Co-op roguelike titles are oftentimes hit or miss, with their gameplay loop being tied to how enjoyable the single and cooperative gameplay is to repeat with others. Thankfully, one indie game blends creative individual thinking with party collaboration, creating unique and dynamic adventures where everyone crafts spells to take on a variety of dangers. This “literary” roguelike, as it is called, emphasizes imaginative gameplay that is as fun to play after dozens of hours as it was to try during the first run or two.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Online multiplayer games sometimes suffer by having two many similar aesthetics or loops to their gameplay, oftentimes becoming repetitive enough for players to get bored after an initial try. The amount of co-op game that almost have the exact same gameplay sometimes sacrifice depth for appealing multiplayer mechanics, which can be a trade-off some players appreciate. However, the best titles tend to marry both multiplayer ideas with unique single-player concepts that blend together to make multiplayer co-op feel more impactful.
Vellum Supports Almost Complete Player Freedom Through Co-Op Roguelike Adventures
The 1.0 release of Vellum marks the evolution of a co-op roguelike that blends personal growth with group efforts to understand and craft powerful magic. Inventive gameplay revolves around mastering class-defining colors that label different schools of magic, fine tuning them to give your character an individual skill set few can match. By taking your build and energizing it with allies, you can take down a variety of monsters in Tome worlds, with your actions influencing how your enemies grow too.
The core mechanic of Vellum is the Signature Inks, or color classes that help define your character build. For example, Red magic is tied to draining and restoring vitality, Green magic is for summoners to call upon an Inkling pet, while Blue can be great AoE magic for taking down grouped up enemies. Every color has a distinct approach, and can be refined as you author your own play style through the customization of your spellbook. Through ink fueling your book, you can flesh out creative spell loadouts through various perks, modifiers, and combinations you discover throughout each roguelike run.
You are only limited by your own imagination in this game, with teams of players introducing and experimenting with new spell ideas at almost every step to keep gameplay fresh. Player freedom is expressed even more through the customization of The Torn, or the enemies you encounter during runs. You can apply different challenges to runs, making enemies stronger or giving them special enhancements for better rewards later. Similar to other rougelike titles like Mewgenics, as your dynamic enemies grow, it forces you to dive deeper into build mechanics to adapt to new situations.
Crafting Spells Into Individual Builds For Each Run Supports Player Ingenuity
After each Chapter of a run, players can adjust aspects of Torn enemies, giving them modifiers or bonuses to make progress harder. However, the real meat of Vellum‘s upgrade systems comes from Inscriptions, which allow you to freely enhance spells and signature inks used throughout the game. By reaching higher levels with a certain ink color, you unlock rows of Inscriptions that help flesh out your build between runs. Scribe Inscriptions are incredibly detailed, giving you a myriad of options for deeply complex builds that only you fully understand.
Selecting and experimenting with different Inscriptions adds a lot of replayability to Vellum, especially with multiple friends trying out a plethora of builds at the same time. There are at least 15 different Inscriptions for every ink color, resulting in 120 different bonuses to apply to builds for the eight core class colors available at this time of writing. Finding what play style works best for you is part of the fun, in addition to finding powerful spell combinations with other players.
Other Customizable Features Allow Personal Expression During Every Step Of Vellum’s Gameplay
As each Tome world you visit during your runs have game-altering mechanics and rules, your group will eventually return to The Illuminated Library between adventures. As you can customize your spells here, you also have a personal Reading Nook within this hub area. By exploring the vast Library and succeeding in adventures, the in-game currency you earn can be spent on customizing your space, adding furniture or hundreds of other decorations to personalize your study area.
Players have the chance to customize their adventure further in Vellum by choosing what they participate in as well. Massive Raid Realms provide a much higher challenge than standard Tome runs, with Appendices also generating vast endgame content to explore. Similar to some of the best co-op games out there, constant run adjustments keeps the gameplay from getting repetitive, testing you and your allies often for great moments of spell experiments paying off.
Supporting 1-4 players at once, there are few co-op titles as promising as this one, especially now that it is out of Early Access with an official release. As far as roguelike multiplayer experiences are concerned, Vellum has many layers compared to its peers, creating an eagerness to test new ideas in a way that few games manage to capture.
What do you think of Vellum now that it has released its 1.0 version? Leave a comment below or join the conversation in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image Courtesy of Netflix -
Courtesy of Crunchyroll / Sony Pictures
