeon Master.

Caves of Qud is genuinely one of the most immersive gaming experiences I've ever had, do NOT let the presentation or initial learning curve turn you away. The amount of tools this game affords you to address any roadblock or annoyance you come across is astounding. Wall in the way? Maybe you have the ability to just phase through it, or you can use clairvoyance to see on the other side then teleport yourself there, or maybe just dig through the wall. As long as you are willing and able to learn from your mistakes and recognize when you could've approached a poor situation differently, this game will open up to you and give you an experience unmatched by anything else.

Sometimes, you come across a game that doesn't have to be your most played, the most genre defining, the most addictive for there to be something about it that feels... special. Caves of Qud is a special game.

Playing it, you can feel the love put into it by its makers.

Besides the very cool game, iam owerwhelmed by how GREAT the controller support is in this game, a real pleasure playing such a game with a controller!

Caves of Qud breaks the mold of the roguelike genre

This is the best rogue I've played in my whole life.
First, the game is super accessible, sure, it did take me a couple characters to get into it, and understand how to play, but the moment I paid some attention, it rewarded me with a massive world ready to explore.

I loved the writing of the world, the characters and how the Sultans and stories are generated, it also has a non-EU savour that makes it unique and helps set it apart from the other trillion rogue games out there. This combined with it's mix of fantasy and scifi, makes it one of the most compelling experiences I've played in the last years.

I've been surprised at lot of different stages of game, with game mechanics that I wasn't expecting, enemies that defied any preconceptions I have about videogames and plot twists and visuals that make the most of the pixel art style. The game also had me in grips until the very end!! when i thought I had seen it all, the game keeps surpassing my expectations!!

I cannot recommend this game enough, even with a run of 90 hours, I barely scratched the surface of everything I wanted to do and the customisation options are infinite! There are millions of ways you can customise your character and BE powerful as well.

In summary, I cannot wait to dive again into the caves of qud.

Live and drink.

I didn't know what to expect when I started playing Caves of Qud. I just died several times and lost my characters for good. I've accepted the rules and, well, died more, but those deaths gave my some glimpses of the story.

Wait, there is a story? Captivated by it's mere existence and bizarre concepts and creatures surrounding the player, I switched to roleplay mode to avoid losing another character. Still, I was trying to be extremely careful. The game clicked for me again when I got lost in some generated ruins 20 levels beneath the surface. It was scary as hell so I opened excel sheet to keep track of where I am. Those who are brave enough to roam further from the stairs might find treasures or death.

And a treasure it was! Hidden in a chest was a jackhammer that could open any "door" for me (you can call them holes in the wall if you like). I don't think I found any other jackhammer like that ever since so it was a real darling that I kept close to my heart. Now when I write this review I think "What if I hadn't found it?".

Eventually I found my way out of those god forsaken ruins. At that point I became an overleveled killing machine and didn't even pay attention to enemies because they were just motes of dust to me. I was bored for a while feeling invincible but it was a tiny period of time until the next curveball was thrown at me. Was it monochrome disease or a fungal infection - I don't remember. But I was able to get rid of it while saving the world (is it about saving the world though?). I should mention that removing infection or disease was a 3 hour long quest in my case.

Play Caves of Qud, create your own story, take your time to read the descriptions - they are phenomenal and create such a vivid picture of everything you inspect, touch and trying to talk to. Avoid looking up the answers on wiki unless you are really stuck.

Surprisingly, not that many people have seen the final credits according to Steam statistics. It might be a tough challenge in the classic mode or people don't really care about the end of the story.
Play in roleplay mode if you don't have that much time and get to the end game at least once.

While being relentless, Caves of Qud gives you the feeling of wonder that is quite elusive in games. Exploring, solving issues and poking the world with a stick (that is always covered is several layers of goo) is rewarding, fresh and totally worth the time you invest while seeing your character death screen over and over again.

Live and drink, Friend.

Look, I’m just a bioluminescent fungus who wanted to vibe in the jungle caves, okay? But Caves of Qud said, “Nope, here’s Grulk, a four-armed mutant with a machete collection and a grudge against glow.” Now I’m cornered, radiating panic-light like a disco ball at a funeral, while Grulk monologues about “harvesting my glands for grenades.” The procedurally generated terror is chef’s kiss—where else can you die as a sentient nightlight to a guy with more limbs than survival instincts? 10/10, would photosynthesize nervously again. PS: Tell my spores I died fabulous.

