RoguedexPart 1 (Sep 2023) · #14 of 18 in that tierWatch the moment (2:41:17)
Streets of Rogue
- Developed by
- Matt Dabrowski
- Published by
- tinyBuild
$19.99
Fight, sneak, and hack your way through randomly generated cities. It's like Nuclear Throne meets Deus Ex, mixed with the anarchy of GTA. Rogue-lite meets immersive sim, and goes completely insane.
Consensus
B75/100
Steam players96% positiveOverwhelmingly Positive23,108 reviews
Metacritic ↗82/100Users: 8.3/10
VG Insights estimate ↗≈529K copies · ≈$6.2M gross
What creators say
Ranked Apr 2023 · #19 of 48 in that tierListen to the episode
Scored 6.9/10 · tier derived from the score
Ranked Dec 2019 · #3 of 3 in that tierWatch the moment (0:28:18)
Ranked Apr 2023 · #28 of 42 in that tierWatch the moment (2:03:54)
What players say
A top-down, procedurally generated action roguelite/immersive-sim hybrid by Matt Dabrowski (published by tinyBuild) where you pick from 20+ wildly different character classes and complete city-block missions by fighting, sneaking, hacking, bribing or causing chaos.
Streets of Rogue is a player-beloved cult hit: Steam shows 'Overwhelmingly Positive' at about 96% of roughly 23,100 reviews, with sandbox freedom, character variety and co-op chaos cited over and over. Critics were also favourable but the critic sample is small (Metacritic lists 82 on Xbox One from 5 reviews and 75 on Switch from 4; PC Gamer gave 84). The game spent roughly two years in Early Access from 2017 and reached 1.0 on 12 July 2019 on PC, then Switch, PS4 and Xbox One. Criticism clusters around clunky melee and gun aim, RNG and unfair late-floor modifiers, weak build synergy compared with deeper roguelites, and a solo experience that some find repetitive. A sequel, Streets of Rogue 2, is still listed as 'coming soon' on Steam with no release date, and much of the recent review traffic is fans waiting for it.
Players love
- Huge sandbox freedom: every mission has many solutions (stealth, hacking, bribery, violence, distraction, using gang rivalries) and the game lets you pick your own approach
- 20+ character classes that change how the game plays (cop gets XP for arrests, zombie turns kills into zombies, shapeshifter possesses NPCs, gorilla, scientist, politician, etc.), driving replayability
- Emergent chaos from interacting systems: rival gangs, scientists vs gorillas, explosions, fridges and generators as weapons, NPCs reacting to each other and to you
- Excellent co-op (local and online up to 4 players); widely described as better with friends
- Humour and tone: absurd gags and parody factions are frequently called out by reviewers and players
- Strong long-term content: big quests, mutators, DLC characters, Steam Workshop support, sandbox/custom levels and characters (one reviewer logged thousands of hours)
- Responsive developer and unlocks earned in play rather than paywalled (Steam and Metacritic user reviews)
- Music praised as fitting, though some want more tracks
Common complaints
- Clunky combat: melee described as flailing, gun shots sometimes lock onto unintended targets, and knockback when shot from several directions can be deadly
- RNG-driven deaths: bad trait offers, unlucky items or a random NPC fight can end multi-hour runs
- Late-floor modifiers (falling bombs, spreading goo, everyone armed with rocket launchers) are seen by some as unfair rather than fun
- Heavy menuing to interact with things, and stealth and combat feel stiff to some players
- Limited build depth/synergy compared with Gungeon-style roguelites, per a co-op reviewer
- Technical gripes: Switch version lag (Metacritic user), Steam Deck unplayable per top negative review (controller inputs not recognised, sub-20 fps docked), occasional save-data loss and online multiplayer breakage reported in negative Steam reviews
- Thin narrative; one player wanted story between levels and critics noted an abrupt, anticlimactic ending (DarkStation)
Can feel tedious
- Waiting for useful traits to appear; some players feel the same weak offers recur
- Long floors, especially in co-op, where finished players idle waiting for teammates
- Repetition after the first dozen hours for players who don't chase new characters or big quests
- Menu-heavy interaction and the death-count tracker (some find it demoralising)
- Humour and writing that some find childish or annoying
What's unique
- Roguelite structure (procedural floors, permadeath, unlocks) fused with immersive-sim style problem solving, often pitched as Nuclear Throne meets Deus Ex with GTA anarchy
- Class-specific playstyles, objectives and roleplay hooks, so the 'who am I and why am I here' feel changes each run
- Living simulated city where factions and NPCs fight each other independent of the player
- Arcade-GTA-like top-down view with procedural city blocks, with a custom level, character and sandbox toolset
- Drop-in local and online co-op and PvP in a game that otherwise feels like a solo sandbox
Players want
- Tighter melee and aimed-gun handling, plus less knockback chaos
- More build variety and stronger trait/item synergies so runs feel less like the same pool of offers
- Better balance on later floors, with fewer arbitrary run-killers and unavoidable modifiers
- Fixes and support for Steam Deck, controllers and online multiplayer stability
- More side objectives and less downtime in co-op when one player finishes early; a cleaner split-screen UI with four players
- More narrative or structure around missions and a more satisfying ending
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Rogue-liteAction RoguelikePixel GraphicsMultiplayerRPGRogue-likeIndieActionCo-opAdventure
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Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Streets of Rogue (2017) is a unique roguelike where you pick from many characters and are dropped into small village-like levels full of mini quests and missions needed to reach the next area. He says each character changes play so drastically that each feels like its own game. The levels themselves are fairly repetitive and not very dense, and he worries that once every character is mastered it may get old. With about 15 hours played, he enjoys it a lot and places it around a mid B.
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