Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
The epitome of a modern traditional roguelike: with turn-based play and a RPG-like skill progression system, it hearkens back to some of the major aspects of this genre. This game has an incredible depth, with a deep inventory system, vehicles and boats, NPCs with their own stories, and more.
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is a traditional roguelike, sandbox and zombies game
developed by CleverRaven
and published by KorGgenT.
Released on March 31st 2023 is available on Windows and Linux
in 8 languages: English, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Spanish - Latin America.
It has received 410 reviews of which 380 were positive and 30 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.6 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 19.50€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
Linux
- OS: Ubuntu 20.04
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
READ THIS REVIEW IF YOU OWN A STEAM DECK I’m just starting to explore Roguelike games, and this one is very famous. I hesitated about buying it since it’s free and can be downloaded outside Steam. I started questioning the benefits of having it on Steam. After reading some reviews, I noticed complaints about the devs not being interested in updating the game, which initially discouraged me. Forget that! The game was updated to version 0.H just recently, on December 25th, meaning the devs are actively working on it. With that in mind, I decided to buy it to play on my Steam Deck, even though I expected it to be challenging. I had tried the free version before and always ran into issues with the UI, scaling, graphics, 4K resolution, etc. Still, I took the risk and purchased it, and to my surprise, the Steam Deck might be the DEFINITIVE way to play this game. I went into the control configuration and searched for community layouts. At first, you won’t see anything, probably due to the version, but press X, and you’ll find some community control profiles. There’s one profile by Rosco that’s AMAZING. They set up selectors on both trackpads that can be modified with R4, making the game COMPLETELY PLAYABLE ON THE STEAM DECK—much easier than using a mouse and keyboard. I only had one issue initially: after installing the game, the terminal size was incorrect, cutting off part of the image. I tried fixing it in the options but made it worse. So, I uninstalled and reinstalled the game, and it worked perfectly. I haven’t encountered any audio, UI, or graphic problems. The game runs great, and everything is accessible thanks to the Steam Deck. Oh, and the achievements work too. The Steam Deck with community controls might just be the definitive way to play CDDA. Kudos to the devs for updating the game—the Steam version works even better than the free one. Buy it without hesitation!
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I've had some fond memories of seeing this game in action years back when I first came across it via a 'Roleplay' playthrough of sorts, being such a strange yet truly encapsulating enigma of a game that invited all levels of curiosity. However the question of whether those prepared for a 'Walking Dead' scenario could ever truly survive a 'Resident Evil' was one that always gave me plenty of thought as to how this would be a tangible game to play out outside of their respective franchises. Seeing as I would later describe the complexity of this game to friends who enjoyed another hardcore zombie survival gem on Steam in the manner of "Project Zomboid is to CDDA what Rimworld is to Dwarf Fortress", having only watched it and not actually played this game at all until somewhat recently near the end of 2022 where I first got to truly experience zombie survival redefined for myself. Naturally my first of about forty or so deaths was me basically flopping my way around and hardly even having grabbed any goodies in a second floor apartment, having to resort to chucking myself outside of a window I opened due to a metal locked door I couldn't work out how to open. This resulted in a broken limb and other problems that greatly slowed me down before quickly succumbing to a small group of zombies that piled onto me with frightening ease. What I hope to get across in this review here is that Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is an exceptionally in-depth survival game that makes even Project Zomboid's hardcore gameplay look relatively simple for the most part as, although it does not follow the usual rules in zombie games where a bite from an infected zombie is fatal, practically everything else is either just as complex or even MORE so once you really get down into the nitty-gritty of it! Now normally this is where I go into detail about each of the game's mechanisms and how it all ties into the player's gameplay experience, however because of the sheer scope of systems on offer here (a couple of them, mutagens and vehicular modifications, I haven't even gotten around to touching yet!) alongside the vast array of items at your disposal and so many methods of survival, I'll have to narrow things down to a more general experience of what one can initially expect to focus on in their early days for the sake of brevity here. With that being said, CDDA puts you in charge of either a randomized character set in one of many unique scenarios or a carefully-crafted custom character which you can balance via a set amount of points that you gain from picking negative traits/lowering stats/harder scenarios or lose from doing the opposite alongside professions that also cost a varying amount of points depending on how much there is to gain and their overall usefulness at the start of the game. From there, the main goal is to essentially survive by any and all means necessary, as how you go about this is entirely up to you. Given that the game works on a 2D tile-based grid system that features 21 floors in total, it should be no surprise that one of the key factors to survival is being acutely aware of your environment at all times. Since visual sights and audible sounds made by the player can easily lure in monsters, even going so far as some relying on 'smell' that functions as an invisible element that spreads the more you stay within one place for them to track you with, resulting in a quick death for the clumsy and unaware very early on. Speaking of enemies, seeing as Project Zomboid is known for its vast hordes of zombies whilst Resident Evil is a horror classic that hosts a wide variety of dangerous zombified animals alongside various mutant monsters. CDDA, however, includes all of these but ups the ante even further by including a seriously impressive list of creatures, from the dull and plain to the Lovecraftian horrors and all manners of hi-tech cyborgs and mutants and mutated creatures alike! I specifically highlight creatures that have mutated here due to how games tend to get dull for experienced players once they have figured it out and 'cracked the code' as it were, with only vast numbers in brutal starting scenarios or self-imposed challenges really bringing back the thrill of surviving. What CDDA does to solve this is