Nethack: The Roleplaying Game.

To be clear, this is not just open world Nethack. This game has a far slower pace and a lot of RPG elements, and a lot less in terms of outright trying to get you killed or throwing crazy scenarios at you, as Nethack does (although that can happen in Qud, it's not routine as it is in Nethack).

This might be a downer for some people. The action is less intense and less consistent compared to Nethack. It also means your character is liable to live a lot longer and you may feel a lot more invested by the time you run into something that does kill you. (Although you can play in modes that let you go back to a checkpoint rather than permadeath.)

If you ever played Nethack or Rogue and thought "I like the concept but wish it was a little more like an RPG rather than purely a hack and slash" then you'll probably enjoy this.

I do feel like Qud, despite its breadth and depth, lacks some of the creativity and complexity of Nethack, though, which often had multiple ways to do the same thing. This game has a fascination with "fungal infections" that I already find tiresome, for example, because the ways of dealing with it are so specific and limited, whereas Nethack would give you multiple routes of dealing with something similar. And I have yet to encounter anything that brings to mind the Orc trains in Nethack or the "zoos" or other scenarios where you feel like you go from "everything is fine" to "oh no" simply by turning a corner, but it's also possible I just haven't hit them yet.

Overall: thumbs up. I mean it is what it says it is. If you enjoy the genre, you'll probably get some hours out of it. If the graphics are a big enough turnoff then it's not going to get any better when you buy it.

Qud is insanely fun. It's full of great opportunities to adapt, self-express, outwit, escape, deceive, and gamble. The longer you play, the more tension builds on whether or not you'll get got by a brand new thing. When you do, that goes on the list of things to plan for on the next run. When you get good enough, that starts being a significant time investments, at which point I recommend roleplay mode for learning about mid to high level instant death dangers. There are many.
A lot of people I don't respect at all will lock themselves out of enjoying Qud by refusing to use roleplay mode. Be honest with yourself: you're not a roguelike enjoyer, you're a guy who thinks Dark Souls is hard. Play on roleplay mode until you figure out how to deserve death. Qud good.

This game is amazing!! Super recommended!!
It's a rogue like, a very traditional rogue like where you didn't get anything to your next runs, but this is just the mechanics of the game, don't get fooled about it! The world of Qud is amazing and exploring this world is something quite uniq!
Embrace the randomness of the game and start another journey, learn about the locals, do your jobs, try to survive!

A very creative RPG that's oldschool in appearance, modern in function, and timeless in content. Qud is a world that is equal parts wacky due to its bespoke content and its procedurally-generated chaos. A land of cyborgs and four-armed, fire-breathing mutants.

You will be stoned to death by baboons, eradicated by neutron flux explosions, teleported 20 layers underground due to a bad case of the psychic jitters, and emit wax from your pustules. You will summon deadly plants with your mind (and then get set on fire by them by accident), remotely sunder the minds of your opponents, graft yourself permanently into a floating tech throne, and throw nuclear grenades (and accidentally die in the process.)

Qud is an RPG that, in its chaos, requires deft and physics-defying (and CPU-defying, in some cases) abuse of its mechanics to do the unthinkable in order to achieve success. Drink a Neutron to increase your armor (with a slight chance of instant death), permanently clone high-tier merchants for more chances to roll new loot, and drip static into the desert sands to transform rivers of salt into valuable liquids. The game is as difficult as you are prepared, and as you are clever. It offers several modes of campaign play, from the Hardcore (Classic) mode, a standard town-checkpointed mode (Roleplay), and several other modes for players with more specific desires for their experience.

The writing prose is fascinating and clever, with a significant emphasis on intentionally bizarre descriptors which borrow heavily from the realm of science fiction, to impress and confuse you as you embark on a serviceable sci-fi storyline to understand the nature of your bizarre surroundings.

The User Interface has been updated for the 1.0 release to be approachable in the typical RPG fashion, and the visuals of the game are strong for its choice of art style. However, its clever use of animated effects despite being a time-incremented game can sometimes get pushed a bit too far, resulting in shocking amounts of screen clutter. Performance is generally as one would expect for a game that looks like Qud does, though like Dwarf Fortress it hides its claws under its unassuming appearance, occasionally biting through your CPU and experience significant slowdowns as it struggles to calculate you and your 10 clones simultaneously summoning 100 various kinds of deadly flora, half of which then proceed to set your screen ablaze with smoke and fire effects for which you will pray for merciful self-immolation in order to end your confusion and restore your CPU to normalcy.

