Anything can await you around each corner when you're playing a roguelike game. Magical weapons, hoards of riches, dozens of monsters or a deathly trap can all be potential rewards or punishments for opening the next door. Dungeons of Dredmor is the latest in a recent revival of the roguelike adventure, developed by Gaslamp Games for PC and Mac, and is as faithful to the incredibly challenging formula as any other. You will die, and you will die often.

Here's how it works

Sir Clyde, heeding the call for a hero to save the kingdom, steps into the first level of the evil lich Dredmor's domain. Before him are a series of vending machines for various food and drink, and three doors. Feeling brave, our hero kicks down the closest door, revealing at least a dozen bat creatures. He is dead within seconds, all before he could even get to the second room. Sir Clyde is dead, and never coming back.

Upon each new game, players are asked to create a character, with an impressive array of options. Dungeons of Dredmor includes three dozen or so various skills to select during character creation, allowing for interesting and effective hybrids of existing class archetypes. Do you want to be a Psionic caster that regenerates mana through killing creatures and specializes in hand-to-hand combat? You can do that—or any other combination of skills that sounds appealing to you, such as Golemancy, Alchemy, Axe Master, Tinkerer, and so on.

You head into the dungeon once your character has been created. Movement is based on an invisible grid using the WASD keys or your mouse. Staying true to prior roguelikes, everything in Dredmor is turn-based. Any action you perform, whether it's moving, attacking, casting, or eating, is considered one turn. Enemies in the dungeons operate in the same manner, except they take their turns immediately after you. There are no time limits to turns, allowing players to take their time to carefully plot their next moves. This is necessary because games of this particular genre are very difficult and Dungeons of Dredmor is no exception.

Thankfully, Dungeons of Dredmor features a bevy of tutorials geared to assist newcomers to the world of dungeon crawling. Even if you are a roguelike veteran, I highly recommend participating in these hand-holding sessions. The game's interface requires a bit of an adjustment period and, outside of the tutorial, there is very little to help explain the ins-and-outs of the number-heavy system.

So, what sets DoD apart from other roguelikes? While the large diversity in skills is one factor, it's the game's wicked sense of humor that is the most distinguishable characteristic. From the very beginning, players are treated to delicious satires and references to classic video games such as The Legend of Zelda, Monkey Island, and DOOM. The various items you discover even have silly names and properties, like the Wand of Bling which drops sacks of gold on an enemy's head, or the ability to summon a walking mustache to fight alongside you. As your character levels up, you will unlock even more absurd powers that are an absolute joy to experiment with.

Enemies also get sillier as you progress deeper in to Dredmor's dungeons. While you initially encounter penguins with drill-beaks and fat bats, brave adventurers will eventually face grim reapers, rogue A.I., octopi and much more. The charm of the monsters is enjoyable, but it moves to horror when you accidentally discover a Monster Zoo. Kicking in a door to reveal dozens upon dozens of creatures wanting to snack on your face is enough to terrify even the bravest adventurer, even if they are just penguins.

I've been having a blast playing through the randomly generated catacombs, attempting to progress further each time I am forced to start a new character. Permanent death is the default option when starting, but it is an option that can be disabled. While losing all of your progress upon death might be too frustrating for many—even your saves are deleted when killed— I find myself playing in a much different style than normal. Instead of acting recklessly with save states to fall back on, I am forced to take my time and carefully consider each and every option. It's similar to a game like Pac-Man where, instead of trying to reach a conclusion, I am simply attempting to progress further than I have previously. The inclusion of a scoreboard for each of your deceased characters provides even further incentive to try again and again.

This game is brutal and unforgiving, with a user interface that seems deliberately clunky in its retro design, but it can also be rewarding once you get into its rhythm. For only $5 on Steam, you don't have much to lose other than the time this game will gleefully steal from you. Just be careful not to break your keyboard when your seemingly unstoppable hero suddenly dies from a hidden acid bomb trap. Ouch.