Legerdemain

Posted by Derek Yu Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:16:00 GMT

Legerdemain

Legerdemain is an interesting Roguelike hybrid that eschews the typical fantasy setting and randomly-generated dungeons of the Roguelike genre in favor of a surreal storyline which you have to uncover piece by piece. The developer also states that the game is influenced, part, by Interactive Fiction.

The game opens by asking you questions to “shape your philosophy as a Manipulator.” Manipulation is the “magic” of Phenomedom, an ancient art that few understand and many are fearful of. Once your character is created, you awake in a Doobah prison cell, an amnesiac. Although your ultimate goal is to “uncover a vast conspiracy full of morbid secrets and ancient puzzles,” your immediate one is to escape the prison. Grabbing the prime brush laying next you (a tool used for manipulation), you set out on your quest.

The repetitiveness of the first dungeon put me off a bit, but once you emerge into the overworld, things definitely pick up. Examining points of interest (represented by ”?”), collecting “paragraphs” (large chunks of storyline), and talking to the various inhabitants of the world of Phenomedom is quite engaging – you can hail, chat, gossip, offer, or ask people about keywords that get brought up during conversation. Even though combat initially seems shallow compared to other Roguelikes, there’s no lacking in things to see or learn once you escape the Doobah prison.

All in all, Legerdemain is a bold experiment that runs the risk of alienating fans of RLs, RPGs, or IF because it’s not quite any of them. Still, the world of Phenomedom is a captivating one, and there’s obviously a lot under the hood that’s there to be discovered.

Note: The game is programmed in Java and requires a Java Virtual Machine (at least 1.4) to run. A link for this download is on the developer’s website.

(Source: Slash, via Rogue Temple)

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Comments

  1. Bobo said about 3 hours later:

    Seeing as I’m a fan of Roguelikes, RPG’s AND Interactive Fiction, I’m definitely gonna check this out!

  2. Gordo said about 4 hours later:

    Reminds me of Silent Hill: Origins.

  3. Splinter of Chaos said about 5 hours later:

    Is that a good or bad thing?

  4. Smithy said about 8 hours later:

    I don’t want to alarm anybody, but I think I may or may not have just been transformed into some sort of superintelligent codfish.

  5. I Like Cake said about 9 hours later:

    I managed to make it all the way out of the first dungeon area before dying and losing my guy.

    So now I do all that again, I guess?

    Don’t get me wrong, I like the roguelike thing when the game is just a series of dungeons, but when something is supposed to have some kind of interesting story, there’s nothing quite as annoying as being told you need to go back and do it all again.

  6. Slash said about 15 hours later:

    Legerdemain allows you to save the game at inns, thus breaking permadeath. So don’t worry so much! :)

    Read further about that at e-gamia legerdemain article (cant post a link because bad bad Derek would delete this post :D)

    “New players might not notice this, but Legerdemain allows a player to “preserve” a game and avoid permanent death.”

  7. Derek said about 15 hours later:

    The spam filter catches those posts, I don’t delete them!

  8. Gr.Viper said about 15 hours later:

    What catches filter’s attention? A working link or just anything that looks like one?

  9. Slash said about 16 hours later:

    I know :P I have the same problem with roguetemple.

    Guess your problem is a LOT bigger though :)

  10. I Like Cake said about 24 hours later:

    Hmm… maybe I will give it another shot, in that case.

    Also, whatever, Derek. We all know you just sit around all day in a really large chair stroking a cat, deleting messages, and cackling madly.

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