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.