Vellum

Very pleasantly surprised with this game. There are soo many different mechanics, variety, and progression that will keep you entertained for hours. I love the art style, environment, and overall theme of the game, it’s all very unique. If you like rogue-likes, please give this game a try, it deserves so much more attention.

It's kinda insane how much stuff is in this game. Will keep you entertained for many hours highly recommend

Very fun, well thought out controls. Still a few tweaks needed, but it is still in early access. Lots of replay with different classes and even play styles within. I have loved it so far.

The game is pretty fun for the first few hours, but the going from difficulty0 -> difficulty 20+, there is really no tangible change. The meta-debuffs you choose for yourself are negligible and barely noticed, and the buffs you give the enemies feel similar. Too much happens on the screen because of the black/white coloring of the enemies that makes them hard to identify as more and more enemies spawn.

Game ends up becoming 'aoe the thing, dance around to not die or just go leech build and dont die while the entire map hits you'.

The game has a lot of 'passive/conditional' buffs, way more than things that make your active skills feel different and play differently:
"Consecutive hits do bonus damage"
"Full mana = more damage"
"Empty shield or full shield = more damage"
"Press your skill, and this thing happens"

Nothing groundbreaking here like Gunfire Reborn where a build can feel vastly different game to game because there are core impact skills that modify how you'd play - this game is hold left click, click right click.

The skill concepts and the 'levels' are unique, and the game has potential but if the core loop is cemented as what it is now, I'd recc against buying it.

good game

This game has got one flaw and it's its gameplay. It's slippery and it's impossible to tell where you're getting hurt from. But, otherwise, the book and ink theme is really amazing and the powers are interesting with the colored inks and the different mechanics. Plus, there's co-op. If the gameplay was tighter, it'd probably one of the best roguelites out there.

PS: I'm not a fan of roguelites that make you choose a bad bonus every round. It's tedious.

fun shooting, enemies are dodge-able. each level has some sort of mechanical/rule change going on, which quickly leads to having a bunch of options for how to play.

my only noteworthy issue is that some of the ability/spell descriptions are far less clear than i would want them to be.
they're also not particularly consistent in amount of detail (example being one upgrade that says [paraphrasing] "a chance to fire an extra thing" and a different one that says "a n% chance to fire a different extra thing")

worth noting that it's entirely possible the upcoming 1.0 release helps out with this in some fashion

Very fun rogue-like. Pick perks rather than stats. So far, game feels like there's a ton of content and it's not even 1.0.

Based

Get Wish

"When killed by an enemy, revive and erase the attacking foe"

Die intentionally to the boss

Instant one shot

Great implementation, 10/10

In all seriousness: It's a game with a wide diversity of mechanics that is kind of too easy in co-op. We've gotten to Attunement 12 so far, and not died once.
Runs are fast (about 20 minutes) but we spend more time reading than actually playing since the mechanics change so often.

Really great roguelike so far I love how much you can customize your loadout, there are so many modifiers to change the game, it feels challenging but not unfair in any way, and unlocking everything so far has felt really satisfying and addicting. 9/10 Keep up the amazing work.

very easy and fun to play with friends

I've spent not a lot of time here and didn't scratch the surface of every ability available in-game (and co-op as well), but I already can tell that this a very nice roguelike entry :]
The world and premise is very unique and feels very polished, almost everything is based around books and writing, so much thought put into it. Abilities are fun to use, combining different primary, secondary, ult and even dash is fun and motivates you to experiment with them more, which adds a lot of replayability. Don't get me started on different perks that come with each ult and tome (weapon) you carry with you into the fight.

Only couple of negative things for me as of now:

• Enemy attacks mostly not well communicated - you can't, most of the time, predict where and when enemy hits you. I get it that by the end of the run you experience Risk of Rain kind of chaos when you cannot pin-point who and how damages you, but it's somewhat annoying at eraly stages.
  
[*]I tend to get bumped and stuck a lot in map terrain. With this style of a game when you're moving backwards and sideways so you can aim at enemies - you mostly don't look where you are moving - and not getting stuck in random rock formation is very crucial in heat of the battle. That's why I am not a fan of very tight maps with lots of obstacles.

An awesome experience that remains a hidden gem in Steam's arena shooter genre. With its variety of monsters, skills, and abilities, combined with high replayability, Vellum is one of the most exciting games I have had the chance to play.

Highly recommend this game if you like Rouge like game play. Insanely talented developers and i look forward to more of this game.

Really wanted to like the game but as it stands there are a few major issues.

Game is far too easy. With the default loadout I was blazing through levels and killing the final bosses in just a few seconds. Never had a single moment where I feared dying or struggled to kill an enemy.

The artwork is visual vomit. All the enemies are grey/white energy with a black outline. All of their projectiles and attacks are grey/white energy. You can't tell what is coming from who. Enemies just turn into a huge blob on the screen with no telling anything apart. Big boss attacks just light up the whole screen and have zero clarity of where they are going to hit. Really makes the game lack any fun or engagement. There's very little room for skill expression with dodging or target priority. Most abilities are either extremely difficult to see, or are homing projectiles that hit you no matter what. Gameplay quickly devolves into walking backwards while spamming abilities towards the grey blob of enemies for a minute or two per stage.

I can't get over how fun this game is. The devs are being modest with the EA tag this feels like a full release. Highly recommend

Very full game for early access! tons of different abilities to mix and match your play style with. Lots of different events and unique scenarios to discover. and multiplayer! Would HIGHLY reccomend this for some good ol fun.

This is a really solid roguelike.
I appreciate that it hands you an insane amount of stuff to play with right at the start (classes, abilities, etc.) and let's you get super creative before you even start playing and unlocking even more stuff.
Really excited to see where this goes on its way to 1.0.

