Game 4 of 2023: Streets of Rogue

Streets of Rogue

Developer: Matt Dabrowski
Publisher: tinyBuild
Platform: PC
Genre: Action Roguelite

Difficulty: Moderate or Hard, really depends on your playstyle and class
Hours: 20 and counting

Finished: Yes, sort of
Final Rating: 9.7/10

hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooly shit is this fun

Damn, my GOTY in early February?!?!?! For some context, I don't always love the roguelike/roguelite genre. There are some exceptions, like Rogue Legacy, Tales of Maj'Eyal, Dwarf Fortress, and ADoM, but it's not usually a genre I usually enjoy. Well, I am pleased to announce that a roguelite is not only one of my favorite games I've played in the past year, but it's probably in my top 10 of all time.

Pure Joy

In Streets of Rogue, you are recruited to overthrow the mayor of a corrupt city arranged in floors for some reason. You start in the slums, and make your way up to the swanky uptown and finally the Mayor's Village. You have a variety of different classes to start with, like the Slum Dweller, Thief, and Hacker, and you can unlock a whole bunch more by completing objectives along the way. They all have unique playstyles, abilities and challenges, and it really allows you to play the game your way. For example, the Hacker might be a 90 pound weakling, but he can use his laptop to hack (and sometimes detonate) all kinds of stuff you find throughout each level. The Jock really packs a wallop when hitting enemies, but he refuses to use computers because that shit's for nerds.

See?

You can sneak around if you want, bribe cops if you want, make friends with cannibals, or just be a wanton killing machine. You can even make your own custom class if you feel like it. The objectives are usually pretty basic (neutralize this guy, rescue that guy, destroy that thing over there) and don't vary much per level, but there is multiple ways to accomplish each mission.

Honestly, the game this reminds me most of is Morrowind. Obviously the gameplay is completely different, but I got the same feeling. Like Morrowind, I felt like I was let loose in a world, free to complete my mission in whatever way I could, rules be damned.

...what's the hell's going on here?

Given it's diversity of characters, playstyles, and mutators (sort of like game modifiers), Streets of Rogue offers a ton of replayability. You can probably finish a run in an hour or two, providing you aren't killed along the way.

A simple pickpocket attempt on the Shopkeeper ended up with a shitload of dead cops.

 

Let's wrap this shit up real quick. Streets of Rogue is awesome and Streets of Rogue 2 is a day one purchase when it comes out later this year.