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.
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.