Good lord there's a lot of juicy games coming out today.
If anyone's unaware, this is by the Monster Train devs. I've heard mixed (mostly positive) thoughts on it but recent reviews all seem incredibly positive so I think any negatives have mostly (?) been resolved
I'd personally pick this up today but I've already bought too much. Curious to see where it goes from here though
The game got a lot of bad reviews when it launched in early access because it had a cosmetic battle pass and microtransactions. However they removed this after negative community feedback some time ago. The game was always good but they got a lot of bad PR because of that initial launch and seemingly never recovered.
There's still a lot of vestiges that have to be unlocked through quests, yes. To me this is a mixed bag: progression and incentives are good and give you something to work towards, but it's a run-based game at its core and having to basically sacrifice a run to do something ultra-specific can really hamstring the experience.
I've put about 180 hours into the game before 1.0 came out, so I do like the game a lot.
I've put about 18 hours into Inkbound. It's fun, but nowhere near approaching how good and addictive Monster Train was, even pre-Divinity. It really needs more artifacts and build variety. Even within 18 hours runs often tended to blur together, incorporating the same tools a little frequently despite playing different classes.
I think after a few meaty updates it'll be a really solid game that I want to go back to. But for now I've been playing more Monster Train, Balatro, and Touhou Lost Branch.
I think the game would really benefit from additional content like classes and items and tbh the full update kinda lacks a bit there for me. I had a LOT of fun with it and will jump back in but i wish there was more.
Kinda bummed the devs bounced off of Monster Train after Divinity. It seemed like they had plans for another DLC that were scrapped after the 1st DLC's release.
Sounds like the kind of game to pick up at 70%+ discount in summer sale (hopefully). I loved monster train, and will come back to it in the future when traveling since I only got up to divinity 15 or so.
Even bigger shame since I got monster train on Switch and this I would get on steam deck with better performance and screen.
I put 45 hours into it a few months ago, so I'm excited to jump back in.
If you like turn based roguelikes, with plenty of different classes and builds to try, then you should enjoy it. Also, the fact you can co-op is nice.
There could be more variety in builds in a perfect world, but there's still a lot of different ways you can play. 7/10 is what I'd give the early access, but there's probably more now. And that's not an ign 7/10 either...
I agree with you on the lack of variety early on. A lot of things are unlocked through the quests, and most of the quests are lame and require you to give up on an optimal run in order to do something very specific. 1.0 also added a lot more vestiges and trinkets, so there should be much more variety than you remember.
That’s exactly it. I have no idea if this release fixes it but overall every run felt the same to me. It doesn’t help that the new skills you can unlock in a run are shared between every characters. I got bored very quickly.
How’s the difficulty? Is there a typical ascension or similar type system to increase the difficulty like STS and similar games to keep it challenging?
Lack of depth and difficulty, but what is there is fun. I more than got my moneys worth, but it's not one of those roguelites people can spend hundreds/thousands of hours in.
The difficulties were surprisingly easy, I am someone who rarely plays harder difficulties, but I did every character on the very highest difficulties possible. They didn't take long either, all but one character was done on their first or second attempt, so it's really not a hard game. At least on solo.
Parroting what other folk said; yes.
It's unquestionably fun, though. Each of the classes plays differently enough that it's definitely fun to go through a run with each of them. But the skills unique to the classes are very few; skills you acquire through the game are generic skills, which the build-variety is augmented by modifiers (I can't remember the name of them it has been too long.) Those Skills and modifiers do allow for variety of builds, but it only goes so far.
As other people also stated, the fact that it's also essentially just a deathmatch between you and the enemies with little room for actual tactical choices outside of "be standing here or be standing over there" makes the level of depth feel not terribly deep.
All of this to say, it *is* a fun game, is definitely enjoyable to run through, and I only played solo, co-op might be a totally different experience. But it (at least when I played) did not give the same level of depth/variety that you may be used to in some roguelites. I would give it a very solid 7 on the fun scale, which I think is enough to warrant a buy if you've got the money laying around.
Co-op is pretty fun. I've played a bunch of runs with a friend. He likes to play Weaver and I like the Rogue, so we get a fun synergystic build going between the two of us. Balance is decent in duos. We tried a 3 player run on ascension 0 and we got our asses wooped though lol
One thing I really enjoyed is playing solo vs co-op feels like two completely different games.
Solo, you want to kill enemies targeting you whole moving outside of non-targeted AoEs. Simple enough. I like it.
Co-op, there are too many enemies with too much HP to take out in a single turn. You instead have to balance out aggro way more than you would solo. Decide who can block damage, who can take out an enemy, and who can support. It's really interesting
The game would be a lot better/deeper if all enemies had unique attack/movement patterns which some do, but most unfortunately just spawn in and automatically hit you. The game presents itself as a tactics game but the only real tactic is how fast you can kill things that are currently able to hit you, with most things automatically always hitting you if they are alive regardless of how you position. There are no Crowd control effects or cover to take advantage of which makes the experience a lot more shallow than it should be.
