First things first: Be prepared! ADOM is a demanding and difficult game with permadeath coming at you around every corner. Several secret handshakes that you just got to learn about the hard way. And it's not even really fair at all times. Also you will be consulting a wiki often.

However,

The sense of reward in this game is unparalleled. When you kill that Ancient Chaos Wyrm with one tremendous blow from your Vanquisher, getting revenge for those five other promising characters who died to him. Or when you finally get that one race/class/sign combo running properly that you've been trying for ages.

There is a lot of death in this game no doubt, but the huge variety you can have with character creation added to the general randomness of the game makes every adventure significantly different. The replay value of this game is immense. Dying means that you get to try something new once again!

As you start out, you might be spending as much time reading a wiki as you are playing. That's okay, there are no real spoilers in this game. Knowing everything beforehand does not really affect your experience in any negative way. And there is a fun sense of mystique; even after years of play you'll be learning new things.

The steam edition packs this classic of a game in a neat and functional package. Definitely worth the price when it comes to amount of gameplay. Also worth it for the veterans. Though if you are very particular to ascii graphics (though you can play this version in ascii aswell), you might not find enough new features as of yet.

Definitely one of the better games ever made!

First things first: Be prepared! ADOM is a demanding and difficult game with permadeath coming at you around every corner. Several secret handshakes that you just got to learn about the hard way. And it's not even really fair at all times. Also you will be consulting a wiki often. However, The sense of reward in this game is unparalleled. When you kill that Ancient Chaos Wyrm with one tremendous blow from your Vanquisher, getting revenge for those five other promising characters who died to him. Or when you finally get that one race/class/sign combo running properly that you've been trying for ages. There is a lot of death in this game no doubt, but the huge variety you can have with character creation added to the general randomness of the game makes every adventure significantly different. The replay value of this game is immense. Dying means that you get to try something new once again! As you start out, you might be spending as much time reading a wiki as you are playing. That's okay, there are no real spoilers in this game. Knowing everything beforehand does not really affect your experience in any negative way. And there is a fun sense of mystique; even after years of play you'll be learning new things. The steam edition packs this classic of a game in a neat and functional package. Definitely worth the price when it comes to amount of gameplay. Also worth it for the veterans. Though if you are very particular to ascii graphics (though you can play this version in ascii aswell), you might not find enough new features as of yet. Definitely one of the better games ever made!