When comparing Thea: The Awakening vs Pixel Dungeon, the Slant community recommends Pixel Dungeon for most people. In the question“What are the best roguelikes/roguelites on PC?” Pixel Dungeon is ranked 29th while Thea: The Awakening is ranked 46th. The most important reason people chose Pixel Dungeon is:
There are multiple [mods](http://www.slant.co/topics/1961/~what-are-the-best-pixel-dungeon-mods) available that extend the gameplay or even just change it outright. This way there are many choices to the player as to how they would like the game to play.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Detailed ways to manage your settlements and party members
Thea: The Awakening revolves around the fine details of building settlements in the world, collecting and managing resources, and keeping your party members well-stocked with what they need. Resource management is key, letting you build new pastures, and structures like defensive walls for your settlements. Each time you send your party members off on an expedition to earn experience points and collect valuables, you're responsible for making sure that their equipment is up-to-date and that they have plenty of food or firewood to survive the journey.
You'll also want to make sure that you keep your citizens alive by protecting them from enemy encounters through battle and through side quest choices, or else you might lose potentially valuable party members for the future.
Overall, there are a ton of elements and tools that you can experiment with to help your settlements and companions thrive.
Pro Your decisions matter for both side quests and combat
You have plenty of freedom to choose whether to fight enemies or avoid them, as well as how side quests impact the world around you. As you explore, you'll run into dynamic events that give you a mini-story to read about the lay of the land, such as how it's been invaded by orcs or other creatures. You'll then get to choose whether you want to engage the enemies in combat or use your diplomacy skills instead. Side quests also come about as you explore, offering choose your own adventure decisions such as saving a band of settlers, killing enemies who might later turn out to be benevolent, and plenty more. It's a unique system that really gives you the sense that your decisions have an impact on the game.
Pro Typical combat is replaced with a unique card game
Instead of fighting enemies in regular turn-based battles, you'll play a unique, numbers-based card game where you and your AI opponent take turns placing cards on the field. The idea is that you line up your attacker cards, like soldiers, with the goal of their attack power outnumbering the defensive number on the enemy's card. To supplement your attackers, you have defensive cards like spell users who can inflict ailments like confusion against enemy units. Once you're done setting your cards down on the field, you'll choose to pass your turn, and then the action happens automatically, with strong attackers taking out the cards with the weaker defense, and the defensive units coming in to help. It's a fresh alternative to the combat you'd expect from turn-based systems, and it's great for anyone looking for something new.
Pro Full voice acting
Every line in the game is voice acted by authentic actors who fit right in with the dark fantasy setting. Because there's so much text to read, it helps a lot to have such great voice acting to supplement all of the information, all with excellent pronunciation and believable accents. For anyone who might be turned off by so much text, you can definitely rely on the great voice acting to keep your interest.
Pro A variety of mods are available, which extend the gameplay by a large margin
There are multiple mods available that extend the gameplay or even just change it outright. This way there are many choices to the player as to how they would like the game to play.
Pro Tons of replayability thanks to the randomly generated level
In true roguelike fashion, levels are randomly generated each time a new game is started. On top of this mechanic, Pixel Dungeon goes one step further by randomizing effects of all items as well, so it's impossible to tell if a dropped item will have a positive or a negative effect based on its sprite representation.
Pro Challenging and fun gameplay that lends itself well to repeat plays
Pixel Dungeon's gameplay is intuitive, allowing for it to be easy to get into. What is great though is that it's also very challenging, quickly making the experience both rewarding and addictive. Just one more game is a thought many will have before actually turning off their device.
Pro Detail-oriented design lends itself well to many gameplay elements, giving a feeling of polish and care not normally found on mobile
Small details in the art design helps to add immersion to the gameplay.
Pro A good variation in items allows the player to constantly discover new and exciting ways to tackle the game
Next to the typical selection of buffs, de-buffs, potions (that can be either consumed or thrown), weapons and armor (the latter two have to identified and can carry with them bonuses and curses), there are also less common items like random teleportation scrolls, map reveals, etc.
Pro Easily play without an internet connection as the game can be played in-full offline
Pixel Dungeon does not require an internet connection to use, making for a good game to play when there is no internet to connect to such as on flights.
Pro Beautiful pixel artwork that should offer a good bit of nostalgia for anyone who grew up with games that look similar
This looks like one of the good SNES RPGs. For someone who grew up loving those games, that's a huge plus.
Pro Being completely free and open-source means that anyone can try the game in order to see if they like it
No advertisements, no in-game store, and available for free with the source code available on GitHub.
*There is a link in the game where users can donate money to the developer. This of course does not mean you have to, but it is marked as a game with in-app-purchased because of it.
Pro Has a reasonable amount of strategical depth where the player can easily plan out their next move
The top-down, turn-based nature of the game gives the opportunity to plan out a complex series of moves. This way there is no time constraint, and the player can leisurely strategize what they would like to do next.
Pro Hold your device as you like as the game can be played in portrait or landscape
Allowing the user to switch from portrait or landscape makes for an easy way to switch playstyles (one handed, two handed) depending on what device is being used (tablet, phone) as well as what is most comfortable for the user.
Cons
Con Not for players who dislike micromanaging small details
If you're not a fan of keeping track of little details like how many resources you have, weapons for your party members, and how many turns you need to build an enclosure around a settlement, then Thea: The Awakening might not be for you. There's a lot to manage and tons of busywork, which might be a deal-breaker for some players.
Con Tedious inventory management
With so many resources and weapons to handle, you're unfortunately stuck with manually dragging and dropping required items through menus. There isn't a quicker, more efficient way to sort through what you need. It can get quickly get boring and ruin your time with the game.
Con Too many genres mixed into one game
This is quite a niche game, with role-playing elements, settlement building and survival tactics, and a card game all wrapped together in one package. It can get confusing for someone who likes one of these genres and not the others, possibly discouraging them from trying the game out.
Con Pixel Dungeon is hard
Pixel Dungeon's difficulty can be a turn off for some players as it is quite challenging. While there will be those that enjoy such difficulty, those looking for something easy may not enjoy the game.
Con Overly random
A lot of people see roguelike design as being based around randomness. It's actually a far more precise set of balances than that. A lot of roguelike developers shy way from "randomly generated content" in favor of the term "procedurally generated content." The reason for this is that a well designed roguelike is well balanced enough that if you lose or win, it's all because of the actions you took.
Pixel Dungeon has a habit of sometimes generating dungeons that are basically impossible and sometimes generating dungeons that are laughably easy.
Con Randomness cannot be turned off
Since everything in Pixel Dungeon is randomized, sometimes a player's character can get killed in ways that cannot be avoided. There is no way to escape this issue since randomization is baked in with no way to turn it off.