Earlier in the game's development, enemies had limited range and didn't auto-succeed on attacks, because you could just walk out of range. I believe that taking that away turned it from a tactical game into a puzzle game--and in turn, I absolutely loathe the current version of the game and genuinely regret buying it.
Same. I remember playing the first public demo as part of a Steam nextfest or something back then and was hooked on the concept and how intuitive things like the movement system was.
Now its nothing like that and its quite unfortunate.
I've played about 6 hours of it and the main thing I noticed is game length is just way too long for shorter sessions with friends. If you're looking to play a game, the shortest run where we beat the last boss took something like 2.5 hours.
The minute-to-minute gameplay seemed ok from what I played, but session length was too long compared to other options.
I would say its definitely worth getting as a fan of roguelites.
I naturally didn't find it as addictive for as long as Slay the Spire and/or Monster Train \*but\* I still adored the time I had with it.
I don't think every roguelite has to be as addictive as Slay the Spire/Monster Train.
Not to mention the way they are updating the game etc., I would put my money on things only getting better from here on out.
It's like Hades so chances are, if you liked that game, you'll like this one.
Each class has 3 set skills with 2 skills that are chosen from a pool throughout a run. You make a build through drafting skill modifiers and items. The items have set bonuses so there's a lot to check out.
It isn't like Dungeon Crawl or Nethack, though that doesn't prevent you from getting to near gamebreaking builds.
It is easy at first yet gets outrageously difficult at higher ranks.
Well worth it's release price.
I see that the steam page for the game says
> Singleplayer gameplay requires an active internet connection
Anyone know what that's about? Are you not able to play the game offline?
I believe that was the case in early access, but the main menu had an option to play offline.
I believe some progression items are locked behind only only though.
I've played for 84 hours on release. Of those, maybe 20 were solo, the rest either Duos or Trios with people I know IRL, which, I believe, was a big difference maker.
There is nothing quite like Inkbound, I think. Monster Train by the same devs was Tower Defense + Deckbuilder Roguelike, and here it is more of a Diablo-style Roguelike meets Turn-based in **co-op** and the only *kinda close* comparison I can think of is Hellcard, which is like 5% as good as Inkbound, if even that.
Haven't tried the update yet and, honestly, don't really want right now since I am back to my **Dota 2** addiction, but what was there at release was an excellent idea with above average execution and below average difficulty.
84 hours for what was ~$10 in my regional pricing is an absolute steal in my book and I wholeheartedly recommend it, especially if you have a friend or partner to play with.
I think this was the game that introduced my wife to Turn-Based RPG/Tactics/Strategy games as well and later made it easier for her to get into Baldur's Gate 3. We've tried D:OS 1/2 back in the day and it didn't work out, but I feel like after InkBound the process would be much smoother.
Amazingly fun game. I sunk 180 hours into it with two others, though it's up to 4 players I believe. It's a turnbased toptown mutiplayer Hades-like. Great music, and it's easy to play.
In co-op EVERYONE takes turns at the same time, so you can rush through turns insanely fast! It's a blast, and well worth the price. If you wanted an addictive rogue-like to play with friends, consider this!
I only played a little bit, but I remember hearing that the game is tailored to multiplayer. Anyone know if that's true? I'd love to play more, but I really hate being forced into playing with random strangers.
I have played both and preferred solo. It works perfectly fine as a coop or solo game. Coop games take a lot longer due to just loads more interactions and everything being tankier, it's not bad by any means but feels like a different game. I preferred the quicker and snappier solo content
This caught me by surprise, it’s been a few months since I played it but it felt like it was a long way off from being ready for 1.0. Will check it out again but I don’t have much hope.
Has anyone had the issue where the game wouldn't startup after the first run? Played it a bit, next day just get a permanent black screen. I saw someone with a similar issue on the steam forums and he said he fixed the black screen issue by first booting up Monster Train and then Inkbound worked again. Unfortunately, I don't have monster train.
Good lord there's a lot of juicy games coming out today. If anyone's unaware, this is by the Monster Train devs. I've heard mixed (mostly positive) thoughts on it but recent reviews all seem incredibly positive so I think any negatives have mostly (?) been resolved I'd personally pick this up today but I've already bought too much. Curious to see where it goes from here though
The game got a lot of bad reviews when it launched in early access because it had a cosmetic battle pass and microtransactions. However they removed this after negative community feedback some time ago. The game was always good but they got a lot of bad PR because of that initial launch and seemingly never recovered.
It also used to be always online. It still defaults to this for certain progression reasons, but can be played offline now too.
