Malf on 28/3/2017 at 09:28

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I was going to post this in the "What are you playing now" thread, but I think this deserves its own thread.

The prospect of repeating Nier: Automata again, then again has briefly driven me back to a game I picked up in February, but put away for a while due to it being a bit buggy.
It's now mostly fixed, and it's tentatively looking like it might be my game of the year, unless something better comes along.

It's (http://store.steampowered.com/app/506870/) Unexplored.

It takes the classic Rogue formula and makes it real-time, with some physics based combat and a focus on abilities being controlled by gear rather than stats (although there are two major stats, strength and life). On top of that, it's got a really great procedural map generator and some excellent puzzles.

Some things that we've gotten used to in other games and that have been watered down over the years re-assert their original intentions and mechanics here. Mostly, the idea of identifying items.

In modern games, identifying gear is simply a minor inconvenience, something to do in a break from the action.
In Unexplored, virtually all magic equipment and all potions and scrolls are unknown until you have equipped them and used them for a while or until you've managed to find a scroll of Identify, which itself is unidentified.
Due to limited inventory space, this necessitates that you experiment with unknown things. So that sword you've been stabbing goblins with, after the twentieth kill might reveal itself to be a Sword of Lightning +2, or conversely a Sword of Swordsmanship -2. That potion you're thinking of drinking might be a potion of strength, permanently improving your ability to damage enemies, but also might turn out to be a potion of incineration, which you really should have thrown at the enemy instead of drinking.

It's also refreshing that because there's less of a focus on stats, clever tactics and usage of the environment and gear can be used to defeat major enemies rather than having to grind out levels.

Last night for example, I discovered The Wicked Witch, a nasty early boss. Thankfully, she had also appeared in a level with bomb flowers, which can be picked up and thrown from out of aggro range. She went down easy.

Another level was filled with irritating lizards that have a nasty damaging tongue attack, but by getting them to get in eachothers' way, I was able to get them to kill eachother.

Or another time the Wicked Witch spawned, she was unfortunate enough to be in a room filled with a magical mist. Most of the time, this mist does nothing, but if a magic missile is set of in it, it explodes in an ever-expanding cloud of other magic missiles. And I had a Staff of Magic Missiles.

Of course, the deaths can be equally amusing, such as the time I thought it would be safe to test an unidentified scroll, only for it to ping me off my path, set me on fire and send me spiralling into a spike trap.

If you like things like Rogue, Spelunky or Rogue Legacy, I can highly recommend Unexplored. It's dirt cheap too, being £6.99 full price, which is incredible value for money.

Pyrian on 28/3/2017 at 19:34

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Honestly, I found the similar identification mechanic in Nethack incredibly annoying. 'Course, in nethack, a life might last just a few minutes and then its back to the identifying-ground-zero.

Renzatic on 28/3/2017 at 21:18

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I've wishlisted it. I'll grab it next time I go on a game buying spree.