Friday 23 December 2011

The real reson why development is slow.

 Sometimes a real gem of a roguelike comes along and it is too good to put down. First there was Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, and now there is another. Infra Arcana!

http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com

This game really rocks, although it is still in "early" development it really is quite playable and fun. I say "early" in quotes because it has not been around long, but Martin Tornqvist has already released 11 major releases and many more bug fixes. But even from the first release it had a finished feel to it and it has only got more polished.

It is a game set in the early 20th century based on the mythos of Lovecraft. Lovecraft always had a feeling of fear and exploration at the heart of his works. That is fear of the unknown and unknowable. This is where this game excells. At the heart it is a stock standard roguelike with hints of its heritage everywhere, but with combat weapons like axes as well as guns it has a more modern twist. Fans of DoomRL will love this one as will fantasy roguelikers I think. It has everything for everyone. A unique aspect is the "food clock", that is the clock that drives the player forward and deeper. This is in the form of a insanity counter. If the counter reaches 100% it is game over, however the counter is not a continual one, it only raises when your shock factor increases too much. This is where the game goes on its own path, where different rooms, creatures and other events can raise your shock value until your insanity increases, with its own unique effects. Dark rooms, grotesque statues, blindness etc all have differing effects on your sanity.

Also chuck in some dynamite, cool guns, molotov cocktails and flares and you have a really fun and cool game. Also as well as been in ascii there are some really cool graphics too. I give it 4 out of 5 flaming reanimated corpses.