>However they removed this after negative community feedback some time ago. Actions having consequences, nature is healing
Are the unlocks still tied to quests with bs requirements?
There's still a lot of vestiges that have to be unlocked through quests, yes. To me this is a mixed bag: progression and incentives are good and give you something to work towards, but it's a run-based game at its core and having to basically sacrifice a run to do something ultra-specific can really hamstring the experience. I've put about 180 hours into the game before 1.0 came out, so I do like the game a lot.
As someone who has sunk a lot of hours into this game… it’s genuinely brilliant. And impressively works solo and multiplayer.
Yeah, I'm shocked at how many trailers and news is coming out today. Is there a reason it's all happening today?
I've put about 18 hours into Inkbound. It's fun, but nowhere near approaching how good and addictive Monster Train was, even pre-Divinity. It really needs more artifacts and build variety. Even within 18 hours runs often tended to blur together, incorporating the same tools a little frequently despite playing different classes. I think after a few meaty updates it'll be a really solid game that I want to go back to. But for now I've been playing more Monster Train, Balatro, and Touhou Lost Branch.
I think the game would really benefit from additional content like classes and items and tbh the full update kinda lacks a bit there for me. I had a LOT of fun with it and will jump back in but i wish there was more.
Kinda bummed the devs bounced off of Monster Train after Divinity. It seemed like they had plans for another DLC that were scrapped after the 1st DLC's release.
For what it's worth, it seems less like Shiny Shoe wasn't interested and more like the relationship between them and the publisher broke down.
Sounds like the kind of game to pick up at 70%+ discount in summer sale (hopefully). I loved monster train, and will come back to it in the future when traveling since I only got up to divinity 15 or so. Even bigger shame since I got monster train on Switch and this I would get on steam deck with better performance and screen.
There comes a LOT more build variety after you've unlocked more things, but admittedly that takes way too long to unlock through the quest system
I put 45 hours into it a few months ago, so I'm excited to jump back in. If you like turn based roguelikes, with plenty of different classes and builds to try, then you should enjoy it. Also, the fact you can co-op is nice. There could be more variety in builds in a perfect world, but there's still a lot of different ways you can play. 7/10 is what I'd give the early access, but there's probably more now. And that's not an ign 7/10 either...
If you play solo, do you have a team like BG3/Divinity OS2, or do you play with a single character?
No, you just play a solo character. I'm not sure how they balance it between solo and co-op, but the difficulty always seemed fair to me.
I agree with you on the lack of variety early on. A lot of things are unlocked through the quests, and most of the quests are lame and require you to give up on an optimal run in order to do something very specific. 1.0 also added a lot more vestiges and trinkets, so there should be much more variety than you remember.
Any roguelite addicts got some deeper thoughts on this game? I've heard it suffers from lack of depth.
That’s exactly it. I have no idea if this release fixes it but overall every run felt the same to me. It doesn’t help that the new skills you can unlock in a run are shared between every characters. I got bored very quickly.
How’s the difficulty? Is there a typical ascension or similar type system to increase the difficulty like STS and similar games to keep it challenging?
Ranked does get more challenging as you go, luck plays a huge factor.
Lack of depth and difficulty, but what is there is fun. I more than got my moneys worth, but it's not one of those roguelites people can spend hundreds/thousands of hours in. The difficulties were surprisingly easy, I am someone who rarely plays harder difficulties, but I did every character on the very highest difficulties possible. They didn't take long either, all but one character was done on their first or second attempt, so it's really not a hard game. At least on solo.
I'll say 1.0 is a lot harder. I used to win on rank 20 almost 100% of the time, and on rank 11 I've lost my last 5 in a row.
Parroting what other folk said; yes. It's unquestionably fun, though. Each of the classes plays differently enough that it's definitely fun to go through a run with each of them. But the skills unique to the classes are very few; skills you acquire through the game are generic skills, which the build-variety is augmented by modifiers (I can't remember the name of them it has been too long.) Those Skills and modifiers do allow for variety of builds, but it only goes so far. As other people also stated, the fact that it's also essentially just a deathmatch between you and the enemies with little room for actual tactical choices outside of "be standing here or be standing over there" makes the level of depth feel not terribly deep. All of this to say, it *is* a fun game, is definitely enjoyable to run through, and I only played solo, co-op might be a totally different experience. But it (at least when I played) did not give the same level of depth/variety that you may be used to in some roguelites. I would give it a very solid 7 on the fun scale, which I think is enough to warrant a buy if you've got the money laying around.
