Cavern (iPhone)

That Rev Chap — Mon, 10 May 2010 10:14:08 +0000

In my previous post about Cavern I mentioned I was having trouble with the movement controls. Well, that’s no longer a problem. My brain adjusted quite quickly and now I’m completely comfortable with the control scheme. (And there is an option for more standard relative movement controls, but I actually prefer the default control scheme now.)

Squishing bugs for fun and XP.

Without the control problems I was able to dig into the game properly. It’s a fairly simple roguelike, but a solid and playable one. It reminds me of ZAngband in the way you often need to return to the surface for supplies, but magic scrolls that teleport you back are cheap and plentiful, so it feels more like a quick break than a tension-reducing slog.

It’s a harsh game, too – no matter how well you think you’ve been doing, you can die in seconds if you don’t keep your wits about you – but that’s not a bad thing at all.

I also like the variety of locations, with things like bridges and brick-walled, finely-carpeted rooms breaking up the brown and grey of the cavern. Well worth a look if you’re into roguelikes, I can’t see this being deleted off my iPhone any time soon.

Cavern (iPhone)

That Rev Chap — Fri, 07 May 2010 08:59:00 +0000

Another roguelike, this one built specifically for the iPhone. I’ve not played it much, but it seems like it could be very decent if I can get the hang of the movement controls. At the moment I’m all over the shop. The principle seems decent – tap the square you want to move to – but somehow I keep mucking it up and running around like a loon. (There’s also a small d-pad in the bottom of the screen, but I’m having even less luck with that. Sometimes it moves me, most of the time it seems to do nothing. Perhaps I should check for instructions, eh?)

An epic battle, possibly.

It also seems awfully easy to die, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Nothing wrong with a good bit of permadeath.

If you’ve not played any sort of roguelike before then the magnificent Sword of Fargoal is probably the easiest starting point, but this looks like it might be another worthwhile example of the genre. I’ll hopefully have better impressions after the weekend, if iNetHack doesn’t eat all my roguelike gaming time.

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Cavern (iPhone)

Cavern (iPhone)