I've never met a roguelike that I didn't desperately but unsuccessfully want to love. I'm fascinated by games like Hades, Returnal, and Dead Cells, but they lose me with the amount of procedurally generated repetition you're practically forced to endure if you want to play through the full story. It's to my surprise and delight, then, that beloved film director Guillermo del Toro, of all people, has outed himself as a fellow roguelike skeptic.
At least, that's what I got from a recent IGN interview (thanks, PC Gamer) in which del Toro talks about some of his favorite games. As it turns out, the 61-year-old auteur knows ball. "I love Left 4 Dead," he says. Great choice. Some of my fondest memories from college are mowing down zombies with my friends. "Death Stranding made me cry," continues del Toro with another banging mention. "Shadow of the Colossus made me introspective about so many intangible things. There's not only one. BioShock, it's a world I could get lost in for ages."
Del Toro sure knows how to pick 'em. As a presumably busy person who's known for making movies, it's understandable that he would want to be choosy about the games he spends his time playing, and I think most people with full-time jobs and other hobbies can relate. I definitely do, and I've written at length about games being too damn long these days. That's precisely why most roguelikes, which make you replay the same levels over and over, just aren't my bag these days.
"Dead Cells was really interesting to me, I just hate respawning," says del Toro to applause from me. "You go 35 levels and then you start again. You get faster, but please do a version without respawning for the older, for the elderly players. I'm available, you contact me and send it to me, please I beg you. Because I like the world, great design."
It is a great design. Dead Cells is one of the roguelikes I've been most tempted to push through over the years, but I'm always turned off by the repetition combined with the brutal difficulty curve, and I'm almost three decades younger than del Toro. By the time I'm 61, I imagine I'll have a strict no games over 12 hours code.
Glutton for punishment? Here are the best roguelikes to play in 2026.