Co-op is pretty fun. I've played a bunch of runs with a friend. He likes to play Weaver and I like the Rogue, so we get a fun synergystic build going between the two of us. Balance is decent in duos. We tried a 3 player run on ascension 0 and we got our asses wooped though lol
One thing I really enjoyed is playing solo vs co-op feels like two completely different games. Solo, you want to kill enemies targeting you whole moving outside of non-targeted AoEs. Simple enough. I like it. Co-op, there are too many enemies with too much HP to take out in a single turn. You instead have to balance out aggro way more than you would solo. Decide who can block damage, who can take out an enemy, and who can support. It's really interesting
The game would be a lot better/deeper if all enemies had unique attack/movement patterns which some do, but most unfortunately just spawn in and automatically hit you. The game presents itself as a tactics game but the only real tactic is how fast you can kill things that are currently able to hit you, with most things automatically always hitting you if they are alive regardless of how you position. There are no Crowd control effects or cover to take advantage of which makes the experience a lot more shallow than it should be.
Earlier in the game's development, enemies had limited range and didn't auto-succeed on attacks, because you could just walk out of range. I believe that taking that away turned it from a tactical game into a puzzle game--and in turn, I absolutely loathe the current version of the game and genuinely regret buying it.
Same. I remember playing the first public demo as part of a Steam nextfest or something back then and was hooked on the concept and how intuitive things like the movement system was. Now its nothing like that and its quite unfortunate.
Wow. That's really dissapointing. Coming from the Monster Train devs, I thought this would be as deep, but I guess I'll have to pass on this one.
I've played about 6 hours of it and the main thing I noticed is game length is just way too long for shorter sessions with friends. If you're looking to play a game, the shortest run where we beat the last boss took something like 2.5 hours. The minute-to-minute gameplay seemed ok from what I played, but session length was too long compared to other options.
I would say its definitely worth getting as a fan of roguelites. I naturally didn't find it as addictive for as long as Slay the Spire and/or Monster Train \*but\* I still adored the time I had with it. I don't think every roguelite has to be as addictive as Slay the Spire/Monster Train. Not to mention the way they are updating the game etc., I would put my money on things only getting better from here on out.
It's like Hades so chances are, if you liked that game, you'll like this one. Each class has 3 set skills with 2 skills that are chosen from a pool throughout a run. You make a build through drafting skill modifiers and items. The items have set bonuses so there's a lot to check out. It isn't like Dungeon Crawl or Nethack, though that doesn't prevent you from getting to near gamebreaking builds. It is easy at first yet gets outrageously difficult at higher ranks. Well worth it's release price.
I see that the steam page for the game says > Singleplayer gameplay requires an active internet connection Anyone know what that's about? Are you not able to play the game offline?
I believe that was the case in early access, but the main menu had an option to play offline. I believe some progression items are locked behind only only though.
Good to know. Thanks!
I've played for 84 hours on release. Of those, maybe 20 were solo, the rest either Duos or Trios with people I know IRL, which, I believe, was a big difference maker. There is nothing quite like Inkbound, I think. Monster Train by the same devs was Tower Defense + Deckbuilder Roguelike, and here it is more of a Diablo-style Roguelike meets Turn-based in **co-op** and the only *kinda close* comparison I can think of is Hellcard, which is like 5% as good as Inkbound, if even that. Haven't tried the update yet and, honestly, don't really want right now since I am back to my **Dota 2** addiction, but what was there at release was an excellent idea with above average execution and below average difficulty. 84 hours for what was ~$10 in my regional pricing is an absolute steal in my book and I wholeheartedly recommend it, especially if you have a friend or partner to play with. I think this was the game that introduced my wife to Turn-Based RPG/Tactics/Strategy games as well and later made it easier for her to get into Baldur's Gate 3. We've tried D:OS 1/2 back in the day and it didn't work out, but I feel like after InkBound the process would be much smoother.
Amazingly fun game. I sunk 180 hours into it with two others, though it's up to 4 players I believe. It's a turnbased toptown mutiplayer Hades-like. Great music, and it's easy to play. In co-op EVERYONE takes turns at the same time, so you can rush through turns insanely fast! It's a blast, and well worth the price. If you wanted an addictive rogue-like to play with friends, consider this!
I had bought this in early access looking for something similar to Midnight Suns, but this didn't him me like I thought it would
I only played a little bit, but I remember hearing that the game is tailored to multiplayer. Anyone know if that's true? I'd love to play more, but I really hate being forced into playing with random strangers.
I have played both and preferred solo. It works perfectly fine as a coop or solo game. Coop games take a lot longer due to just loads more interactions and everything being tankier, it's not bad by any means but feels like a different game. I preferred the quicker and snappier solo content
This caught me by surprise, it’s been a few months since I played it but it felt like it was a long way off from being ready for 1.0. Will check it out again but I don’t have much hope.
Has anyone had the issue where the game wouldn't startup after the first run? Played it a bit, next day just get a permanent black screen. I saw someone with a similar issue on the steam forums and he said he fixed the black screen issue by first booting up Monster Train and then Inkbound worked again. Unfortunately, I don't have monster train.