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I've been playing Dead Cells recently. It's a 2D roguelike metroidvania game with some Souls gameplay as well. It's currently in Early Access on Steam but feels much more complete than most other EA games I've played. Dungeons, enemies, and weapon/item drops are procedurally generated each time you die. Some abilities are permanent once unlocked, allowing you to reach new areas or take a different path. Enemies will sometimes drop a cell that can be used upgrade weapons/items or unlock new ones if you find a blueprint for it. In between levels is an NPC that will let you use your cells, but if you die between levels you lose everything you're carrying. Unlocking a weapon places it into the pool of potential drops and upgrades are permanent as well. There aren't any permanent player stats, instead health, strength, and item skill are upgraded though pickups found around levels and reset upon death. Enemies telegraph their moves pretty clearly so you can dodge-roll around them but they hit quite hard. There's also a flask that refills your health and can be upgraded to hold multiple charges. You can carry two weapons, two items, and one accessory at any time. Weapons all have unique properties such as a sword that coats enemies in oil and increases fire damage, a pair of twin daggers that crits on the third strike, or a bow that can freeze enemies. Items operate on a cooldown and can be things like grenades, traps, abilities, etc. Higher level weapons/items can also sometimes have secondary effects like poison or deal/receive 2x damage. Accessories provide passive bonuses like taking 30% less damage or granting gold when you pick up a cell. Gold is used to buy weapons/items at stores during a run or for opening certain doors. Gold is reset when you die although there's an upgradable skill that lets you retain a certain percentage of gold. Gameplay wise it feels pretty good. There's some slight jank such as climbing on things can sometimes be a bit awkward and the dodge isn't quite as responsive as I'd like. It's pretty difficult as you'd expect from the combination of genres. I really dig the look. It's pixel graphics but the animation is smooth although I have noticed some slowdown at points. There's a couple of neat things I like such as alternate paths that lead to harder areas and doors that lock after a certain amount of time (there's an ingame timer at the start of each run so you can get an idea if you're going to make a door or not). In general I'd say I'm digging this game. It almost feels complete already, although I have no idea how far I am in terms of progressions. If anyone out there liked the idea of Rogue Legacy but hated playing it, I'd really recommend checking this out.

I've been playing Sunless Sea since it went on sale earlier in the week. It's pretty good! My first captain was an idealistic poet who only wanted to travel the underzee to collect stories to write an epic. Unfortunately, he/I thought it was a good idea to try to fight a giant crab and a pirate ship at the same time without reading up on the combat system first. I'm kind of un-enthused about the combat, but the story parts of the game are pretty great. I think Danielle compared it to The Yawgh which I think is pretty close, both in tone and overall style. What you think of the setting, the weird-fiction style, and the tendency to make silly changes like calling the see "the zee" might change how much you enjoy it. So, have other thumbs checked this thing out?

A friend of mine from 2K Marin has been working on his first indie offering for the past few months, and it looks like he's finally announcing/greenlighting/etc. The game's called Eldritch, and it's a first person roguelike with a Cthulhu mythos vibe, plus stealth and cool mobility (mantling, power slide). Basically Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth meets Spelunky. http://www.eldritchgame.com/ Seems like a good fit for the Idle Thumbs emergent narrative crowd.

So, these little bastards have taken over my bedtime recently. At the moment I'm playing Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (with tiles!) and Desktop Dungeons. Both are brutally hard (for me) despite being at the milder end of the rogue like spectrum. On the pad, I have zaga33. Up and coming, I'm fighting the urge to get FTL. For all it is in space, it sounds just as vicious and random as any roguelike. Does anyone else have a soft spot for these? The endless permanent deaths? The embarrassing mishaps? Do you find the lack of story beyond "Go steal stuff" to be off-putting? For me playing DCSS, I find my self oddly getting a lot of "story" for want of a better word out of these games. Scattered around the dungeon will be unique beings, and as you become more familiar you learn to fear their names. You narrowly defeat a sorceress, but then remember that she usually travels with her brother, or you slash through a goblins slaves to kill the master and free them. Or you eat some rotten meat, become nauseous and a rat kills you. Nothing is worse than struggling to reach a new floor only to be cut down by the ghost of a more powerful former self. (if playing zaga33 replace all nouns with "squiggle". ) Here is my records since my last install. I've made it to orc 4 at work with around 10k. That's not good even though I always play the same character in hopes I'll improve some day.