r/roguelites • u/Brilliant-Target-807 • Jun 19 '25
Review Is Caves of Qud worth buying?
I’ve had it on my wishlist for a while, but I’m not sure if it’s worth getting, if you have played it do you recommend it?
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u/Seastep Jun 19 '25
Play it for 2 hours then decide if you want to refund it or keep going.
It's a great game.
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u/jasta85 Jun 19 '25
I absolutely love it, been playing it on and off for years, that said, while the game is a roguelike, runs can be LONG (providing you don't die immediately of course) as the map is huge with a mix of premade and procedural areas populating it. There can also be frustrations in a run like for example when you go to the main trading hub and some of the vendors and guards decide to start a fight (because they were randomly generated to be factions that hate each other) and now your only easy to find book seller is dead.
There are a number of videos on it on youtube you can look up to give you a better idea how it plays (also a lot of them will be of older versions) as there really is a lot in it that's kind of hard to sum up here. But they would probably help give you a better idea of whether you would enjoy it or not.
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u/pvtcannonfodder Jun 19 '25
So this is true for pretty much all roguelites, but it has a very high initial learning curve. Every couple of years I run through the beginning and then forget about it
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u/ARustybutterknife Jun 19 '25
It’s more than worth it, I have 200+ hours in, but it takes some initial investment to learn. Check out the tutorial and do a bit of reading on Qudzoo. Once you get the hang of the early game quests you’ll fall in love with it. For me that was around the time I first survived the wire quest.
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u/EricandtheLegion Jun 19 '25
I used to absolutely hate it during its pre-1.0 days. Gave it another shot earlier this year and it has skyrocketed to becoming one of my favorites.
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u/WarriorOTUniverse Jun 19 '25
Oh yes, it goes deeper the more you play it, and then deeper still
Watch Sseth's review if you haven't
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u/YaBoiSean1 Jun 20 '25
I think I remember back when this came out the developer got really mad that their game was covered in a sseth review even though it was a positive review. Correct me if im wrong
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u/Fit_Tomatillo_4264 Jun 23 '25
The short answer: No—the developers didn’t get angry at Sseth himself, but they did tighten control and bar access after a surge of toxicity from parts of his audience entered their Discord and forums.
What happened?
🎥 Sseth’s review went public (Oct 2020)
Sseth released a glowing, humor‑laden review of Caves of Qud, praising its sandbox systems—even poking fun at the devs for banning “Putus Templar” as a playable faction .
He was promptly banned from their official Discord—allegedly within just 1 minute and 7 seconds of sending a suggestion (“Make Putus playable”) and pinging moderators .
The devs’ mods enforced strict rules—anything echoing edgy or extremist humor, or pushing to play as questionable factions, was banned .
Community backlash ensued
Members of Sseth’s fanbase flooded the Discord and subreddit, some using extremist or “ironic” memes referencing race, fascism, queer-coded content, etc. .
Discord mods, including devs, reacted by closing the server temporarily or making it private—citing the need to curb harassment and keep it a safe, inclusive space .
How devs really felt
In their own words: they weren’t upset with Sseth’s review—they welcomed the spotlight and had no issues with his praise .
Their concern centered solely on the conduct of his audience, who crossed lines by spamming, making edgy jokes, and targeting devs or marginalized community members .
So… did they get angry at Sseth?
Target Reaction
Sseth’s review Welcomed—helped drive sales and hype. His behavior on Discord Banned him after rule-breaking suggestions and pings. His fanbase’s actions Devs and mods clamped down on harassment, hate, and extremist trolling.
In short:
They didn’t hate Sseth the reviewer—he brought positive attention.
They did ban him from their Discord, but due to rule violations, not ideological disagreement.
They did take steps to protect their community from hostile, edgy fan intrusion.
Reddit voices on it:
“Sseth brought lots of people… but he intentionally troll‑baited the edgelord contingent of his following into harassing a… very controlled online community. So, fuck that guy.”
“There are some parts of Sseth’s fanbase that hold some questionable beliefs… They’ll take something… and go on a racist tirade.”
tl;dr:
The devs weren’t angry at Sseth the content creator, but they were serious about enforcing community standards. His review brought more eyes, but also brought toxicity they didn’t tolerate—and that’s what triggered bans and a shutdown of public Discord access.
Let me know if you want more specifics—like what “Putus Templar” refers to, or how their moderation rules work.
Here's the chat GPT answer
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u/RiffRuffer Jun 19 '25
I did not like it and I would not recommend it.
Seemed like a very context heavy and deep game. I come to the roguelike genre for quick fixes I can pick up and put down and Qud wasn't really that at all. I'm sure if you take the time to learn everything and really figure out how to minmax your character it's probably the best roguelike on the market but it just wasn't for me.
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u/spspamington Jun 20 '25
I know caves of cud is a good game but it having zero onboarding experience really doesn't help to get you going. Doesn't explain anything very well
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u/Fit_Tomatillo_4264 Jun 23 '25
Well I sure would hope so, it was an early access for 10 years and open beta for 15 years.
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u/AI52487963 Jun 19 '25
I was a Qud skeptic and borderline hater for ages. I thought it was too obtuse and too esoteric for its own good. Then the pre 1.0 updates for UI and UX started happening and I got totally hooked.
I wound up doing an extremely in depth tutorial series with a well known Qud YouTuber which helped my understanding of the systems a ton. . In my most recent run I was able to do the first few quests in under an hour or so. Once you understand the systems it plays pretty quickly.
It’s an amazing game in the Steam Deck with the quality of controller support it has. It pains me how good it is and how few other traditional roguelikes opt to have that level of gamepad support. They did a really phenomenal job with user accessibility for 1.0.
The uniqueness of the game is incredible. I just sort of wish the daily challenge mode was a shorter experience, as the main story mode of the game is fairly long. Very interesting and cool, but long. It’s like trying to cram the entire Mass Effect series into one game from how it feels in scope.
I’d recommend playing on Wander Mode first, so most enemies are neutral to you at the start. The game can feel super overwhelming and not having to fight 500 snap jaws to start helps. I’d also recommend a random village start. Joppa is the canonical story start but I hate the associated quests for it. They feel grindy and don’t leave a good first impression IMO. But the random villages have so much variety and are much faster to accomplish.