I think all gamers have a dream game in their head that they wish somebody would make, a mashup of the best parts of different games that they’ve enjoyed in the past. One of mine would have lots of bright colors, cool robots, and interesting RPG mechanics, and it’d borrow some of the elements of Stardew Valley like creative housing and some of the “endless game” mechanics.
I have to say, Lynked: Banner of the Spark is the closest to that dream game I’ve played in a long time.
Perhaps unsurprising given that I work here, my dream game would also be an MMORPG, but Lynked comes close, as it is a roguelike RPG with online co-op. Its story is nothing to write home about – humans ruined the planet, evil AI took over, you are one of the last humans who is part of a rebel alliance with good-guy robots, etc. etc., stock sci-fi stuff – but the characters are cute and memorable, so I’m willing to give it a pass.
If the name Lynked sounds familiar, you may recall reading my esteemed colleague Sam’s preview while the game was in early access. Developer FuzzyBot has finally deemed it ready for prime time, with its 1.0 launch set to premier May 22nd, but the studio gave us a sneak peek at the full launch version.
Visually, the whole game reminds me a lot of Wildstar. Everything is clean and candy-colored, animations are snappy, and the character designs are charming. I find the neon, toy-like sci-fi look incredibly refreshing in a genre inundated with grimdark fantasy games.
Upon starting for the first time, you create a character and are quickly paired up with a robot (rather on-the-nose-edly named Buddy) who attaches himself to your arm and gives you access to the Wyre, which is essentially a robotic grappling hook that can grab objects or enemies to throw them around. The Wyre is used in a variety of clever ways, such as gathering materials and even fishing.
Combat is a little button-mashy, but there are enough ways to customize your loadout — from weapon types, to special attacks, to grappler upgrades — that I didn’t tire of it. I do wish the enemies were a little more varied, but learning their patterns and behaviors is essential to success, so maybe it’s for the best that they are limited.
In typical roguelike fashion, levels in Lynked are procedurally generated, with various random enemies and loot scattered throughout. A lot of roguelikes end up with either strictly grid-based maps made out of tiles or else pre-built map chunks stuck together at random such that you end up recognizing them as you see them over and over, but I was impressed by how organic the levels in Lynked feel. Only occasionally did I feel as if I had been in a map chunk before, and I was looking for it.
What sets Lynked apart from your standard roguelike is the town/base building element. After finishing the tutorial, you are presented with a large plot of land and various buildings and decorations you can place and arrange to your heart’s content. Think Animal Crossing with robots. There is a shop that sells a handful of randomly selected decorations, and you can craft quite a bit more. Harvesting nodes are scattered all over the zone. At first your base feels vast and empty, but don’t worry; various shopkeepers and villagers – all robots, of course – will start to populate your town as you rescue them during missions. And as you build friendship with them, you will gain various rewards and even go on quests for them.
While I’m primarily a keyboard-and-mouse gamer, there are certain games that just beg to be played with a controller. I was surprised that this was one of them. From screenshots, Lynked looks like a Diablo-like clicker ARPG, but it isn’t exactly. Everything feels very controller-first.
For instance, some menus, such as the base-building interface, must be navigated with the keyboard rather than mouse clicks. This may annoy some of the more hardcore PC gamers among us, but the older I get, the more I’m favoring the controller for games that support it well; keeping the functions of a dozen-or-so buttons straight in my head is a lot easier than trying to remember what key does what in this game, or worse, spending a good deal of my precious playtime fiddling with remapping this game’s controls to feel more like some other game.
To me, the coolest part of this game is the wide variety of weapons you can find. Sure, there are swords, spears, hammers, and even blasters, but some there are also some really unique options. An electric guitar with massive sound AoEs, Wolverine-style claws, throwable spinning deathblades, and even a hoverboard – excuse me, battleboard – that deals damage by running enemies over and doing tricks. Actually, looking at the last three on that list, I would be shocked if none of the devs ever played WildStar.
Speaking of weapon types, FuzzyBot kindly provided me with a code for the Battle Ready supporter pack DLC, in addition to a key for the game, so that I could check that out too. The pack comes with a variety of nifty cosmetics for your character and town, as well as a unique set of all of the weapons. It was nice to start off with access to all of the weapon types so I could try them all out right away, but I certainly wouldn’t call this pack essential. The stats on the DLC weapons are identical to the most basic weapons you will unlock through early questing, except that they start with one mod already attached. I guess you could complain that that’s a bit pay-to-win – not that you will be competing with anyone – but you will “outlevel” them pretty quickly. It’s a bit of convenience for the early game, and they do look pretty spiffy. Is that worth $10? That’s your call, I suppose.
I also liked the variety of ways you can acquire weapons. Sure, there are many you can unlock by doing quests for the blacksmith as you might expect, but fishing and farming also reward unique weapons. For instance, the hammer my character is wielding in the header is called the Whale Whacker, which requires a specific, rare robot fish called a Whaletron to craft.
I was able to hop into a multiplayer game this week alongside MOP’s Sam, so I can opine on that too. The process was pretty straightforward: I chose multiplayer from the title screen, then I opened up my game to friends, and he was able to hop right into my town from the same screen on his end. Then we jumped into a level. It was just that simple. Neither of us experienced any noticeable lag or rubber banding or the like. I was a little disappointed that there was no chat, neither text or voice, built into the game, but I guess everyone is going to do all that over Discord anyway.
While the game is launching on Xbox and PlayStation alongside the PC’s 1.0 release, it looks like cross-platform play won’t be possible, though it’s apparently not out of the question for the future. As Sam mentioned in his early access preview, there is no couch co-op, only online, which is a bit of a shame.
Of course, while the game is clearly built for co-op, not all of us will have friends willing to buy the game and play it with us. This is why, at a certain point in the story, you will unlock the Battle Companions station, which allows you to enlist one of your townspeople (townsbots?) to accompany you on your run. Each bot has a different style. Personally, I like having a personal pocket healer follow me around, but the brawler also helps take some heat off.
I had a lot of fun playing Lynked. Roguelikes don’t always click with me because I like a sense of progression in my games, and roguelikes are all about giving you temporary power as the run goes on and then taking it away when you die. Often, between-level upgrades are more about unlocking the possibility of getting better stuff on your next run rather than giving it to you right now. Lynked does a fantastic job of balancing that randomness with concrete, persistent changes after each run, even if it’s just a new villager wandering your town or the resources you needed to craft that decoration you’ve been wanting to put in your town square.
It’s a game I plan on coming back to and probably talking my friends into playing with me. It may not be an MMORPG, but it definitely scratches that exploration, crafting, and character progression itch that so few games outside the MMORPG genre do.
