Streets of Rogue is an open-ended, procedurally generated roguelike that drops you into a living city and asks you to complete missions, fight people, form gangs, and steal things. This can be done in a number of ways—many of which involve violence, some of which do not, all of which are good fun.
For example, as a hacker, you might gain access to an otherwise locked area by reprogramming the building’s security system, before stealing the required goods amid the ensuing chaos. As a jock, an American football-style charge lets you burst through walls and go directly for the gold, while as a gorilla you might simply level the door. You can always grab a shotgun and blast your way through, however the crafty among you might poison the air filtration system and sneak in unnoticed, once the security guards have hit the floor.
Here’s creator Matt Dabrowski explaining some of that in greater detail:
“Streets of Rogue allows me the opportunity to share something unique with the world. I didn't want to play it safe in my design,” explains Dabrowski on the game’s site. “This is my experimental ‘go nuts’ game, and I've always wanted it to challenge the norm. This has also made the game particularly challenging to develop, as I have no direct template to follow, beyond the loose tropes of the roguelike genre.”
In short, that’ll equate to 40 different characters with special traits, a huge arsenal of items, and two-player co-op come full release, among other things. At the moment, the Streets of Rogue playable alpha version is free to download, and more information can be gleaned via the game’s wiki.
