When comparing Mark of the Old Ones vs Crawl, the Slant community recommends Crawl for most people. In the question“What are the best games on Linux?” Crawl is ranked 49th while Mark of the Old Ones is ranked 125th. The most important reason people chose Crawl is:
Crawl has one lone hero enter a dungeon with objective to find the dungeon boss and strike it down. However, other players wish to take that glory as well, and will use all means possible to take the soul and spot in the story of the hero for themselves. Whoever players the hero, must struggle trough the dungeon, killing monsters and gaining money and experience to get new equipment and grow stronger. All the while other players will take control of monsters and traps to kill the hero. Monsters will make attempts cooperate to get the hero, but to get the soul one must strike the last blow and prepare defend themselves when roles change, one cannot be too cooperative with the temporary allies.
Specs
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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 Unique gameplay, blend of cooperation and betrayal
Crawl has one lone hero enter a dungeon with objective to find the dungeon boss and strike it down. However, other players wish to take that glory as well, and will use all means possible to take the soul and spot in the story of the hero for themselves. Whoever players the hero, must struggle trough the dungeon, killing monsters and gaining money and experience to get new equipment and grow stronger. All the while other players will take control of monsters and traps to kill the hero. Monsters will make attempts cooperate to get the hero, but to get the soul one must strike the last blow and prepare defend themselves when roles change, one cannot be too cooperative with the temporary allies.
Pro Local (couch ) 2-4 asymmetric multiplayer
Crawl has built in support for local 2-4 player asymmetric multiplayer with 3 out of the 4 playing co-op against the main player.
Pro Replay value
As the game is played, different monsters are unlocked and dungeons change for each playthrough with different bosses making the game stay interesting as time goes on. Available items change each play-trough as well, players cannot choose same play-style each time as different weapons require different tactics.
Pro Retro graphics
The art style of Crawl is reminiscent of 8bit games of yore and yet are still detailed enough to have very different designs for the different monsters in the game.
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 No online multiplayer
Obviously the game is designed around multiplayer play but sadly there is no online multiplayer included.