As I sit down to write today, I find my mind is just not in it. I had originally planned to talk about how we tend to "stagnate" as we grow older, but alas, I think that will have to wait until a future post. Today I will talk about what's actually on my mind right now: Caves of Qud.
I've really just barely started the game. I've spent no more than a few hours on it and only gone through a handful of "deaths". So far I really like it! The only thing that's itching me is that it feels somewhat "sparse". Maybe I'm just not that familiar yet with the game, and that's why. Don't get me wrong, in some ways the game does feel huge and has a deep and well-connected history, but the amount of people (and the kind of people) just doesn't make that much sense to me. In some ways it feels a bit like No Man's Sky (at least as it was when I played it about three years ago), where there's more "space" than "stuff".
Still, it's lots of fun. I like how every fight is its own little puzzle that must be solved with careful positioning and choosing which abilities to use at the right time.
So far I'm playing in "roleplay" mode, which saves a checkpoint every time you visit a village, so if you die you'll just get sent back to your last checkpoint. For my first attempt I did play the classical permadeath mode, but I thought that for learning about the world and the different systems, it makes more sense to give myself some training wheels :) Otherwise, I would end up dying again and again in the first few sections without really experiencing anything else.
I've been following the development of the game for a long while. I actually got it on GOG quite a few years ago but didn't get to play it much. On one hand, the game was still in development at the time, and there were constant changes to the UI (which was muuuch harder to use), balance fixes, and whatnot. On the other, it was on my PC, and I just don't like spending that much time in front of my monitor outside of work (I already spend most of my day sitting in my office! In my free time I prefer to look at a screen somewhere else, thank you very much).
However, recently I saw that they had released the Nintendo Switch version, and I just knew I had to get it. It was finally time to give it a second chance and see if it really is as good as everyone says it is.
From what I've seen so far, there have been many important improvements, especially for beginners. Like right now they have a (bare-bones but enough to get you started) tutorial, as well as a decent amount of preset builds (quite sensible ones, in fact) that you can get started with off the bat without needing to spend time researching which mutation/cybernetics combinations are best. Another thing I was really surprised by was how good it plays with the Switch controls. Sure, there's some upfront memorization you need to do to learn which key combos do which, but I found it to be quite easy and surprisingly intuitive.
I also saw that they added pets, which is a really awesome addition! I have a little beetle-like creature aptly called "Man Opener" that follows me around and joyfully spreads carnage and dread wherever hostile creatures show their faces. When I pet it, it does a tiny little dance of happiness!
Sometimes in these sorts of games with lots of dungeons, it can feel a bit lonely, and I really appreciate the company (especially so at the beginning!). Your pet can die or get lost, which is something I'm constantly keeping an eye out for, but so far we haven't really had any major difficulties.
One thing I'm appreciating is how in these sorts of games you can find the element of "emergent gameplay". For example, I've died a couple of times and have been mostly playing with mutant characters that have access to different "mutations". Each of these will vary what your character can do, from having extra legs to help you carry more loot to being able to mentally control others, etc. As the run progresses, you can earn more mutations, and they all interplay to give you a specific playstyle for that character, which feels unique every time.
Again, I don't have much experience with Caves of Qud, but I have seen this concept of emergent gameplay come up a lot in Dwarf Fortress (absolute masterpiece, one of my favorite games of all time and the reason why I studied Computer Science in the first place; I also talk a bit about it in this other post). I remember young me laughing my ass off every time I accidentally had FUN in weird and unexpected ways.
One of my favorite things to do is "engineer" interesting machines, usually ones that I then use to "kill stuff". For example, make a lava reservoir that is connected to a trapdoor and feeds into a moat around the entrance of my fortress. When I get a goblin (or pesky elves) invasion, I just open the trapdoor and "problem solved". Playing with liquids is honestly one of the most FUN things in DF, as it's very easy for them to spill over your intended containers and flood your whole fortress. Lava traps are also useful for dealing with "nobles".
I'm pretty sure that the creators of DF at no point intended for people to spend their time building interesting contraptions. Sure, the game allows for it thanks to its detailed (arguably too detailed) simulation, but it's not really necessary. I often wonder, in fact, what the game is as they originally envisioned it. Right now, for me, it's more of a sandbox to try silly things, build huge monuments, and have FUN, but maybe they originally intended for people to really try to have a sane society (iykyk) of dwarves that are able to beat all odds and actually thrive.
Anyway... got sidetracked. I'm looking forward to playing more CoQ, though hopefully it's not going to impact my writing schedule that much!