Streets of Rogue, a rogue-lite RPG about player choice, freedom and fun

Streets of Rogue [Official Site] is a new game from Matt Dabrowski that blends beautifully a number of different genres. It has elements from RPGs, action like it's from a top down shooter and so much more.

It's randomly generated each time, but you're not facing dungeons or random levels strung together. It all takes part in a busy city full of different AI characters with different behaviours.

The characters seem to be randomly generated too, on my first run I played as a gangster who went around terrorising people by smashing windows and breaking into houses. I got killed shortly after biting off more than I could chew breaking into one house.

My second run was played as a Ninja, and that character was especially fun. The Ninja had the ability to become invisible, and attacks from behind did more damage. I crept up on two gangsters and took them out before they knew what hit them, especially fun taking out one from the shadows as the other got confused and tried to run, but I killed him too. They dropped a knife and a syringe, the syringe had "????" so I had the choice of what to do with it. Naturally I used the syringe, but all it did was weaken me for a short period, won't be taking that drug again anytime soon.

There's a ton to this game and I think it's going to be popular.

Official feature list:
- Play the game YOUR way! Don't want to kill anybody? That's cool! Want to hack computers? Got ya covered!
- Random world generation and TOTALLY EXTREME gameplay variety means you can play for 600 hours and not get bored! Seriously though, go outside!!!
- Super-advanced artificial intelligence that won't put up with your crap! Outsmart these virtual humans and feel superior to your computer!
- Play as over 40 types of characters (in the final version)! Bartender, scientist, hacker, gorilla -- hey, your job is probably in there too!
- Stupidly huge number of items (in the final version)! Shrink rays, hypnotizing devices, boomboxes, bear traps, food processors.. Oh, and guns too.
- 2-Player cooperative mode lets you brutalize goons AND loneliness!
- Lead a gang, free slaves, drink beer, gib ghosts, become a vampire, shrink people and stomp on them. The most insanely varied game ever made.

I've been playing it for a few days thanks to "cryzed" who emailed it in, and it's really damn cool.

It's currently free while it's in the early stages, with full Linux support and it works well. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.