Caves of Qud is a title worthy of standing beside other long-time Indie sweethearts like Dwarf Fortress, Terraria, Starsector, and so on.

I wish I could give Qud a positive review but unfortunately, as many have said before, the game is not what it sets out to be.

The roguelike portion of the game is great but the grind to get back to where you were after you die is far too frustrating for what its worth, especially when to progression is so slow and the world so large. 9 times out of 10 you end up dying to an enemy that you cant see through all the shit cluttering the screen who one shots you instantly, or, you die to a high level enemy who exists in a low level area. The games concept is fantastic but the execution is not great.

On top of this the random generation is abysmal, none of it makes sense. Complete night and day difference between generated towns, NPCs, books and item descriptions compared to their pre-created counterparts. Town architecture is terrible and makes navigation a nightmare, rarely if ever will you see a coherent house design. Most places are comprised of walls that lead nowhere and furniture that dots random squares in any given room. Almost all NPCs are copy paste nothing-burgers who only exist to fill space and have only 2 dialogue options; Trade (80% of the time they dont have anything to trade) and Leave.

TL;DR or whatever:
Overall the game is not completely terrible and there are fantastic aspects to it.
But from a new comers perspective the progression is too slow to warrant the amount of punishment you cop for simply exploring.
And the random generation is terrible.

I was very on the fence about this game and was going to try it and potentially refund if it wasn't for me. I typically haven't played anything like this and i have absolutely fallen in love with this game. Coming from someone who hasn't played a game like this but was very interested but nervous about figuring out its UI and even understanding the game. Its far FAR less intimidating than it looks. If you can find fun in filling in the blanks and just taking in the absurdity a story that is happening to you, this will be an ABSOLUTE blast. I can play this for so SO long just in hopes to have stories to remember.

Here's a story that happened to me:

Deep in an abandoned facility with rusted archways and frayed electrical lines, i scavenged a keycard. As i delved deeper i came to realize i was only allowed to pass specific doors because of this little keycard treasure. Excited, i began to swing doors open in search for more treasures. If these doors were locked that means no others have been behind them! As i dispatched the few weakling boars that had taken the facility as home, there was one more door to open. I kicked it open, unafraid of what i would find. I heard a beep. I was looking down the barrel of a turret. Quickly and instinctively i swung. one, two three FOUR. All four of my arms swung Each axe. The turret dismantled under my tremendous double muscles.
Beep Beep. A second turret took aim and fired. I ducked back before i took any harm. If this room had turrets, there must be incredible treasure to be guarded by such mechanic beasts. Confident with how quickly i destroyed the first, i could absolutely do it again. I leaned in and swung again. the turret crumbled before my hulking body. Behind the turret was a chest with a musket inside. As i close the chest.... Beep beep.
A turret began blasting behind me. I felt a sting and thuds absorbed from my armor. I knew this victory was too sweet to savor. Quickly i lunge out of the room once more. Three... Three chests i saw. If a musket was in one of them. The others must be worth the risk. I set up camp next to the open door and tended to my wounds. bullet holes riddled the door frame. I pondered... The last turret seemed to be shooting a much larger caliber. This time i was less confident... Because it hurt. The Turret rested at the end of the room. a ways farther than the previous ones by the door. I was given a musket and this was CLEARLY the solution. I had a pocket full of slugs that i had saved up. I loaded the one chamber musket and walked to the door. BLAM! BEEP BEEP. The turret returned fire once again shredding the entrance of the room. Again i took a hit that was more painful than usual. Painful enough to not ignore. Again i took rest and tended my wounds. the musket did very Little and i should of known. I barely knew how to use the thing. For three days I repeated the same thing. Firing my single shot and plugging my wounds. I don't know if it was me being stubborn, Or i was consumed by pure curiosity and greed but i NEEDED to know what was in those chests. I decided i must delve deeper in this mysterious facility. Who knows what other treasures i would find in the lower levels. The first chest i found contained a mysterious artifact. With some miracle i was able to identify this as an explosive.... A plasma grenade...I grin. THIS is the solution! not this useless pea shooter musket. I run back up a floor to the room, I pull the pin with little hazard. In my mind i knew i had bested the brainless gunbeast. I throw the grenade and .... The whole wall separating the turret from the room explodes in my face. I did not account for the blast radius... Dazed, and horribly injured the dust settled... Beep beep. I was somehow standing next to the turret. In the confusion and panic i stood arms distance from the Disgusting Bullet hose... I knew i could not take another volley. In these seconds i thought of my options. The turret was barely affected by my onslaught. A swing from my axes was too risky. Either i dispatched it Right there and hope all four of my swings land true, Or it killed me where i stand. There... i saw a button glowing atop the gun. In passing knowledge i had learned the button usually will have no effect and infact make the turret more aware of your presence... I had no choice. I pressed it.....

