If you’re the kind of player who gets attached to characters and enjoys niceties like saved games, fair fights, or, god forbid, storylines, then 100 Rogues might not be what you’re looking for in your leisure time. But if you’re one of those sick people that thinks games should be tough enough to make you cry when you’re supposed to be having fun, read on, because you’re probably going to like this.
Hardcore Heroics
The word to describe 100 Rogues is Hardcore, especially since like many “hardcore” modes in RPGs, dying in 100 Rogues is permanent.
I have only played the game a couple of times as the Crusader (one of three playable classes) and the farthest I’ve ever gotten is level nine. I did feel a little mightier as I levelled up, but that genuine fear of death never dissipated, since going down a dungeon level makes enemies scale up in difficulty.
Combat in 100 Rogues is 2D and turn-based, requiring you to simply tap in one of four directions to move. If something should get in your way — like, say, a bandit — you have the option to try and walk through it by cleaving it in half (a.k.a. Fighting it). Combat is simple to start with, but gets a lot more interesting when enemies teleport, hurl fireballs, or are just plain indestructible.
Luckily my Crusader had (past tense — he’s freaking dead now) a set of interesting abilities of his own. I had built him like a tank, so his shield could nullify attacks from multiple angles, and he had used his main weapon (called “Sword”) for so long that he had mastered it and could dish out more damage and land critical hits with greater frequency. He also had an interesting passive ability called “Faith” which would have the finger of God intermittently smite enemies down and provide some much needed healing.
Aaaargh
Suffice it to say that the RPG elements and the basic combat in 100 Rogues is actually quite involving and fun (and that’s before the boss fights that occur every five dungeon levels). But here is why I might not pick it up again after I’m finished with this review.
First of all, killing monsters doesn’t always reward you with loot, and adventurers in this game require a steady diet of health, mana, and ammunition, so there will simply be times where 100 Rogues just feels like a dungeon-shaped desert. This adds to the thrill and sense of desperation, but it’s also just kinda cheap.
This feeling of being kidney shot by the game is compounded by the fact that you can also get hungry, which is an aspect of real life that I always hate seeing in games. To date, I have yet to have starvation as a direct cause of death, but it has certainly made the game less fun. There were all sorts of cool upgrades I had to forego because I had to spend my hard-earned, blood-stained money on a haunch of meat to feed my belly instead of buying a bigger sword to feed my bloodlust. Lame.
Speaking of Bigger…
100 Rogues is a universal app, but it’s actually a *lot* more fun on the iPhone than on the iPad, thanks to the slightly clumsy control scheme. Since 100 Rogues regards a tap on a non-UI portion of the screen is regarded as movement, it’s far too easy to accidentally skip a turn by moving, when what you really meant to do was use a healing potion from the quick menu. I can understand why this movement system works best on the iPhone, but it’s a big problem on the iPad, and I would have much preferred some sort of invisible directional pad to control my character.
Conclusion
100 Rogues can be cheap or downright aggravating, but that’s also because it does such a good job of presenting gamers with such an immersive challenge. I do find the iPad control scheme and the hunger mechanic annoying, but I also can’t get myself to delete the game from my iPhone just yet.
This is the kind of game you start to think about in idle moments, that makes you wonder about how you could play things just a little differently next time, and then makes you sure that you’ve learned your lesson…only to kick your ass all over again when you load it up for a session. If that brand of brutal, almost abusive gaming sounds intriguing, then drop $0.99 on 100 Rogues on the App Store.
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100 Rogues was purchased (well, downloaded for free while on sale) by the author for review on iSource. For further information regarding our site’s review policies, please see the “About” page.
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