Hoplite vs Random Adventure Roguelike

You must plan your movements and attacks, paying attention to all enemy positions and their attacks. This makes for a game that the player can pore over their options, for as long as they like, which can be pretty enveloping.

Someone called it "Chess, the roguelike". You have all the information before you move, every time. Enemies follow a simple ruleset, with no variation. There is almost no randomness. You know that you will die the turn before you do, and you will die because you painted yourself into a corner.

There is a good list of achievements, which creates a high replay value. It encourages the user to play very differently in subsequent replays. Which is great for keeping the game fresh.

Hoplite is a turn based game, making for something that people can take their time with, deciding on their strategy for each move.

Starting on level 16, the altars get replaced by a portal. The player has the choice to "win" the game by exiting through the portal, or to ignore the portal on that level and venture deeper, aiming for higher scores on progressively more difficult floors. This is great for those that enjoy more challenge and extra content past the regular ending.

Other, more popular, mobile roguelikes are far too random. A lot of people associate roguelikes with randomness, but a lot of effort goes into making sure that they provide consistently winnable games. When you lose a game it should be because you did something dumb, not because the RNG didn't deign it today. Hoplite nails this.

There is a wide array of enemies to encounter and fight, which keeps encounters fresh as well as the strategies needed.

The game sets you in an open world with random quests. You can go wherever you want, kill monsters, help people by taking quests, craft items, improve your equipment, or even sail to another island. This makes for a game that can be played as the player wants, exploring and adventuring as they please.

The game has no graphics (apart from the icons for the items and menus) but has a nice layout design and colorful text. It just feels like an old-school game made today.

There is a huge number of skills and ways you can improve your character, with a cool leveling system. The sheer amount of customizations included in this content makes for a way to have unique playthroughs, when making different choices.

Like an true roguelike the game is turn-based, meaning every turn the player takes, the rest of the board takes on turn. This way you can easily labor over what you would like to do next, as nothing happens in the game until you move.

The game is currently completely free, with an option for donations so the developer feels more motivated to continue developing the game. There are no ads, and there's no bonus if you donate. It's just an altruistic option.

Being based on text graphics the game controls are pretty intuitive being that what there is to do is displayed in text on the screen.