When comparing Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM) vs Caves of Qud, the Slant community recommends Caves of Qud for most people. In the question“What are the best roguelikes/roguelites on PC?” Caves of Qud is ranked 11th while Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM) is ranked 17th. The most important reason people chose Caves of Qud is:
Mutations are one of the biggest parts of Caves of Qud. Want to be a two-headed beguiling spider-thing? A four-armed flying plant-man? You can. There's also lots of armor, weapons, and equipment, which can be found enchanted, as well as a bunch of "spells" (mental mutations) and skills.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Really, really deep
The game has been around for a dozen years or so, most of that time went into adding and expanding features. There are lots of ways to play the game, and you can dive into it literally for years and still be surprised by unexplored options.
Pro Surprisingly well balanced
Older roguelikes tend to have all of the things including the kitchen sink, and so does this. But the game feels cohesive and whole, and feels vast and expansive for its kitchen sink design rather than cluttered and messy.
Pro A true classic
It's one of the four games that really defined the genre, and it still is relevant today. A great addition to any roguelike fans' library.
Pro Tons of customization
Mutations are one of the biggest parts of Caves of Qud. Want to be a two-headed beguiling spider-thing? A four-armed flying plant-man? You can. There's also lots of armor, weapons, and equipment, which can be found enchanted, as well as a bunch of "spells" (mental mutations) and skills.
Pro Fantastic User Interface
The UI in Qud is very well designed, which helps to make it easy to get into.
Pro Interesting and original setting
The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world that feels truly unique. Caves of Qud's world is like no other, and everything from the creatures/characters you'll encounter, to the items you'll find, and the locations you'll discover is different from what you would find in most rogue-likes.
Pro Over 60 factions
Befriend or become enemies with dozens of different factions—crabs, turtles, robots and even trees to name a few.
Pro Unique idea
Unique content and idea of "retro-future" make this "not another rogue-like", in a way.
Pro Unique and evocative prose, art and music
Extremely well written, with highly evocative prose which brings this unique world to life. The fantastic writing is supplemented by a unique art style and sublime otherworldly music.
Pro Huge, procedurally-generated world
Cons
Con Complex interface
A common complaint is that there are a lot of commands to learn, although the devs have been working hard to simplify and streamline the interface (both graphical and ASCII)
Con Upgraded version only available via Steam
You can't buy the upgraded version, with all the extra features, from the developer or through DRM-Free sites like GOG, Itch.io, or Humble.
Con Generic and plain setting and story
About as generic fantasy as you can get.
Con Grinding
Con Can be difficult to get started
The beginning of the game explains little, depending on what attributes you put points into in character creation will have a high level of impact at the start of the game. This is not explained to the player, so if you do not put 18 points into "toughness" without having a very particular build in mind that will have some way of dodging or avoiding attacks, the result will just be plenty of death with little advancement.
Con Cooldown simulator
Con UI is in the way
UI is in the way, literally. Even with the overlay mod you'll have issues. The original overlay is too bulky and hard to read.