Roguelike games are now huge in the gaming world, and their early success on PC is driven by strong gameplay they offer, strategic depth and high replay ability.
To help players find the best roguelike games in 2024 take a look at some of the most unique experiences and the games that have kept the genre alive and well in the years after.
1. Into The Breach
Into The Breach takes the core elements of tactical, turn based gameplay, filters out what’s not relevant and brings you into a cerebral battle against alien forces. A bunch of kaiju wants to destroy city infrastructure, and players control mech units on an 8×8 grid facing them.
Into The Breach’s transparency in enemy moves is what sets it apart: you know exactly what each enemy will do next, and it’s that knowing that creates the challenge in playing it: planning with enough precision to counter these things will do next.
This actually reverses trends, as rogue-like games with loads of random chance tend to reward players that can’t get out of their own way, showing up with utter randomness that RNG gods seemed to assign.
This game instead rewards the player with thoughtful and strategic play. A game of finding that perfect moment, and when you can’t find it, you improvise.
2. Spelunky 2
Spelunky 2 is 100 percent a hilarious adventure generator with unpredictability. Picking up where its predecessor went, this platformer roguelike adds a couple of features such as ridable turkeys and burrowing moles, while maintaining that random element.
Runs attempting to overcome biomes filled with death traps swing in largely between the mundane and calamitous defeat. But there’s nothing predictable about any of the elements, ranging from mishaps with shopkeepers to heart stopping falls.
The charms of Spelunky 2 are its mix of fun and frustration — a misstep can compound into an elaborate chain of bad results. Familiarity breeds hubris, and hubris leads to defeat—or victory, whatever, but in a fun way that makes you come back again and again.
3. Dead Cells
A ‘roguevania’, half roguelike, half Metroidvania, Dead Cells is a tough as nails action platformer, where challenging enemy designs, menacing enemies, and dangerous environments can be waived away with the wave of a blade or a bullet.
Every move in the game is a mix of attacks, dodges, and jumps — and every player is navigating a 2D world. It’s brutal and brutal because its combat feels as smooth as it is intense, and it’s packed with satisfying mechanisms that makes every battle a rhythm to the pace and intensity of the moment.
The game, though, has continued to grow, and there are expansions, crossover content with Castlevania, even an animated series. Dead Cells is visually vibrant and has punches – the term used in describing each action feeling exactly right and powerful.
4. Slay The Spire
More than merging roguelike and deckbuilding, Slay the Spire redefined the roguelike genre. Playing others in which you battled bizarre creatures and ascended in a spire through various floors spreading and blending cards that you selectively choose to build your decks.
What players can do is tailor their decks for offensive, or defensive, and each card choice is important. Each run of Slay the Spire provides a brand-new test of adaptability with both short term tactics and long-term strategy.
The innovation so inspired an entire genre of roguelike deck builders, whose appeal to fans of building and tweaking a fearsome card deck to defeat the bizarre continues to this day.
5. Hades 2
The follow up to the much-anticipated Hades 2 has done its best to continue building on the success of its predecessor, as it comes back in and slays the thrill of the Underworld. This being the latest case in time where players will be chasing Melinoë who carries new spells for crowd control.
Hades 2 follows in Supergiant Games tradition of having rich character storytelling, as players converse with Greek gods and mythological characters as they explore their journey.
Players are trying to build up their character to live through each run, but are also growing relationships with a vibrant cast of characters. Hades 2 adds fresh mechanics and lore to make it a fascinating and high replay adventure.
6. Risk of Rain 2
From 2D pixel graphics into a 3D environment, Risk of Rain 2 successfully transitioned without losing sight of what that entity used to be. Players form a cooperative experience of running the gamut of alien enemies in waves and gradually pick up items that increase their abilities.
Moving the game to 3D brings more visual appeal, and the random item drops make every run a bit more strategic: players discover combinations of powerups which can completely change how the game plays.
The teamwork aspect brings a unique charm to Risk of Rain 2 with up to four players can play together to experience the chaos beauty of Risk of Rain 2’s massive alien landscapes with friends.
Conclusion
2024’s top roguelikes poke their heads in different aesthetics, mechanics, and themes. Into The Breach’s cerebral grid-based battles, Spelunky’s unpredictable platforming, etc., provide a spectrum of challenges that require more than just quick reflexes.
Dead Cells is a rhythmic combat, and Slay the Spire is a strategic deckbuilding game. Risk of Rain 2 offers fantastic multiplayer action, and Hades 2 goes where roguelikes don’t — story.
Each title embodies this genre’s spirit of failure turned into growth and each run is an opportunity to build your own mastery on the unknown.
The reason that roguelikes are so beloved comes shining through in these games: each adventure is unique, paying off with persistence and strategy and a foolish but charming notion of accepting the unpredictable.
Also read: List of Best Soulslike Games