Inkbound lays the groundwork for a great co-op roguelike

You have to respect a game that calls its villains villains. It doesn’t get much clearer than that.

Ink boundreleasing in early access on May 22 is the latest title from Shiny Shoe, developer of Monster train. Described as a turn-based, co-op roguelike, Ink bound is a game that invites you to overuse the verb ‘meet’. Unfortunately, I am forced: Ink bound is Hades meets Diablo meets In the breakwith the smallest splash Fortnite thrown in for good order.

Let’s start with Hadesbecause it is structurally the most obvious point of inspiration. Ink bound is a narrative, action roguelike from a top-down perspective, dotted with characters who give you tasks to accomplish during your many runs through the storybook locations. There’s the Silent Promenade, which isn’t quite as serene as its name suggests, and the Proving Grounds, which, yes, no, definitely made me prove what I can do. After each run, you return to the Atheneum, a hub-area-slash library that, to a book nerd like me, seems super cozy despite its apocalyptic trappings. The story goes: every book ever written is kept in the Athenaeum, but — But – they risk being destroyed forever, as the aforementioned villains strip them of their ink, causing them to fade.

Yes, yes, but gameplay. You initially play as one of three classes: the Magma Miner, the Mosscloak, or the Weaver. The Magma Miner is a tank that can stack skill power and shields. The Mosscloak is a villain of sorts, with a focus on combining dashes and shuriken throws. The Weaver is a take on the traditional mage that connects enemies with threads, allowing them to take more damage with each new enemy with thread. In the pre-release build I played, two additional classes are unlocked after completing a few early quests: the Psychic, a combo support and damage dealer, and my personal favorite, the Obelisk, an aggressive frontliner with two giant stone shields as weapons.

Of course, like any good roguelike, each class can be highly customized in terms of playstyle with skills picked up along the way. Some of my more successful runs involved imbuing the Mosscloak with as much poison damage to each of their abilities as possible, and one that turned my Obelisk into a divine, teleporting Moloch. (Needless to say I won that one.) Like Hadesor any major roguelike, by the time you reach the end of a run your abilities are almost unrecognizable to the character you started with.

Image: Shiny Shoe via Polygon

Combat takes place from a top-down perspective along the lines of Diablofeaturing a hotbar of skills inherent to each class, but also turn-based, with upcoming enemy actions and total damage clearly laid out à la In the break. If that sentence confused you, then your first hour with the game will be similar to mine. It takes a while to get used to how the action plays out. But once you do, fighting becomes tactical and thoughtful. Both movement and skills use Will, a limited resource similar to mana that replenishes each turn, forcing the need to balance mobility with damage: do I use my will to get rid of these little exploding molkerjes, or spend How about getting outside this big AoE circle on the ground that promises to cut my HP in half?

Complicating matters further is an ever-shrinking circle of play that shrinks as battles progress, encouraging action rather than doing nothing, a mechanism that should sound familiar to anyone who’s ever played Fortnite or his peers. On my fourth or fifth run, each Ink bound the battle felt like a brain teaser, something to be overcome with a well-considered series of moves and attacks.

Unless you play multiplayer, at what point Ink bound almost feels like a completely different game.

Image: Shiny Shoe via Polygon

Okay, maybe “completely different” is an exaggeration, but not by much. Everything I’ve already said about gameplay remains true if you add another player (or more – up to four). Combat is still turn-based and enemy damage is still clearly marked. Except when it comes to the players’ turn, all actions of your party are performed simultaneously. While in solo play every move can be carefully considered, in multiplayer chaos reigns. You could take a dash like the Obelisk, when your Mosscloak friend suddenly does his own dash-and-shuriken combo, clearing out the enemies you planned to eliminate on your turn. If you’re left-clicking at the same time, too bad, because there’s no undo button when you’re running through the open air. You just have to wait for the next turn.

This is a game that requires voice chat to coordinate attacks, but even then, once you add another player to the mix, Ink bound suddenly feels more like a desperate brawl than a careful game of chess. This isn’t a bad thing, but it’s been a long time since I’ve played a game where the co-op experience felt so different from the solo version.

Image: Shiny Shoe via Polygon

Ink bound, like all early access games, will certainly change as updates are released – but what I’ve played so far is strong foundation. Currently, my biggest gripe is that NPCs feel less obvious than I’d like, making it hard to invest myself in the story. However, I appreciate the nod to creative writing statements in the form of naming the player character “Unnecessary,” with commentary from the supporting cast saying you’re not a real character if you don’t have needs. Still, the whole “all books ever” angle feels undercooked, if only because, probably for legal reasons, we’re not fighting over copyrighted material, but rather a generic take on storytelling in general. (Now that it’s in the public domain, maybe they should have a Great Gatsby update?)

Ultimately, though, the best measure of roguelikes is whether they instill that “one more run” feel, and Ink bound has that in spades. If the game’s early access is the prologue, I’ll be ready to read chapter one.

Ink bound will be released for early access on Windows PC on May 22. The game was reviewed on PC using a pre-release download code from Shiny Shoe. Vox Media has partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. You can find additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy here.