Vellum

an enjoyable roguelike experience, only downside is not enough online players to get multiplayer sessions going.

As someone who defeated all 3 raids and all tomes I must say: + game is worth 18-20 hours of fun (depending on your skill) + each book level has a unique mechanic + spells feel amazing + signature spells each have their own flavor although some of them are completely worthless when compared to others (blue signature spell sucks absolute c*ck) + FIRST RAID WAS FREAKING AWESOME, EACH BOSS WAS HARD even on a normal difficulty, has a multiple blend of mechanics that just overlap like they need to (if u are a long term WoW player the first raid will give you some of the best experiences in this game) Despite all that praise I still have ONE MAJOR issue... First of all, I don't know the entire story, maybe developers saw that not that many players can clear the first raid or they just went of out ideas... BUT SECOND AND THE THIRD RAIDS ARE JUST THE DEFINITION OF THE GAME JOURNALIST DIFFICULTY... mechanics take 1-3 minutes to figure out (even without reading the book inside), some bosses are...

It's quite short for a roguelike and there's not a lot of variety. The concept was great, and it was fun with friends but the content is just not there. Right when you feel like you're really in control of what you're doing, you've seen it all.

Reminiscent of wizard of legend and risk of rain 2 gameplay wise but definitely its own thing with polished combat and movement along with a very nice aesthetic

As much as it pains me, I cant give a positive review as of now. The game has AMAZING concept for a rougelike but unlike other rougelikes i played, this one feels too short/small. When you get to play for 3 hours like I did you begin to feel like you already have seen it all. The mechanic concepts that i like and pulled me into this game were: You can choose your build and Out of "dungeons" build upgrading. Which the game undercooked on both those concepts. You indeed can choose your own spells and skills and have some type of "build customizing" with choosing upgrades for your build BUT... There is too little of main and secondary spells (or as the game callls them Generator and Spender) and movement spells and they feel bland at that. And abilities or as the game calls them Signature Inks are an AMAZING concept for characters in a rougelike. Every single one work and feel completly different but it fails at customizing them. Signature inks outside of dungeons can be upgrated by ...

Could be fun. It's interesting. But the combat feels really bad as does the movement. Trying to do any of the jump challenges will make you want to pull your hair out.

Ok.. so I went into this game not expecting too much. I was thinking it would be one that I would enjoy for an hour or so and put down, like most other rogue-likes... But man. I bought it last night, and as of right now have only played for 2.9 hours. There were SO MANY TIMES I found myself saying out loud 'This game is SO cool!' It's very much reminiscent of Risk of Rain 2, but with it's own twists. The abilities? Great! Using ink and the fact that you play as a pen? WTactualF, that's awesome! Progression system is neatly in place. There is SO much already available. If you have looked at the price tag, and debated, please allow this review to seep into the deep crevices of your mind, and pick up the game. I don't think you'll be very disappointed at all!

Meh

I don't remember hearing about Vellum anywhere before Steam pushed it to my recommendations, citing Roboquest as a similar title. It's a highly-competently-designed third-person roguelite shooter with a surprising amount of quality of life features and little cosmetic flourishes, some you might not even find in other quality examples of roguelite shooters. It's got up to four player coop, which you won't find in Roboquest (limited to 2 player) or Ziggurat 2, Immortal Redneck or Battle Shapers (No coop whatsoever). It's got the ability to reconnect to a multiplayer run in progress if you get dropped, which I haven't seen in ANY coop roguelites. Vellum casts the players as wizards of pen and ink, the Scribes of an endless magical library, whose tomes are gateways to worlds of fiction brought to life, but are threatened by dark creatures known as the Torn. The tomes kept in this libary act as the various rogue runs, each with unique gameplay mutators. A choice of ink color acts as your c...

Very good learning curve. Feels rewarding to understand game mechanics. Amazing style. Interesting progression system with no micro transaction. Only downside is the absence of wiki. Will most likely sink another 30-40 hours into it this week.