When comparing Mark of the Old Ones vs Nethack, the Slant community recommends Nethack for most people. In the question“What are the best games on Linux?” Nethack is ranked 74th while Mark of the Old Ones is ranked 125th. The most important reason people chose Nethack is:
Nethack is a game that you can play for hundreds of hours and still not master. But you'll have tons of fun attempting to master it.
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Pros
Pro Unique, inverse kinematics-based control scheme that allows rarely seen freedom of control
By utilizing an inverse kinematics-based control scheme there is zero need for pre rendered animations for the character. It is animated real time.
Pro Immersive, HP Lovecraft-inspired aesthetic
Mark of the Old Ones has a HP Lovecraft inspired aesthetics and graphics with the protagonist being a tendril laden creature who traverse landscapes that look fitting for any lovecraftian themed title.
Pro Free of restrictive DRM
Without having DRM loaded into the game users can not only play the game without an internet connection but also play it on as many of their compatible devices as they like. On top of this it can also be shared with friends, just as one would have back before DRM existed.
Pro Potential for enormous skill growth
Nethack is a game that you can play for hundreds of hours and still not master. But you'll have tons of fun attempting to master it.
Pro Depth
The gameplay is very deep due to the amount of skills and systems present in the game.
Pro Over two decades of constant development
Nethack was first released in 1987. The latest version, 3.6.0, came out in December 2015.
Pro ASCII and tiles available
Nethack is able to run on simple ASCII graphics or use graphic tiles instead.
Cons
Con Limited architecture support
Mark of the Old Ones has no plans to create or support a 32bit version of the game which will limited people who are still using older 32bit systems.
Con Burden of knowledge
There's simply too much information that the game expects you to know before you can properly take advantage of the systems in the game.
Con Feature creep
NetHack has an overwhelming amount of features mostly because the development team found them cool at the time, but with little thought of their greater impact. For example, a Nethack staple is Sokoban as a built-in minigame, which feels out of place in a dungeon crawler.
The extremely large amount of items and abilities break the game's balance and coherence.
Con Outdated controls
You need to study a wiki just to learn the most basic controls. The game is broken in this regard.
Con ASCII Art
Con Run of the mill story
The story of the game is pretty generic fantasy fare. It features orcs, elves, and trolls in an effort for the hero to save the world. While it does not detract from the gameplay, it does seem very familiar to those interested in the genre.