Going Rogue - Victory or Defeat after 13 official runs?

So, what do people think? Will Ben only know the darkness of Defeat or will he climb out of the Dungeons of Doom clutching the mighty Amulet of Yendor in Victory?

After watching GR Run #1, which went about exactly as I expected, and the previously experience of 2 Fallout 2 Furious Episode 1 (And I'll be honest in saying I didn't watch past Episode 1. Maybe he got a lot more proficient, I do not know.), the caliber of his skill playing games of that era and further into the mists of PC Gaming Past does not seem like it will lead to Victory within the proscribed limits of the challenge set forth.

My opinion: Defeat.

Can he achieve Victory? 100% believe he can, but without knowing how many more practice runs he'll be undertaking between Official Runs, it is hard to say.

I don't want to sound overconfident, but this is the run.

This is 100% the run.

A pro gamer like Ben doesn't need 13 attempts to conquer an old game like Rogue.

Have you seen how tall he is?

Yes.

If I'm understanding the conceit of the series correctly that he doesn't get any more practice runs and only has 12 more runs to go, I don't think it's happening. Between the RNG, the lack of familiarity with how to actually use some of the systems and the lack of caution, death by troll is going to be a common occurrence.

Have faith!

(But also this game seems like “a motherfucker”)

Let’s just say..... wait until you see tomorrow’s episode ;)

Kingdom Rogueache

Ben vs Bat.

After watching the first two runs I am more confident than ever that Ben has this in the bag. He's lulling the game into a false sense of security and once it is nice and overconfident he is going to hit it with such a thunderous fury that by the time he's done they'll rename the term "roguelikes" to "Packsims."

Benjasims.

My guess - no successful run in 13 (unless there are hidden practices). (I base this on 0 hours playing Rouge but hundreds playing NetHack).

My preference for a rule: Runs don't count unless you surpass your dungeon level from the last episode. Endurance-Rouge: play till you improve for the day.

@tankboy: Honestly I would love for this feature to just go way over 13 games (though that's impossible because Ben's going to win in well under 13, probably in 3.)

The Ben+Vinny pairing is great, and it's fascinating to see them try to wrestle with the player unfriendly rules and set up of this ancient video game. All the episodes so far have been fantastic. I also really liked This is The Run for somewhat similar reasons.

This is looking like it somehow snuck in at the very end and won favorite Giant Bomb Series of 2020 for me.

Any Rogue experts here? You have to get lucky to get a good run, right?

I mean, if you don't find any leather armor and run into some monster that melts your regular armor away... stuff like that can't be salvaged by 'skill'?!

Edit: So, what I'm saying is, he will probably not beat it.

@superfriend: Any RPG that depends on random dice rolls for hits is going to require luck to win. Especially early on you can just get into combat with something and miss a bunch and then die because of it. The armor thing is not the main issue because you can also just remove your armor in those fights, but if you get bad enemy placement or you just get a bunch of unlucky rolls when battling something there's really nothing you can do.

Modern games allow you to ameliorate that stuff through various strategies but these ancient games just didn't. They were fine if you rolled badly four or five times in a row and died because of it.

Nooooooppe. He is screwed. Having fun along the way though.

There's no way he beats it. I had some faith from those practice runs but he already burned two lives so quickly he didn't even have a chance to learn anything. Might as well be going in fresh. I think they underestimated how difficult this game is

Ben is speedrunning dont fret building that rocky story fam

I think Ben is throwing the early runs because he's so confident he can beat with ease later in the series.

Boy i hope he beats it. But i wouldnt put money on it happening in just 13 runs.

This show is somehow capturing the absurdist spirit of a Dan show but filtered through a Ben and Vinny style and it's fantastic. It's too bad that the next episode is going to be the finale after Ben beats the game in his fourth run, but it was incredibly fun while it lasted.

This is definitely true

Through a combination of the cruelty and randomness of the game and Ben’s general recklessness, there’s absolutely no way he beats Rogue in 13.

Maybe if they implement a rule where Vinny can provide wiki assistance to Ben, they have a tiny shot. But at this rate, even if Ben plays less sloppily, they’ll encounter new enemy types/scroll effects/curses/etc. each episode that will blindside them and probably dismantle the run they first appear on.

The series is high quality comedy, especially because of the inexplicably reasonable practice runs where Ben was half paying attention as he talked to Vinny.

I feel it is time to ask:

Is this video series "art?"

I have a sneaking suspicion that all the episodes are prerecorded to fill the holiday break gap in lieu of where GOTY stuff happens. That's how they got the arbitrary 13 runs. Then the practice run was recorded after it all when Ben had the hang of it.

That would explain why no face camera which would give away no time passing and Ben not using peoples character names.

Maybe that's just my paranoia and lockdown anxiety talking, but FOLLOW THE MONEY.

I can see Ben potentially making it down to floor 26. Perhaps he’ll have what he needs to get the Amulet (I don’t know if there is an actual fight involved). But I feel like then they will have the realization he needs to get back out and the next 25 floors back up are regenerated fresh and may not have the resources to get all the way back up.

(This spoken as someone who only read about the Rogue systems and have dabbled in NetHack and only got around 8 floors in at best before getting overwhelmed and putting it back down)

I have no personal experience with the game, but it seems so hilariously brutal that I'd wager the 13 runs are not enough...

I would watch however many it takes, though. This is my favorite thing they've done in quarantine.

I've only heard legends of Rogue and never played it myself, but if this series had no hard run limit I could see it going into the hundreds. If not beyond.

It's not a game you can knock out in a few sessions.

I believe in Ben

Under the series' current rules on what constitutes a "run"? No chance, sorry.

I'd love for this series to go longer though, because with more time, Ben can definitely get it done. Also it's very entertaining, of course.

Well, we'll know our answer tomorrow. Live!

He's gonna finish it.

I just can't believe that they added permadeath to Ben's career at Giant Bomb.

@shindig: Are you a betting man Shindig..

13 Deadly Sims and Going Rogue have one thing in common...

Godspeed, Ben.

What’s the over/under on the floor depth Ben will achieve tomorrow?

@dunbar256: 1. Because he's going all the way down and all the way back up, baby!

@bigsocrates said:

That is such a great line! My hat is off to you, good sir.

Not going to be able to watch it till after work, but I'm thinking 12 minutes of Rogue. That's not the length of the video, but the length of the gameplay. Highly optimistic, considering the previous 13 data points, in my opinion.

He’s going to do it, this is the run for sure. No Emu,Slime or Griffin will stand a chance.