STARDEW VALLEY - ROGUELIKE

From farming produce to farming mobs.

- Justin Wagner

I've been playing Hades lately, and the worst thing that cosy farming life sim does to you is remind you that most games are not Hades.

Revisiting my old Stardew Valley saves is fun as ever, but where is the upgrade-nabbing, boss-rushing madness my dopamine receptors have come to so ravenously crave? I say pshaw to hot dates, egg festivals and sprinkler maintenance. Give me unending violence or give me nothing at all.

OK, I'm mostly kidding. But the combat Stardew Valley does have, lean and reverent to NES-era Zelda though it may be, is a fun little aside when delving into the mine and doing quests for the Adventurer's Guild. Mod authors Tyler, TheHaboo and Therm thought so too – and in their hunger for more, created one of the more ambitious mods I've seen for the indie darling farming RPG: Stardew Valley – Roguelike. Time to put down that watering can and pick up the blade.

REAP WHAT YOU SOW

Rather than add to the existing world, Stardew Valley – Roguelike throws you into a vacuum far away from your saves and story progress. Minutes after I spawned into The Abyss – the hell realm where the mod takes place – I was killing slimes, dying to slimes, and starting again to kill more slimes. There's no barn to maintain, few NPCs aside from Mister Qi and Marlon, and no progress to be made outside of getting through each floor as quickly as possible.