truly fascinating as almost all monsters can mutate into different forms over the weeks and months, with a simple zombie turning into a Zapper that deals electric damage when struck with melee weapons, a fat zombie becoming a Bloated that emits toxic gas and explodes either when hit or right next to the player or a zombie dog transforming into an acidic version capable of spewing acid at the player alongside being dangerous to smash them. (Be prepared to smash any and all corpses, less you wish to see them rise again hours after being killed!) Truly it is terrifying how far these mutations go as CDDA doesn't let you get too comfortable for very long, seeing as scrounging for any useful items is a sound strategy early on but, unless you wish to risk getting caught-off guard by more evolved monsters and die a painful death, players are expected to adapt to an ever-changing environment and make the most of the tools that are available to them as many seemingly useless items will have some unusual or even outright obscure use for veterans to make use of. On the topic of combat, one can hit enemies with a melee weapon or aim with a firearm for those too risky to get up close, noting that 'action speed' plays a huge factor with things like individual limb encumbrance, stamina, weariness and pain all to account for. Unlike with Project Zomboid though, where guns are a huge detriment due to how loud they are, firearms in CDDA have their uses and only become more critical depending on where your skills develop. These twenty seven skills in four categories determine how efficient you are at the given task and what items you can make or craft, with practical experience dealing directly in how good you are at said skill whilst theoretical knowledge from books ties into learning new recipes but also accelerates practical XP gains up to that level. Given the honestly scary depth of all the various systems that one can utilize here, be it crafting many items and building structures and useful appliances via Fabrications and Survival skills, utilizing your Mechanics/Electronics to soup up a regular vehicle into a true post-apocalyptic behemoth, Computers for hacking into devices or even crafting highly-potent mutagens via Applied Science/Health Care with the right Catalysts to safely process over time alongside many other uses for the various skills on offer, I can only again emphasize that this is not for the casual of RPG survival players! All of this to say that, even if you are curious but feel like the price point is a bit high, guess what? Via GitHub or CDDA's own official website, one can easily install this game for free as CDDA originated as a game you can download without being charged any price, purely relying on donations from fans up until the Steam version earlier last year for financial support. What this means is you can try it out for yourself and explore practically all content seen on Steam without paying a penny, although I always encourage people to double-check where to safely download such files for themselves. Only thing to note is that, when purchasing this game, all proceeds go towards specifically KorGgenT, one of the main developers of CDDA, as opposed to the team as a whole. Whether you wish to fund him personally is a choice I leave to you however, given that you can install the game for free, I find that such a gameplay marvel as Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead truly deserves a spot for one of the most technically-impressive Survival RPG Roguelites out there and I can fully recommend this to those tired of casual/traditional RPGs and are up for a true hardcore challenge where both combat and survival matters!
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I used to think ToME was the greatest roguelike, and greatest game I had ever played. I spent some time to learn this, and even through the complexity and clunkiness, I think this is better than ToME. This may be the greatest unfiltered roleplaying sandbox out there. I mean real roleplaying too. Like make your own goals for no reward other than your own desire to live through your characters eyes as they would live. It's also a terrific horror game and is more terrifying than anything I have ever played. You need an imagination like an 80s kid unless ascii makes you shriek in terror though. 155 hrs in: 50+ characters dead. None have lasted longer than 3 in game days. Most successful run was as a morbidly obese tourist from India who became mutated with tentacle legs, had an insomnia problem and a cocaine problem (possibly related) and had learned a Filipino martial that allowed him to become a force to be reckoned with with merely a plastic shank made out of plastic cutlery. He stole a mountain bike and ran over a mine. You shall be missed Nirav.
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Richard 'Chewy' Porter. I met him when I awoke in the emergency shelter. he was stood in the darkest corner of the room, wearing a tactical vest and wielding an assault rifle. I introduced myself, and he told me of the strange dreams he'd been having. he then asked me to kill his mother. Needless to say, we set off together. After looting a few suburban houses, it became clear that Richard had been preparing his whole life for the apocalypse. he, in short order, mowed down something in the order of fifty zombies, wild animals and hostile creatures. My contribution consisted of beating a large cockroach to death with a frying pan. We survived the first night, and the following morning we stumbled across a campsite. I quickly identified a vehicle, and examined it - it was mostly functional - and definitely driveable! The chassis creaked as I settled my tremulous mass into the cheap leather driver's seat. Richard joined me, stoically silent. Unfortunately, I'd never driven before. I didn't want to let Richard down though, so I started the engine, and accelerated hard. We immediately smashed through a wooden picnic table, before careening across the highway horizontally. We continued to accelerate, moving rapidly through farmland, even hitting some sort of animal on the way. Sadly, the next thing we hit, was a wall of trees. Richard was thrown clear of the vehicle, and broke almost every bone in his body. I was flung into a large maple tree, my last moments spent smushed against uncompromising bark. I'm sorry Richard, we never did kill your mother.
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The typical free and open source game: the devs are great, dedicated and communicativ the game is polished and after getting used to the controls feels great on desktop and laptops alike it's free and open source, so if you want to try it, get it gratis from their website supports all major operating systems and thanks to steam also some more obscure ones (like my alpine laptop) trying it is a must, buying it on Steam is for the ones that want to help and appreciate the devs
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 19 November 2024 22:17 |
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| SteamSpy data | 21 January 2025 21:54 |
| Steam price | 22 January 2025 20:48 |
| Steam reviews | 21 January 2025 03:59 |
