FInally found the thread where I can blog about my gaming.
Currently stuck neck deep in Caves of Qud. Had it on my wishlist for ages but 12$ for an indie roguelike always seemed bit much when Angband and Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead brought me hundreds of hours of fun for free.
With a recent steam stale and feeling burnout after 230 hrs of Elden Ring (over a very short time) I finally got it.
And man, this game has me feeling like I'm playing Morrowind all over again. You're thrust into this alien world with its very own culture and even language and it's like nothing I have ever seen before.
I was wondering why I felt so immersed only half an hour in but I think I found the answer:
Item descriptions and mob descriptions (with barely any graphics, 'l'ooking at stuff is very important, especially early on) aren't written neutrally for the player but rather how a person in the world would describe it. So if you inspect a rabid dog, it doesn't say: Canine with shaggy fur. but:
A completely normal revolver is described as:
When talking to an NPC, the default "goodbye"-phrase is "Live and drink" because fresh water is the most important resource in Qud and also the main currency. Thus lots of the culture is based on water.
It even goes as far as there being a dedicated water ritual where you share water with a stranger to show your trust and sympathy:
This is very important to pull you into the strange world the devs have created. It's consistent, strange and interesting and so far feels really authentic.
The gameplay itself is not that special. You have your standard roguelike tile- and turnbased combat with RPG values and dice rolls deciding most outcomes.
Character creation however is wild again. You can choose between two base "races": Mutated human and true kin. The latter have better stats and can install bionic implants such as armored skin or arm stabilizers for aiming.
Mutated humans have lower base stats but can buy mutations at creation and mutate as you level, granting multiple limbs, stingers, fur, horns, gas glands or epser/psychic stuff like heating an area with your mind, teleportation and force fields.
Anyway, if you enjoy roguelikes, CoQ is a must play imo.