It’s weird to think now that Rogue was one of those special treats I would get to play on my grandparents’ 386. Rogue, Prince of Persia and Alley Cat. All fantastic. Now, with Cogmind [official site], I’m getting flashbacks to those days, but everything is green and there are guns. Cogmind looks similar to the original Rogue – a Roguelike, you might say – but it’s got a bunch of tricks up its sleeve, such as a Captain Forever-style system for re-building yourself with the parts dropped by destroyed enemies.

It’s just launched a public alpha, which you can purchase if you like the look of the trailer below.

Cogmind looks to be Rogue in space. With guns and a branching storyline. And a great Matrix-esque green sheen which, nope, still hasn’t got old. Or is it just that late 90s cyberpunk is cool again?

There’s something beautiful about ASCII being used to draw a game, no longer out of necessity, but out of a style preference. I wonder if this is a niche style that will only appeal to those who spent too much of their childhood searching every pixel of wall to discover a secret door to a treasure room, but there’s an alternative mode which uses a tileset instead, if you’re put off by letters.

Developer Josh Ge says that while there’s still much he wants to add to the game, this alpha build is polished enough that it could easily be a release candidate. Buy the game now and you’ll get access to all future updates as and when they’re released.



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