Caves of Qud is definitely not a new game. With over 15 years of development, Freehold Games has built a community of passionate players over a long period of early access. But on Wednesday, Caves of Qud finally enjoyed a 1.0 launch and is available for purchase at Steam, Jeuk.ioAnd GOG.
It is not easy to categorize Caves of Qudbecause it covers so much ground – quite literally, because it spawns an entire world full of ancient ruins, poisonous jungles, scattered settlements, mutants, beasts, clones, sentient bears and mysterious robots. It’s advertised as a “science fantasy roguelike epic” and an “in-depth simulation” that allows players to do basically anything. Thanks to all the technology and magic of the setting, that could be anything from arguing with a sentient plant to becoming a spider and trapping your enemies in a web.
The 1.0 update adds a tutorial to learn the basics of the game, which was sorely needed, and adds a final quest to the main questline that initiates the end of the game. There are several new music tracks and sound effects. Players can also earn 40 new achievements, find new items, and enjoy many minor bug fixes and quality of life changes.
The obvious comparison to be made here is with Dwarf Fortressanother visually simple yet stunningly complex game that simulates every aspect of the environment. Very much Dwarf Fortressa walkthrough of Caves of Qud is similarly spicy and unique. The game originally only had permadeath, but the Roleplay and Wander modes are much more casual and allow for exploration of this strange new world.