Games Thursday : DoomRL Revisited
A new version 0.9.8.10 of the DoomRL roguelike by Kornel Kisielewicz has just been released a few weeks back. If you’re new to roguelikes and happen to enjoy the gloomy sci-fi universe that is Doom, I heartily recommend this latest version of DoomRL - the inventory system is much more intuitive and informative and there just seems to be much more powerups and items than the last time I played and wrote about it.
More cool new items
Weapons have been translated faithfully to DoomRL with additional goodies like unique weapons (think special items in Diablo) and weapon mods to permanently improve your weapon in one of several possible upgrades - accuracy, reloading time, magazine size, etc. Almost everything Doom - acid barrels, blood splats, those bloody Cacodemons, computer maps of the level - down to the dripping blood animation at the start and end of each level is in there 
Most of the tactics applicable to Doom have been elegantly implemented in the roguelike - strafing, dodging behind cover while an empty cartridge is pumped out of your combat shotgun and shooting conveniently placed acid barrels near those pesky fireball spewing imps work just well in DoomRL as in the original Doom. Don’t want to enter a room by the door? Blast a hole through the walls if you can find a barrel nearby - you don’t get such tactical options in Doom, do you
Coloured inventory management screen
DoomRL being a roguelike means that your character can advance in levels and earn new abilities to fight harder, reload faster and even run faster (don’t scoff at this until you encounter your first Hell Knight 
) Your character is also constrained by a backpack of limited size so don’t expect to carry every single weapon, ammo or medpack that you find.
Some keys to get you started on your tour of Phobos Base:
f - Fire your current weapon
r - Reload weapon
l - Look around
e - Equipment screen - use this scren to equip weapons and armour or equip them in the inventory screen - press i
U - Unload unused rounds from weapon on ground
d - Drop items from your backpack
g - Pick up item and store in backpack
u - Use lever/inventory item
> - Descend to the next level
? - Online Help
DoomRL creates a neatly formatted text file with the kills and achievements of your character upon his death (usually due to one of the many demons that inhabit the lower levels but occassionally to silly accidents involving acid barrels and lava pits). For the stat junkie, select Show Player at the main menu and you’ll be greeted with your total kills and more importantly, your current skill and experience ranks and the criteria on your next rank promotion to unlock extra playable challenges under Challenge Game and increase bragging rights.
Play DoomRL 0.9.8.10.
MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
AliensRL 7DRL++ - Aliens-themed Roguelike
Monster’s Den - My Favourite Flash RPG
Meritous : Explore 3000 Rooms & Kill 10000+ Monsters
Another fantastic post and time for me to go back to Doom: the roguelike. Brilliant! Thanks!
I think the improvements in this version are worth a replay if you’ve played the previous versions, my dear Gnome.
Noway could I make it through one of those games…
Ok, moving along now…..
You can, Deitrix
Roguelikes are incredibly addictive stuff if you invest some time in learning the keyboard commands - not too many thankfully.
Replay, replay…. Oh dear… Guess I’ll schedule it for this weekend…
Come on, there’s always time for more games