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- Thomas Biskup
- Thomas Biskup
- Thomas Biskup
- Thomas Biskup
Ancient Domains of Mystery
Metascore
Critic reviews are not available yet
User Score
User reviews are not available yet
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
All Platforms
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Critic Reviews
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User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 30 User Ratings
7.6
70% Positive
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
7% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
23% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 30 User Ratings
7.6
70% Positive
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
7% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
23% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
I have played ADOM since around 1996, and it has been simply the best true roguelike game, without question. Other roguelikes come and go, but ADOM remains on every PC I've had.
Pros:
Depth but not overwhelmingly so.
Great character classes with very striking differences in gameplay
The pace is perfect, not too slow, not too fast.
Immense replayability - different classes and races are always fun to try
The "Si"
Now - fantastic graphics, music and extras
Cons:
None that I can think of!
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PC
ADOM is a two-decade labor of love - handcrafted gaming goodness, targetted at gamers who are willing to struggle, fail, learn, and refine their playing skills to earn (oh yes, EARN) victory. Every starting character comes with its own unique set of strengths and weaknesses, some crafted by the player and some randomly-assigned by the game itself, making each playthrough a unique experience of its own. Resourcefulness, character management, and inventory management all play a role, but at its heart this is simply a game about saving the world and collecting a ton of cool stuff. Go get some!
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PC
Wow! I have to admit, that I was a bit skeptical. The community has been trying to put rogue-like games together with non-ascii graphics for at least a decade, and, for me, none has ever worked. However, ADOM is different. Already one of the very best rogue-likes of all time, with a compelling, rich story-line and hundreds of hours of challenging gameplay, the Steam version is actually very good. I put this down to clever little touches, atmospheric sounds, and some nice design. The original game remains as compelling as it ever did, and this release breathes new life into it. If you played ASCII ADOM, or even if you didn't, in my view, this is a must-buy. Even better if it results in further expansion, e.g. via DLC in the future!
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PC
Absolutely, hands down, the deepest, most enjoyable game in the rogue-like genre. The game has unlimited replay value. Keep in mind, you have to enjoy the genre to get it, but if you play games like NetHack, Angband or Moria, ADOM blows them away. I've been playing ADOM for years upon years, and much like the other reviewers, I haven't even come close to unlocking all of the content. Thomas Biskup, you are a master of your craft. Congrats on the Steam launch! It's a crime to see ADOM (2015) when I looked it up, since this game has been around for forever.
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PC
I played ADOM in its DOS version a lot, and it was a great game despite its obsolete controls and presentation even by 90s standards. It's possibly one of the deepest or even the deepest PRG game ever made. The amount of things you can do is greater than in any game I've ever seen. The game is extremely challenging and offers high replay value with its permadeath feature and endless variety of randomly generated dungeons. For that DOS version I give a full 10/10, recommend it to any and all gamers, and consider it the best RPG ever made together with Fallout 2 and Baldur's Gate 2.
However, this graphical Windows version 60 (which is now on Steam) is unfinished and as of now not ready to play with. The graphics look ok though frankly the hero models and faces could be more detailed - atm they resemble graphics in 2000s games for Java phones. The music is average, even a bit annoying. The GUI is terrible. It's taken from the DOS version and only allows you to click on some things which doesn't help much. For the most part you need to use the old keyboard system which I almost forgot after all these years and now find painful to use. So, first of all this Windows game needs to separate itself from the DOS version and go for a new, independent and completely different, much friendlier GUI design. Maybe it would be even better to call this new game ADOM 2 and leave the old DOS version for museums :)
The items, the spells and other things desperately need tooltips which would show stats and explanations. The log should flow in a scrollable window and should be optional and for advanced gamers, like in World of Warcraft. The whole game should be playable without you ever having to look into the manual. It needs to start with a short tutorial explaining the controls. All controls should work with mouse alone without ever having to touch the keyboard (though hotkeys are welcome). The developer needs to re-think all the controls from scratch and design them with PC and Windows as primary platform (with inevitable ports to iOS and Android which would also require their own, mobile-optimized GUI with larger buttons etc). When the GUI is fixed for Windows, I'd be ready to pay 2x or even 5x the price the game currently costs on Steam, but for now I'll have to pass and only give it a 7/10 because, as a Windows game, it doesn't work well or even remotely reach a point where it could be sold. That said, I'm very happy this game finally became graphical. This is a game which deserves to be kept updated and preserved for generations.
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PC
Pros:
-Complexity
-Graphics
-Sheer number of classes
Cons:
-Developer leaves unprofessional posts on Steam
-Keymapping
-Tedious aspects of the complexity (more below)
-Gets very repetitive very quickly
-A little too expensive for what you get
-Can easily screw your character at any time, especially creation
-Magic seems too expensive (in terms of Power Points)
It's one thing to make a game intricate and complex yet fun (think FFT/ToEE). It's another to add extremely tedious things seemingly to just eat up the player's time without adding fun. The latter basically sums up ADoM, unfortunately.
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PC
