Trapped in the Great Abyss!

You are an old dreamer who, through unforeseen circumstances, has found himself trapped in the Great Abyss, the vast underworld beneath the Dreamlands.  Use the resources at your disposal, weapons, armor, supplies, and any alliances you have with the locals, to explore and learn the secrets of the underworld, in order to make your way back to the upper Dreamlands, or back to the Waking World. 

Cyclopean: The Great Abyss seems simple at first, but the gameplay becomes more complex as players learn the intricacies of its various systems.  Read the in-game dialogue and text carefully, and you may actually learn some useful things.

A Variety of Strategies

Although combat plays a big role in the game, it is not the only means of achieving one’s goals.  Players may find it much more useful to use a combination of combat, stealth and/or dialogue to deal with the inhabitants of the nether realms.  In fact, the game will punish you severely if you try to fight everything as a low level character, so try to manage your gold, health, alliances and sanity carefully as you traverse the Great Abyss.

Old School CRPG

Cyclopean follows the tradition of early CRPGs like Ultima, Questron, and Legacy of the Ancients (among others) in that it presents two differing views of the game world.  Outside of dungeons, you see your character from the top down in a 2D display of the map.  Whereas, in dungeons, the view changes to a 3D, first person perspective. 

Choose Your Dreamer Carefully

When you start the game you will be presented with a random dreamer, with basic abilities and equipment, and any alliances they have.  You can choose to play as that person, or "reroll" to see if you can find a better option.  Cyclopean gives you the freedom to choose from a wide variety of stodgy sounding English upper class gentlemen to play as.

Turn Based Gameplay

The gameplay and combat is all turn based, allowing you to make strategic decisions. Enemies are dangerous, but polite, and will wait their turn.

Alliances

Some characters will start the game with an alliance in place.  This can be very helpful in the early stages, especially for new players.  Alliances allow you to have some of the various denizens of the Great Abyss join your party, and help to fight other enemies.  New alliances can be formed during the game by finding and reading the right books.

Roguelike Mode

As of Version 0.9.936, you can now opt to play Cyclopean: The Great Abyss as a roguelike game with perma-death.  The game will now prompt you when you first start it, whether you want the traditional CRPG experience or Roguelike Mode.  You can always switch back by using the Options menu to restore the default settings.  Games played in Roguelike Mode are not accessible via normal mode, and vice versa.  

Game Manual

There are many other game mechanics and other things that are described in the game manual.  The manual has been fully integrated with the game, so you can bring it up at any time, to learn about the various game mechanics available. 

Use the options menu to change game settings including the color…