From the publisher of Dwarf Fortress comes one of the best computer role-playing games since Baldur’s Gate 3. As movie special effects and video game graphics get more and more realistic, the amount of imagination needed to appreciate them becomes less and less. You still have lower budget films, with less advanced effects, but generally nothing that looks like it’s 50 years old. For video games though that can and does happen, thanks to indie developers that are big on nostalgia and low on budget.
![[Caves Of Qud screenshot]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_234078040-0494.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
That is certainly the case for Caves Of Qud, although the very basic visuals are also to allow Canadian developer Freehold Games the opportunity to create a game on the scale they want. To make Caves Of Qud with photorealistic graphics would require the budget of GTA 6 but instead you have one of the most in-depth role-playing games ever made… with graphics that would shame a ZX Spectrum.
![[Caves Of Qud screenshot]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_234078045-ff8e.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Caves Of Qud ticks a number of cliches for indie games, since it’s also a roguelike with procedurally-generated levels, that means you never see the same one twice. At times it’s in danger of seeming pretentious, and unjustifiably expensive, but it really is one of the best video games of the year.
Although Caves Of Qud has roguelike elements, 80s role-playing classic Ultima – one of the first computer role-playing games of any kind – has also clearly been an influence. Although according to Freehold they were borrowing directly from tabletop games like Dungeons & Dungeons and Gamma World – the same experiences which originally led to the creation of Ultima and other contemporaries like Wizadry.
