Have You Played Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead?

Hey, all! Here's the first of what I hope will become a series of posts highlighting some of the games I greatly enjoy, and maybe you will too! The subject for today is the freely-licensed rogue-like/zombie-apocalypse-survival simulator Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead.

In Cataclysm (sometimes abbreviated DDA) you take on the role of a lone survivor in a post-apocalyptic version of New England, where you must try to stay alive in the wake of hostile monsters, animals, and environments. The goal of the game is simply to arm and feed yourself and to survive as long as possible. There are hundreds of items to use, an in-depth crafting system that includes building and vehicle construction, and perhaps one of the most complex combat systems ever devised.

Gameplay in DDA should be mostly familiar to those who have played other similar games (such as Nethack or Crawl), but, true to its genre as a simulation game, the controls and nuances in DDA are more complicated than your average rogue-like. The game is turn-based rather than real-time. Nevertheless, it still takes much time and effort to master this huge game.

And that's a bit about Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead! If this sounds like the kind of game you might like, you can download it for free from the main website here (download links for Windows and Linux are in the box on the right-hand side). Be warned though! This game is complex enough to consume many many many hours of your time ;)

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow me to see more :) See you next time!