Legerdemain is an interesting Roguelike hybrid that eschews the typical fantasy setting and randomly-generated dungeons of the Roguelike genre in favor of a surreal storyline which you have to uncover piece by piece. The developer also states that the game is influenced, part, by Interactive Fiction.
The game opens by asking you questions to “shape your philosophy as a Manipulator.” Manipulation is the “magic” of Phenomedom, an ancient art that few understand and many are fearful of. Once your character is created, you awake in a Doobah prison cell, an amnesiac. Although your ultimate goal is to “uncover a vast conspiracy full of morbid secrets and ancient puzzles,” your immediate one is to escape the prison. Grabbing the prime brush laying next you (a tool used for manipulation), you set out on your quest.
The repetitiveness of the first dungeon put me off a bit, but once you emerge into the overworld, things definitely pick up. Examining points of interest (represented by “?”), collecting “paragraphs” (large chunks of storyline), and talking to the various inhabitants of the world of Phenomedom is quite engaging – you can hail, chat, gossip, offer, or ask people about keywords that get brought up during conversation. Even though combat initially seems shallow compared to other Roguelikes, there’s no lacking in things to see or learn once you escape the Doobah prison.
All in all, Legerdemain is a bold experiment that runs the risk of alienating fans of RLs, RPGs, or IF because it’s not quite any of them. Still, the world of Phenomedom is a captivating one, and there’s obviously a lot under the hood that’s there to be discovered.
Note: The game is programmed in Java and requires a Java Virtual Machine (at least 1.4) to run. A link for this download is on the developer’s website.
(Source: Slash, via Rogue Temple)