Been playing occasionally for a while now, but I haven't played in a couple months so I figure it's a decent time to log. It's a really great concept but damn, is it hard. Can never get more than 4 or 5 zones in before making a mistake and losing. Hard to judge too much since there's very clearly a lot I never even saw but I doubt i'll get much further any time soon lol. For free on itch though it's a novelty worth checking out!
This game makes me so dizzy, I can't play! It's a cool concept though.
Well it's certainly different? I'm not sure what I was expecting going into this one, but it certainly wasn't this.
I have perhaps never seen a game with less polish; at times this feels more like an early alpha than a finished game. The graphics are crazy basic, the music is simplistic and the game has a tendency to generate softlocks around you every now and again. Most runs for me have ended by being pursued by an enemy until I hit some obstacle that was offscreen when I first picked the direction to run in, and this gets especially frustrating at the end of a longer run. And the game gates most of its zones behind collecting a certain number of collectables in the current run, meaning that you end up spending a lot of time just farming the same 2 or 3 relatively uninteresting zones.
And yet behind all that, there is a fascinating game at the core of it. Some of the later zones get extremely weird with each adding some new ruleset or geometry or both. It's a shame that these often aren't clear at all. So most of my encounters with a new zone go as follows: find a new zone, "ooh what's this one then?", die immediately, don't see that zone again for another 20 runs. It makes learning what goes on in these outer reaches nigh-on-impossible, which is a shame as these wackier zones are the best the game has to offer. Perhaps there is a zone selector or remixer somewhere in the settings, but the settings are the densest I have ever seen and are mostly written in high-concept geometry jargon.
Despite all of this, there is a certain addictive quality to hyperrogue; it is always interesting to get a glimpse of a new bizarre region, even if only for a second. With a lot more sanding down of the rough edges this could be a truly phenomenal achievement of gaming. For now its better to think of it as a very content-rich tech demo, but a very impressive one at that.
I have perhaps never seen a game with less polish; at times this feels more like an early alpha than a finished game. The graphics are crazy basic, the music is simplistic and the game has a tendency to generate softlocks around you every now and again. Most runs for me have ended by being pursued by an enemy until I hit some obstacle that was offscreen when I first picked the direction to run in, and this gets especially frustrating at the end of a longer run. And the game gates most of its zones behind collecting a certain number of collectables in the current run, meaning that you end up spending a lot of time just farming the same 2 or 3 relatively uninteresting zones.
And yet behind all that, there is a fascinating game at the core of it. Some of the later zones get extremely weird with each adding some new ruleset or geometry or both. It's a shame that these often aren't clear at all. So most of my encounters with a new zone go as follows: find a new zone, "ooh what's this one then?", die immediately, don't see that zone again for another 20 runs. It makes learning what goes on in these outer reaches nigh-on-impossible, which is a shame as these wackier zones are the best the game has to offer. Perhaps there is a zone selector or remixer somewhere in the settings, but the settings are the densest I have ever seen and are mostly written in high-concept geometry jargon.
Despite all of this, there is a certain addictive quality to hyperrogue; it is always interesting to get a glimpse of a new bizarre region, even if only for a second. With a lot more sanding down of the rough edges this could be a truly phenomenal achievement of gaming. For now its better to think of it as a very content-rich tech demo, but a very impressive one at that.
I often see "exploration" listed as a positive in reviews as if being able to look at stuff is an inherent good. Saying a game is good because it allows you to explore is like saying a game is good because it has shooting. Exploring in games is usually mundane where the incentive to explore isn't the sense of exploration, but to admire some asset or to collect a meaningless power-up.
HyperRogue is exploration done right, where the incentive to explore is 1) unlocking more biomes to explore, and 2) exploring the unique systems of each biome. The only rewards for HyperRogue are the achievements, but this game would be just as good without them, and mostly act as extra goals. The real reward is the satisfaction of coming across a bizarre rule set, coming to understand it, and then having to relearn it once new rules are added. It's system exploration, where the reward is inherent to the exploration, not just seeing your stats go up or seeing something pretty.
What happens when you've explored everything and there's no more surprises? Does the game just become dull? Firstly, it's going to take a long time to actually discover everything. There's an absurd amount of content in this game, with many of the steam reviews showing hundreds of hours played with few having 100%'d the game. Secondly, once the game is mostly figured out, it becomes a very intricate score attack puzzle game, with a skill ceiling seemingly as high as tetris. Mastering all the interactions could take a lifetime. I can easily see myself playing this even when I'm on my death bed, waiting to die of whatever illness huffing scotchgard causes.
Also it's all in hyperbolic geometry, which is neat too i guess.
HyperRogue is exploration done right, where the incentive to explore is 1) unlocking more biomes to explore, and 2) exploring the unique systems of each biome. The only rewards for HyperRogue are the achievements, but this game would be just as good without them, and mostly act as extra goals. The real reward is the satisfaction of coming across a bizarre rule set, coming to understand it, and then having to relearn it once new rules are added. It's system exploration, where the reward is inherent to the exploration, not just seeing your stats go up or seeing something pretty.
What happens when you've explored everything and there's no more surprises? Does the game just become dull? Firstly, it's going to take a long time to actually discover everything. There's an absurd amount of content in this game, with many of the steam reviews showing hundreds of hours played with few having 100%'d the game. Secondly, once the game is mostly figured out, it becomes a very intricate score attack puzzle game, with a skill ceiling seemingly as high as tetris. Mastering all the interactions could take a lifetime. I can easily see myself playing this even when I'm on my death bed, waiting to die of whatever illness huffing scotchgard causes.
Also it's all in hyperbolic geometry, which is neat too i guess.
Разработчик открыл математическую формулу идеального рогалика
legal e interessante, apesar da dor de cabeça que dá depois de jogar.