Caves of Qud

I thought I didn’t “get it.” I assumed there was something deep in Caves of Qud that I just wasn’t reaching yet. I value complexity, systems that interact, worlds that push back, where your actions ripple out in unexpected ways. I love games that present an ecosystem and tell you, “here, figure it out,” and then let you carve your own path through it. Think Dwarf Fortress, Kenshi, even RimWorld to an extent. So when I read about Caves of Qud, I thought: finally. A roguelike with deep systems, but in a strange sci-fi setting. Right up my alley. Then the reviews hit. Overwhelming praise. “Deep,” “complex,” “emergent.” It sounded like exactly what I was looking for. And at first, I was impressed. The visual language is strong, the soundtrack is eerie, the flavor text is weird in a way that suggests a long, layered history. It feels like you’re stepping into a distinct culture shaped over thousands of years. But the more I played, the more I realized: “depth” means very different things to different people. What I expected was systemic depth. What I found was mostly build variety. NPCs don’t feel alive. They have flavor text, but they don’t react in meaningful ways. They don’t simulate existence, they feel like cardboard cutouts delivering lines. The world doesn’t feel coherent. Dungeons are procedurally generated, which is fine in roguelikes, but here it often results in spaces that don’t make sense. Is this architecture? A cave? A room? Why do underground layers feel so similar across multiple strata? Terrain is hard to read, what’s a puddle, a river, a lake? I spent a lot of time trying to understand the game’s logic. And once I did… I wasn’t impressed. I realized I had misunderstood what people meant by “complexity.” It’s not about the world reacting to you or systems interacting in meaningful ways. It’s about how far you can push character builds, sure, you can grow multiple heads, stack mutations, do bizarre things. But why should I care? I wasn’t failing to find depth. I was looking for it in the wrong place. Caves of Qud is a charming, strange game with a strong atmosphere. But it delivers a kind of complexity that I personally don’t find meaningful. I’m not mad about the money, but I am a bit disappointed by the time I spent trying to find a game within the game that just isn’t there.