"Keycard identified. Turret powering down"

I walked out of there, hardly standing. Exhausted. With a brand new sniper rifle an assortment of relics and artifacts from the chests in that room. and..... and that little keycard treasure worth much MUCH more than its weight in water.

Explorer? Yes, Qud can scratch that itch. Big gameplay map, a great job of procedural generation that provides places, rumors, and histories that are fresh each time. Game modes that support checkpointing and reduced danger. Deep social systems to explore.

Optimizer? Yes. lots of gear and theorycrafting hooks (not limited to hooks for feet) to feed the possibility space. And that social system to exploit. And a savescum feature built into the ironman mode to let you tinker with your options.

Instigator? Phase out and let that fire-spitting pig shoot through you and hit the bat that likes to eat electricity. Duck into a corner, let everyone kill everyone else, and then just pick up the loot.

Collector? Perhaps you'd enjoy collecting one face from every faction in the game? Just slice it off, there's more than one way to do it. Yup, from robots too. Too gruesome? How about a geology run where you animate every type of wall and walk it back to a home base?

There's 17 years of love and madness poured into this game. If you suspect you'd be interested, you should indulge. If you're concerned about graphics, I'd ask you to consider that art direction is more important than graphic fidelity. If you're put off by rogue conventions, switch the game to roleplay mode and do just a little research to bootstrap.

One story, if I might. At the endgame, I piloted a great creature that took the form of a cat. During a pause in battle, my allies approached, and pet the cat-war-machine. Of course, the cat meowed.

After almost 400 hours, and likely more on the way, I have finally finished Caves of Qud. I wanted to wait until I finished the game for the first time to start to even think about reviewing my time with it. This game is nothing short of a work of art, and is, in my opinion, one of the most powerful and symbolic forms of media I have witnessed. At it's infantile core, Caves of Qud is poking around Joppa, blasting Snapjaws with a Musket, and giving ancient trinkets to a grumpy Tinker. The player is given nearly boundless options in how to modify their character over a run, such as adding Mutations or attaching Cybernetics that grant wildly different playstyles. Whatever the game throws at you, you can throw it right back. It openly invites you to dig through it's layer cake and not to feel bad about abusing its systems, because Qud will always claim you, in the end. Alternative modes such as Roleplay and Wander exist for those who want to play the game in a less punishing way, and that is completely legitimate. It is your world to do with as you see fit.

At the end of it all, Qud, to me, represents mankind's ability to change personified, yet it showcases the futility and lack of control we have as mortal beings. Your runs will always end. It will always start again. This was always how it was. It has completely changed my life in ways that cannot be truly defined with words. If there is a part of you that is able to see the depth underneath the 16x24 sprites through descriptions, and is interested in the potential story of a world knotted in thousands of years of lived-in civilizations, try it. There is always something new to see. It will be hard, and you will die. Qud is not a race, but a marathon on a path paved by the stones of your past efforts.

Live and Drink.

I found this game to be impenetrable and un fun. I tried and really wanted to like it. They said the story and depth were amazing. I played for a few hours and died many times and mostly just fiddled with my inventory a lot and tried my best to figure out where I was on a map. I tried internet guides to get started. I don’t get the appeal at all and I assume I “just have to play longer”. Eventually realized I have so many more games to play that are fun right away, graphics aren’t everything but they help when there is not much else going on. not worth my time to figure this one out.

An insanely deep RPG with thousands of options wrapped in an old school rogue like aesthetic, you can play it however you want (I recommend the roleplay mode!) and experience an incredibly deep story and world. Highly recommend!