When comparing GoNNER vs Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, the Slant community recommends Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup for most people. In the question“What are the best roguelikes/roguelites on PC?” Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is ranked 8th while GoNNER is ranked 65th. The most important reason people chose Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is:
There are a few different classes available at character creation, each one has it's own abilities that are different from the others. Creating one is quite simple, which makes for a fast way to get into the game and start playing.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Intense platforming gameplay
While the vast majority of GoNNER's gameplay consists of running, jumping, and shooting groups of mysterious red creatures, two design choices really up the intensity of each playthrough.
First, the procedurally-generated environments are fairly narrow. This means combat turns into claustrophobic encounters where there's very little room to evade and kite enemies. Because of this, most kills will happen at point blank range, making it feel a little too close for comfort.
Second, while enemies and objects of interest are always visible, the level's platforms fade into existence as you move close to them and disappear as you move away. This adds a layer of uncertainty, slowing down the exploration since it's hard to tell where you'll hit a wall and where you'll tumble down into a pit of enemies.
These two aspects combined with the permadeath mechanic, create a very intense roguelike experience that can easily keep you entertained for dozens of hours.
Pro You retain progression after dying
Playing roguelike games can be disheartening, because messing up means all your effort will go to waste. In GoNNER, even after you die, you still retain the gear you've collected, which can be viewed by visiting "Death" in its monochrome domain. There you can select from the collected pieces of gear and head into a new playthrough. As a result, GoNNER is a great choice for players that would like to try a roguelike game, but dislike the idea of starting from scratch every time they die.
Pro Unique visual style
GoNNER takes a very minimalist approach to visuals, using the bare minimum to decorate its levels and portray the on-screen action. There's a solid color background, sketched lines that create the world's platforms, yellow projectiles and colorful (mostly red) characters. Despite the sheer simplicity, it looks really nice while also making the worlds inhabitants more interesting, since you're not excessively focusing on environmental details. GoNNER feels like a refreshing change of pace in an era of games where every developer tries to cram as much into a single screen as possible.
Pro Simple character creation with different classes
There are a few different classes available at character creation, each one has it's own abilities that are different from the others. Creating one is quite simple, which makes for a fast way to get into the game and start playing.
Pro Gold Standard for roguelikes
The controls and replayability have been refined over the years. Whether the player chooses to play with Tiles (graphics) or console (ASCII) the game works well even when choosing online or offline play. Either way there is just enough interface to play the game.
Cons
Con Might feel a little too cryptic at times
Aside from the intro sequence where you're taught to jump and shoot, GoNNER never provides an explanation about anything, whether it's the gameplay mechanics or its mysterious setting. While the concept of "figuring stuff out on your own" works well in other games, here it just serves to needlessly add confusion on top of difficulty, which can worsen the experience for some players.
Con Have to fiddle with controls
Being that the game uses an emulated keyboard on screen it works best on tablet, though is not really the preferred method (but is the only one) since it takes up screen space.