Looking for something to play this weekend? The amazing rogue-like RPG, Sword of Fargoal for the iPhone and iPod Touch is free to download for today only. I bought it for $4.99 a month ago, and it was worth every penny.
Fargoal going free is serendipitous, since this is an especially good time to grab the game: a new patch adding a chunk of new content is imminent, and the developers have been firmly committed to not just expanding the existing game, but evolving it in fresh new ways as well.
We’ve reviewed Sword of Fargoal before. Here’s what we said.
Like all roguelikes, Sword of Fargoal seems to palpably twitch with a desire to kill you in the cruelest and most random way possible. A typical adventure might see you randomly open a chest to get blinded, only to stumble away and plummet through a hole in the floor to land in the darkest levels of the dungeons below, surrounded by monsters you are incapable to beat. Once you’re dead, you have to start all over again from level one. This is the roguelike’s appeal: they are for the sadomasochist gamer.
Sword of Fargoal is a far lighter roguelike than games like Nethack, but that’s why it works so well on the iPhone: where as in a typical game of Nethack you have to wrestle with hundreds of arcane text commands like dip, rub, or engrave, Fargoal is all about killing monsters, quaffing potions, zapping wands and reading scrolls. There’s a limited number of things to do, and the developers have perfectly adapted the game’s controls to the iPhone: in fact, most commands are automatically performed situationally (e.g. if you find an “Enchant Weapon” scroll, your weapon is blessed automatically without having to read it)
The graphics and synthesized retro sounds can’t be overlooked either: Sword of Fargoal is a truly gorgeous game, and simply the best looking roguelike I’ve ever played.
If you’ve ever journeyed through Nethack’s Dungeon of Doom, or even loaded up a game of Diablo, you owe yourself giving this game a try.
Grab Sword of Fargoal for free here. You won’t regret it.
