Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

[Jonathan]

http://crawl-ref.sourceforge.net/

Despite the off-putting generic title, this is a well-executed and well-designed rogue-like.

Features:
no scumming: persistent levels
individually level up different weapon/magic skills
auto explore
No hauling around loot: shopkeepers don't buy goods
stuff is actually dangerous, and not just because you are impatient and decide not to recall or teleport. in fact, they've deliberately elided most of the common rogue-like escapes; you have to commit to a combat.

[Jonathan]

I can't see myself playing TOME any more, as the design of Stone Soup is palpably better.

In addition, the real version number is not 0.4.5, it is 4.4.5. It's like the devs are going out of their way to keep people from actually playing their game.

Another nice feature:
Mouse interface: really handy when you can't remember that obscure command you rarely use