STRAFE
STRAFE® is a roguelike first-person shooter that generates unique, full levels every time you play. Hand-crafted rooms are randomly linked together and filled with a fresh buffet of hungry enemies, so every run provides a new bloody challenge as you seamlessly slaughter your way through 4 diverse locations in unknown deep space. With secrets hidden around every corner and plenty of mechanics to discover, the tutorial is just the start — so explore & experiment often! STRAFE®'S FEATURES: PERMANENT DAMAGE AND GIBS! ÜBER-GORE technology means enemies explode with fountains of blood, which never fades away. Create wicked works of death art that mark your explored territory from the unventured. ENDLESS CHANGING LEVELS! Randomly-generated levels are always different and violently unpredictable. Rooms, enemies, power ups, monster closets, and secrets move around every time you die!
Steam User 3
A really good fast-paced rougelike if that's what you are looking for. Even after finishing it I find myself coming back to play it every now and then
Steam User 4
If you look at my profile you can see I like a lot of roguelikes. Of all the ones I've picked up over the past few years, I feel that this is the most ignored little gem. It seems like its marketing and production difficulties doomed it to obscurity, combined with a bunch of people seeming to expect a wholly different game than the one they were making, which soured word-of-mouth spread.
But! I think Strafe is worth the time for anyone who reads "boomer shooter roguelike" and has their neurons start firing. Using the primary weapon as a replacement for the usual classes or characters of a roguelike is an inspired choice, and once you get the movement down (which will take some work!) it really does feel like playing a Quake or Unreal roguelike game, complete with insane circle-bunnyhopping through the levels at mach 1, slaughtering scores of monsters who explode in the most gory, satisfying way. The best way to understand how the game wants you to play is to look up the JumpZone secret video - that area expects you to understand all the silly little movement tricks that defined high-level arena shooter play in the late 90s. Once you see what you could do as a master, you can experiment and train through the normal levels until you feel like the God/ess of mobility, untouchable. It really starts to feel like *strafing* -- the way a fighter jet strafes a target, annihilating them as you pass by,
There's some strong influence from immersive sims like System Shock present in the game too - generating individual areas that require you to find the correct severed head to open a door, for example. Managing your health and ammo supplies versus speed (as you're rewarded for quick level clears) adds the same sort of edge as Risk of Rain's escalating difficulty.
Narratively, the game is very bare, but that forms part of its charm. Like Doom or Quake, the game is more about a tone and aesthetic than a story, and if you miss the gritty industrial grime of sci-fi settings like Unreal Tournament, this will be right up your alley. The soundtrack feels like a great throwback to the golden era of PC gaming soundtracks, powerful guitars and driving synths giving you a rhythm to your murder. I find myself waking up with a track in my head and feeling determined to get to the level that features it.
Finally, while its longevity is limited by the lack of mod support or community, there's an impressive amount of content in this little game, comparable to similar titles like RoR. The mutators act as the game's version of Artifacts, fundamentally altering the structure of the game in most cases (which can be good for achievement hunting). I personally prefer the balance of the new game+ mode (3 levels for 4 zones, rather than 2) but having both options available is aces. The arena mode is barebones but pretty fun if you want to just play some STRAFE combat without the struggle of finding your way through procedurally generated levels (and this mode has the most rogue*lite* elements, getting easier the longer you play -- the standard mode without mutators does not give you this mercy.)
Bottom line, I'm leaving this review because I think this game has a lot going for it, and I'm bummed every time I remember how little following it had and how mean-spirited and unforgiving the playerbase seems to have been towards the developers. (Calling a game 'abandoned' after three years of support is silly, guys. Games have to stop being updated eventually.) I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to feel like they're back in the 90s and figuring out the bizarre tricks of the idtech engine's momentum code while getting the constant little upgrades and resource management challenges that make roguelikes fun. I was hesitant to buy this game because of the lukewarm reviews, but once I got what it was going for, it all clicked into place. If any of this sounds fun to you, I encourage you to spend the 15 bucks.
Steam User 2
I wish there was more nuance than "Like" or "Dislike" because this game is the definition of a mixed bag. To be clear: I like it, I think this is a good game, but I don't know if I'd recommend it.
To get right to the heart of it, the core gameplay is good, it just shouldn't have been a roguelike. What you gotta keep in mind is that this game came out a year and a half before DUSK. This isn't a boomer shooter that's a roguelike, it's a roguelike that's a boomer shooter. There wasn't a proven market for purestrain old-school shooters at the time; I'd argue that STRAFE paved the road to that market existing. All of these excuses do not change the fact that while playing this game, you will find yourself wishing for actual level design.
The game is stiflingly difficult, and the built-in easy mode doesn't do a good job of offsetting that. STRAFE is very tightly balanced around the default difficulty, and switching on easy mode feels more like playing with cheats on than it feels like a legitimate alternate difficulty setting. Even though it's theoretically possible to avoid all enemy damage - there are no hitscanners - the random level construction means that you'll be frequently funnelled into taking cheap hits.
I can only recommend this game if the idea of a boomer shooter roguelike strongly appeals to you, and you want to play a game that is specifically both of those things. If you just want a boomer shooter, you'll find yourself endlessly frustrated with the roguelike elements. If you want a tight roguelike, well, you are not starving for options. But if you want both, even though it's been almost 7 years, nothing's ever done what STRAFE does any better.
Steam User 2
Best jams out there with a super gory fest of randomized levels and crunchy guns.
Apart from Deadlink, none of the other Rougelite FPS games managed to do anything good.
STRAFE is one of those games that did.
Highly Recommended.
Steam User 3
1996's finest product. Total addiction.
My rating: 10/10