Caves of Qud is evocative of the RPGs of old, such as Wasteland, Ultima, and others that spearheaded and popularized the concept of a tile-based RPG world. What the classics lack in lore, interaction, and mechanics, Caves of Qud provides tenfold as you explore its salt flats, jungles, and ancient ruins for the lost technology of the Eaters as you try to find your place in the world, with the Spindle looming in the sky...

GAMEPLAY:

Caves of Qud is, primarily a classic roguelike and provides no permanent progression besides your own, personal learning moments. There is, however, "Classic" mode, which lets you save at towns as checkpoints, creating a state you return to upon death, allowing you to treat it like a more traditional RPG. I'd reccomend it for starting out, because Caves of Qud has very little in the way of any tutorial, and you will die. A lot. It's considered part of the experience for new players. Thankfully, starting a new run is usually quick and painless.


Caves of Qud features two primary races, Mutants and True Kin, which radically change how you play the game and interact with the world. Mutants can obtain unique Mutations that can grant them either physical prowess in the form of many limbs, accessory organs, and metallic claws, or mental mastery with psionic powers so potent, ancient beings take notice. True Kin cannot mutate, but have access to cybernetic augmentations, like replacing their legs with tank treads, metal woven with their skin, and having a ground-penetrating radar from which nothing can hide. Mutants and True Kin are natively at odds, with Mutants having to deal with the Putus Templar, an elite order of True Kin knights who stop at nothing to 'cleanse the world'.


Caves of Qud's gameplay takes place in a tile-based grid made of many "Parasangs", which is a tile-length on the world map. The number pad gives you 8-directional movement, but the arrow keys may also be used with a modification key to go diagonal. The main gameplay loop has you exploring the world and conquering "Historical Sites", ancient ruins left behind by "The Sultanate", a civilization from long past, while trying to survive Qud's native dangers, like hyena-men, flying snakes, goatmen, killer robots, and powerful mutants and psychics. Each Historical Site plays host to a Relic, a piece of equipment which grants unique benefits no artisan of the post-apocalyptic age can produce, ranging from simple stat ups to armor ignoring and even turning those struck into valuable gems. Historical Sites are randomly generated, and must be discovered by questioning people for secrets, reading ancient engravings, and filtering through the rubbish of the past to find clues to their location.


Caves of Qud's controls can be difficult to learn, at first. The game is played primarily with both hands on the keyboard, the left hand occupying the space nearest WASD and the shift, alt, and control keys, and your right hand either on the num pad or arrow keys. There are many, many ways to interact with the environment, and this is only expanded upon further by the many abilities you can acquire as either a Mutant or True Kin. To supplement this, abilities may be given a keybind at your discretion, and can take modifier keys, from Shift, Alt, and Control. This means a wide array of controls are possible, and it may be overwhelming at first. This is mostly mitigated by the slow acquisition of new abilities and the fact you bind them yourself, but there are still many other functions, such as (C)hatting, (T)hrowing, and (F)iring your weapon which are never really explained and require you to review the keybind menu to find.

All in all, this results in Qud being a very tedious and even sometimes frustrating game to learn, but after 5 or 6 hours things become much, much more fluid, and you can display mastery over the entire keyboard as your character is at your command.


As mentioned previously, interacting the world is very verbose. Almost every type of object has unique methods of interaction, from descending stairs and climbing ladders to stopping to smell the (probably explosive) roses and pet a friendly cat. This verbose interaction system is further complicated by both ambient and personal temperatures for the area and every tile (and its occupants) in the map. Sufficient heat will turn slate walls into magma, and you can freeze pools of liquid salt for makeshift walls.

This system is incredibly rewarding to learn and master, but can be frustrating when encountering unforeseen circumstances, such as walls containing lava and wires, water boiling under your feet such that you die to the heat of its steam, and explosions knocking you into a wall, stunlocking you. The world is as strong as you are, and it's very unforgiving.


Personally, I think this game is a blast. Being raised around classic RPGs, I was able to quickly adjust and appreciate the extended mechanics of the game, and even still I have so many new builds, discoveries, and moments of sublime comedy. The game's characters, while not emphasized in this review, are all unique and interesting, with their own relations, and quirks, and ALL of them, with exceptions to automata, may be recruited to your cause. I've spent about 850 hours at the time of this review and it looks like I may be ready to spend 850 more. On top of that, this game's extensive modding community expands and aids the game, even providing things like a real, comprehensive tutorial to the game's many mechanics.

This is a solid 8/10 to me, before release. The new player experience can be confusing and frustrating, and "Just spend more time playing" isn't a defense for a game. If you can't make the experience enjoyable (Or, in this case, even comprehensible) in the first two hours, you're wasting players' time. Would these tutorial issues be resolved by Freehold this game would be a very easy 10/10, and the crown jewel of my games collection.

