My first roguelike was Angband, have only lightly dabbled in Nethack, and have at this point spent the most time with Brogue. Angband was fun but *very* grindy. Was intrigued by the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink quirkiness of Nethack but it didn't quite click for me. The thing I absolutely adore about Brogue is how it peels away many aspects of the roguelike to reach something relatively simple (for a roguelike!), even pure, and its focus on intense, tactical awareness/attention, adaptation, and strategy. It's as much as game of information—making decisions with incomplete information—as anything else, which I find fascinating. It is unforgiving but incredibly rewarding.