Emergent, hilarious stories
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“Watched a dragon die of thirst because a plant couldn't aim. 10/10, no notes.”
Steam review · 21.4 h played ↗
Caves of Qud
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 95%Very Positive · 95%Freehold Games2024Turn-Based Combat · Roguelike · RPG
$29.99
Open on Steam ↗US Steam price, checked 1 h ago
The verdict
A huge, strange, deeply systemic sci-fi roguelike with superb writing and atmosphere. Skip it if you want a gentle onboarding, clear UI or modern visuals.
Great for
Patient players who love deep sandbox RPGs, emergent stories, lore and build experimentation
Main risk
Steep learning curve, clunky UI and unfair deaths may bounce you off before it clicks
What players love
Enormous depth and replayability
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“A game with infinite replayability and has the depth of the salty ocean.”
Steam review · 30.2 h played ↗
Exceptional writing and worldbuilding
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“The world building prose is the best I've read in any game.”
Steam review · 436.2 h played ↗
Wild build variety and freedom
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews
“Want to be a 4 armed axe wielding berserker who shoots spiderwebs? You can!”
Steam review · 561.7 h played ↗
Rewarding once the learning curve clicks
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 positive reviews
“I didn't get it at first but after I had a decent run I finally understood the appeal.”
Steam review · 36.9 h played ↗
Immersive atmosphere, sound and music
Mentioned in ~1 in 12 positive reviews
“The fact that the game looks like it was made in the 1980s doesn't even matter when the sound design is this good.”
Steam review · 81.1 h played ↗
What players complain about
Wide but shallow; repetitive gameplay
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews
“this is a game with lots of breadth but, ironically for a game called Caves, very little depth.”
Steam review · 11.5 h played ↗
Unfair, random deaths and difficulty spikes
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“Getting one shot by something you couldn't see in location near the starting village is not the game being "hard"”
Steam review · 74.8 h played ↗
Clunky, confusing UI and controls
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“Settings menu and keybinds are clunky and annoying to assign, and the initial keyboard layout is atrocious.”
Steam review · 8.5 h played ↗
Poor onboarding and steep learning curve
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“So the first quest the game gives you is not something you should be attempting as a starting character”
Steam review · 2.6 h played ↗
Ugly, hard-to-read graphics
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews
“Can't recommend this game due to the eye strain caused by the tileset.”
Steam review · 47.3 h played ↗
Harsh save system and permadeath loss
Mentioned in ~1 in 13 negative reviews
“Caves of Qud made me lose 2H30 of progress even in Roleplay mode”
Steam review · 3.8 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: VerifiedController support2 GB
Minimum
OSWindows 10 21H1, Windows 11 21H2
Processor1GHz or faster. SSE2 instruction set support.
Memory4 GB RAM
GraphicsGraphics card: DX10, DX11, DX12 capable
Storage2 GB available space
OSWindows 10 21H1, Windows 11 21H2
Processor1GHz or faster. SSE2 instruction set support.
Memory4 GB RAM
GraphicsGraphics card: DX10, DX11, DX12 capable
Storage2 GB available space
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