When comparing Caves of Qud vs Unexplored, 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 Unexplored is ranked 39th. 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 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 Over 60 factions
Befriend or become enemies with dozens of different factions—crabs, turtles, robots and even trees to name a few.
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 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
Pro Interesting combat
The melee combat in particular uses a lot of different swing / stab / etc. animations that make it very interesting to play. You have to plan out your moves intelligently or you're going to take damage.
Pro Challenging and fun puzzles
The puzzles are not too difficult.
Pro Awesome dungeon generation
The dungeons feel different, unique and very solidly made each time.
Pro Real time roguelike
The game strikes a very nice balance between the features of an oldschool turn-based roguelike and a modern action style roguelite. It feels respectful towards the old style while pushing forward in the new style.
Pro Unidentified potions and scrolls
The potions and scrolls are unidentified, meaning you have to either guess what they could be in clutch situations or hoard them until you can start identifying them. It's those clutch moments that make it a pro.
Cons
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.
Con Awkward looting system
The looting system just feels really awkward. It doesn't quite work the way you're expect it to.
Con Weird artwork
The artwork just won't appeal to everyone.