Roguelikes & Roguelites With Innovative Gameplay

The roguelike and roguelite genres are packed with variety thanks to a flexible gameplay structure that allows for tremendous diversity. The potential themes, strategies, and mechanics allow these genres to experiment and innovate at a constant rate.

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Hades, for example, provides a fresh roguelite experience by providing players with a meaningful narrative. These titles, however, provide fresh mechanics and moment-to-moment gameplay that’s perfect for those already familiar with the genre, offering significant twists on familiar ideas.

8

Going Under

Unique Dungeon-Crawling With Brawler Combat

Going Under

Released

September 24, 2020

Developer(s)

Aggro Crab

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

Going Under innovates with its brawler-focused gameplay, using weapons with limited durability in a way that’s similar to games such as Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild. Although this durability system may sound unappealing to typical roguelike/roguelite fans, it creates an exciting combat arena by encouraging resourceful thinking and experimentation.

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Furthermore, typical roguelike builds aren’t uncommon in Going Under, as passive items are still present in this roguelite. The bright and colorful art style is also thoroughly unique, going hand-in-hand with the game’s charming, tongue-in-cheek tone.

7

Dungeon Of The Endless

Resource Management & Tower Defense

Roguelike

Real-Time Strategy

RPG

Released

December 11, 2013

Developer(s)

Amplitude Studios

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

Combining resource management and tower defense gameplay with the structure of a roguelike dungeon-crawler, Dungeon Of The Endless remains a tremendously fresh experience years after its release. The dark and gritty pixel art aesthetic offers some truly original presentation, too, perfectly matching the tense gameplay.

Dungeon Of The Endless follows a finely tuned ebb and flow that allows players to strategically explore dungeon floors, place towers, and build their economy in preparation for enemy attacks. This wave-based gameplay is typical of tower defense games, but Dungeon Of The Endless shakes things up by tasking players with defending a moving objective.

6

Darkest Dungeon

A Strategy RPG In A Roguelike Structure

Released

January 19, 2016

Developer(s)

Red Hook Studios

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

A stand-out title not only for its unique hand-drawn art style and grim-dark tone but for its combination of rogue-like dungeon-crawlers and strategy RPGs, Darkest Dungeon is a unique beast. In the game, players manage a roster of heroes and control small parties of them in tense dungeon crawls against a variety of Lovecraftian monsters.

Despite the rogue-like structure of its dungeons, Darkest Dungeon allows players to level up and better equip their heroes over time, with the constant threat of permanent death keeping the tension. The combination of party and resource management in and out of dungeons is particularly fresh, innovating in several spaces at once and succeeding in many of them. This is all the more improved by the unique addition of an in-game narrator, who punctuates each moment with some true gravitas.

5

Cobalt Core

A Tactical Deck-Builder

Roguelike

Digital Card Game

Systems

Released

November 8, 2023

Developer(s)

Rocket Rat Games

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

Cobalt Core is a roguelike deck-builder with a truly charming and utterly original pixel art style; quirky characters with distinctive designs and plenty of chunky pixels make for a warm and welcoming art style elevated by a soothing color palette. What’s most innovative about Cobalt Core may be its gameplay, but the coziness of its atmosphere and its thematic design are also incredibly original.

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Cobalt Core’s core gameplay loop follows node-based exploration similar to games such as FTL: Faster Than Light, sprinkled with a lot of dynamic spaceship battles. These turn-based battles are fought with typical card-play, but Cobalt Core introduces a tactical element by allowing players to move their own ship, avoiding enemy attacks while lining up their own. This creates an intriguing back-and-forth that’s incredibly unique to Cobalt Core.

4

Wildfrost

A Unique Combination Of Tactics & Deck-Building

Digital Card Game

Strategy

Roguelike

Systems

Released

April 12, 2023

Developer(s)

Deadpan Games, Gaziter

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

Wildfrost combines roguelike deck-building with a charming cartoon art style and Hearthstone-adjacent gameplay to complete success. Struggling only with the readability of specific scenarios and effects, Wildfrost’s intricate combat system is both strategic and expressive, easy to learn, and hard to master.

The absolute variety of its cards, companions, and passive items offers tremendous customization, allowing players to design an abundance of unique strategies. This is elevated and further innovated by the variety of playable factions, each of which has a dramatic impact on how a run plays out. Furthermore, Wildfrost features a unique structure that’s wholly generous with its rewards, allowing players to build-craft between combats in a way that other deck-builders simply don’t.

3

Ravenswatch

Co-Op Action Under Constant Time Pressure

Released

September 26, 2024

Developer(s)

Passtech Games

Ravenswatch is a slick and intuitive action roguelike that features a combat system not dissimilar to an isometric ARPG. What makes Ravenswatch so original, however, is its dark fairy tale setting and innovative gameplay structure, the latter of which adds a level of tension and desperation that’s missing from many other roguelikes.

This structure relies on a constantly ticking timer that forces players to think both quickly and strategically, resulting in a mad dash through each act as players attempt to explore as efficiently as possible. This also ensures, however, that the game is relatively punishing; failing to complete a certain map event stings not only because no reward is given but because valuable time is lost.

2

Into The Breach

A Puzzle-Focused Tactical Roguelike

Released

February 27, 2018

Fans of turn-based tactics and puzzle games alike will more than likely get a kick out of Into The Breach. This innovative grid-based roguelike tasks players with defending civilians from an alien invasion with a small squad of mechs.

The small scale of its combat arenas, the distinctive mech-types, each with their own expressive abilities, and the ability to undo moves or even reset entire turns allow Into The Breach to stand out in a thoroughly over-saturated crowd. What’s more, Into The Breach features a refreshing amount of information that’s constantly visible to the player, clearly telegraphing how each turn will play out and allowing players to make informed and strategic decisions.

1

Streets of Rogue

Immersive Sim & Action Roguelite Combined

Streets of Rogue

Released

March 10, 2017

Developer(s)

Matt Dabrowski

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

Streets Of Rogue is a top-down action roguelite that combines the chaos of sandbox action games such as Grand Theft Auto with the creative, expressive systems of immersive sims. This is facilitated by an incredibly diverse set of playable characters, faction interplay, and – most importantly – an objective-based gameplay loop.

This objective-based gameplay sees players freely exploring small towns across a variety of biomes, completing objectives however they see fit by using a combination of weapons, items, and unique methods. Elevated further by the addition of an online co-op, Streets Of Rogue innovates by dramatically switching up the roguelike formula.

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