Caves of Qud is evocative of the RPGs of old, such as Wasteland, Ultima, and others that spearheaded and popularized the concept of a tile-based RPG world. What the classics lack in lore, interaction, and mechanics, Caves of Qud provides tenfold as you explore its salt flats, jungles, and ancient ruins for the lost technology of the Eaters as you try to find your place in the world, with the Spindle looming in the sky... GAMEPLAY: Caves of Qud is, primarily a classic roguelike and provides no permanent progression besides your own, personal learning moments. There is, however, "Classic" mode, which lets you save at towns as checkpoints, creating a state you return to upon death, allowing you to treat it like a more traditional RPG. I'd reccomend it for starting out, because Caves of Qud has [i]very[/i] little in the way of any tutorial, and you will die. A lot. It's considered part of the experience for new players. Thankfully, starting a new run is usually quick and painless. [h2]Races[/h2] Caves of Qud features two primary races, Mutants and True Kin, which radically change how you play the game and interact with the world. Mutants can obtain unique Mutations that can grant them either physical prowess in the form of many limbs, accessory organs, and metallic claws, or mental mastery with psionic powers so potent, ancient beings take notice. True Kin cannot mutate, but have access to cybernetic augmentations, like replacing their legs with tank treads, metal woven with their skin, and having a ground-penetrating radar from which nothing can hide. Mutants and True Kin are natively at odds, with Mutants having to deal with the Putus Templar, an elite order of True Kin knights who stop at nothing to 'cleanse the world'. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] Caves of Qud's gameplay takes place in a tile-based grid made of many "Parasangs", which is a tile-length on the world map. The number pad gives you 8-directional movement, but the arrow keys may also be used with a modification key to go diagonal. The main gameplay loop has you exploring the world and conquering "Historical Sites", ancient ruins left behind by "The Sultanate", a civilization from long past, while trying to survive Qud's native dangers, like hyena-men, flying snakes, goatmen, killer robots, and powerful mutants and psychics. Each Historical Site plays host to a Relic, a piece of equipment which grants unique benefits no artisan of the post-apocalyptic age can produce, ranging from simple stat ups to armor ignoring and even turning those struck into valuable gems. Historical Sites are randomly generated, and must be discovered by questioning people for secrets, reading ancient engravings, and filtering through the rubbish of the past to find clues to their location. [h2]Controls[/h2] Caves of Qud's controls can be difficult to learn, at first. The game is played primarily with both hands on the keyboard, the left hand occupying the space nearest WASD and the shift, alt, and control keys, and your right hand either on the num pad or arrow keys. There are many, many ways to interact with the environment, and this is only expanded upon further by the many abilities you can acquire as either a Mutant or True Kin. To supplement this, abilities may be given a keybind at your discretion, and can take modifier keys, from Shift, Alt, and Control. This means a wide array of controls are possible, and it may be overwhelming at first. This is mostly mitigated by the slow acquisition of new abilities and the fact you bind them yourself, but there are still many other functions, such as (C)hatting, (T)hrowing, and (F)iring your weapon which are never really explained and require you to review the keybind menu to find. All in all, this results in Qud being a very tedious and even sometimes frustrating game to learn, but after 5 or 6 hours things become much, much more fluid, and you can display mastery over the entire keyboard as your character is at your command. [h2]Interaction[/h2] As mentioned previously, interacting the world is very verbose. Almost every type of object has unique methods of interaction, from descending stairs and climbing ladders to stopping to smell the (probably explosive) roses and pet a friendly cat. This verbose interaction system is further complicated by both ambient and personal temperatures for the area and every tile (and its occupants) in the map. Sufficient heat will turn slate walls into magma, and you can freeze pools of liquid salt for makeshift walls. This system is incredibly rewarding to learn and master, but can be frustrating when encountering unforeseen circumstances, such as walls containing lava and wires, water boiling under your feet such that you die to the heat of its steam, and explosions knocking you into a wall, stunlocking you. The world is as strong as you are, and it's very unforgiving. Personally, I think this game is a blast. Being raised around classic RPGs, I was able to quickly adjust and appreciate the extended mechanics of the game, and even still I have so many new builds, discoveries, and moments of sublime comedy. The game's characters, while not emphasized in this review, are all unique and interesting, with their own relations, and quirks, and ALL of them, with exceptions to automata, may be recruited to your cause. I've spent about 850 hours at the time of this review and it looks like I may be ready to spend 850 more. On top of that, this game's extensive modding community expands and aids the game, even providing things like a real, comprehensive tutorial to the game's many mechanics. This is a solid 8/10 to me, before release. The new player experience can be confusing and frustrating, and "Just spend more time playing" isn't a defense for a game. If you can't make the experience enjoyable (Or, in this case, even comprehensible) in the first two hours, you're wasting players' time. Would these tutorial issues be resolved by Freehold this game would be a very easy 10/10, and the crown jewel of my games collection.