This is def one of my favorite roguelikes, looking forward to future updates

This is a great game, that just Keeps, getting, updates!
Good gameplay loop, original powers. And even after 50 hours i still find things that suprise me. (new powers or unlocks etc. )
Great for co-op play.

Playing it with a friend and having a lot of fun. Love all the updates so far.

Just not very good

Probably the fastest I've ever come to liking a Roguelike. The game feels fast paced, you have important choices to make every run, and it feels fresh. Not sure why this isn't more popular.

highly enjoyable

Nice game

Genuinely one of the best roguelikes I've ever had the pleasure of playing.

please remove parkour, its so awful and unfun.

This is a great hidden gem for roguelike enjoyers.

The writing theme is neat and very well executed, I love the names of enemies/abilities/effects that all relate to different concepts of books, authors and art in general.
The abilities are varied and fun, and all offer their own way of scaling and powering up.
There's fun synergies to be had with different inks when you play co-op and everyone can run their own build without hindering each other's abilities.
Having to pick not only buffs for the group but also buffs for enemies makes for fun replayability, although some are definitely way better to pick in pretty much every situation.

My ONLY gripes with the game are:
- Objectives (like orbs to collect) sometimes spawning right outside the map (seems reachable, but invisible wall prevents us from getting it)
- Some events being a little buggy (big tower where we knock on door: a friend and I pushed each other in, leaving the door closed and preventing our 3rd friend from entering and claiming the tower; we ended up stuck in it but I could teleport (not flutterstep, the other shorter one w/ 2 charges) through the door and my friend had to climb to a window (run would have been softlocked if he didn't have empowered quip that pulls him forward))
- And my biggest of them: visual clarity can be garbage for enemies. Multiple times we'll be wondering what we died from and what's dealing damage. Events like Stoplight are so hard to notice that they're obnoxious to bring since you have to stare at the bottom of your screen to make sure you're not about to get penalized, making you walk into more and more enemy attacks. Bosses will sometimes instantly spawn a bunch of stuff behind you that will two-tap you if you're not aware how they work/not fast enough to get away from them).

BUT with the game being in early access and us having so much fun with it already, I still very much recommend it if you like number-go-up gameplay.

An absolute treat! If you enjoyed the tone and flavor of Inkbound but wanted realtime gameplay, better run consistency, and a much cooler power system? If you wanted Risk of Rain 2 to stop being a hell-failure living in the abyss? If you just like running around slinging goofy spells with friends? For all those reasons and more, this is a wonderful game.

System-wise, I am loving a lot of the concepts here. Your character is a collection of diverse and distinct pieces, namely a Signature Color, a resource builder, a resource spender, and a mobility skill. All 4 of these can be mixed as you see fit, and the game supports some very wild combinations. Colors give you a defined gimmick (consistent predictable crits, damage over time with near-infinite stacks, a summonable turret, a permanent pet, etc) and a signature cooldown spell, and then all your other skills are subtly twisted to fit: Literally dyed in that color. Builders feel crisp and strong, not like a penalty you have to put up with because you're OoM. Spenders are impactful, doubly so when colored, and the mobility tools all seem to be pulling their weight.

So far my only real complaints are that, despite the 3rd-person camera, it can be easy to get surrounded without really knowing there's danger on your blind side. Some better alerting (before damage impacts) would be appreciated, but I do know that also just comes down to situational awareness and game knowledge.

All told, this is an easy and unconditional recommend from me!

1000% would recommend trying it out or at least keep an eye onit if you Love games like risk of rain where you're shooting and making different kinds of builds,and yes there is an endless mode after completing the third tome, not gona spoil the rest of the stuff but enjoyed every second of this after the tutorial. (plus 100 points to devs for making the tutorial short and sweet)

Right off the bat what I like:
-Multiple "Classes" known in game as Signature Inks
-Spells for almost everyone, even melee
-Loadouts so you don't have to labor over switching builds
-Easy unlocking of all the spells
-Customization options beyond just coloration
-Personalized roguelite upgrades depending on your build
-Enemies get stronger but I get to choose how, not just rng
-Plenty of ridiculous combinations of upgrades to be OP
-Missions are typically 2 kill arenas followed by a unique breather
-Bosses at the end of each "Book" to provide a challenge
-Difficulty system where you can choose debuffs/challenges for more rewards

Things that seemed odd but are fine:
-A large number of the Robes are just the same outfit with different colors or materials
(The Heads and Tomes are at least more distinctive)
-Not all spells are made equally; some feel like they could use more range or lower costs
(Conversely, there are plenty of spells that are fine as is, or that can even feel busted)
-The difficulty system "Bindings" limits the rewards you get if you Bind above your Binding level
(You can very easily increase the Binding level by clearing a Book at your current max Binding)

I don't think I've played enough of the game yet to warrant discussing things that are bad or that need change, so until then, I can say with certainty that this is a fantastic game. I love the atmosphere and the unspoken world-building you can find in scrolls through out the missions. Multiple characters have written them, narrating a background in their own unique dialogues. I also just love the flow of the game, its a delight to play and feels well optimized for such a stylized game. Casting the spells feels fun and I've already got 3 separate loadouts because I WANT to experiment more with the Signature Inks and Spells! I haven't felt this way about a newer game in a long time so I'm pretty happy, and I hope you have fun with the game too.

Hidden Gem. Hours of enjoyment. Compelling and significant combinations and build options. Upgrades feel rewarding.

Highly recommend. Tell your friends to get it and play it with you. 9/10 game. Can't wait to see the future updates.

Crazy game full of crazy enjoyment. If you want to experience hours of fun and discovering broken combos that make your jaw drop, then this is the game for you. It is action packed and loaded with endless content to be discovered. I would greatly recommend getting this game and telling your friends to as well.

9/10 fun game. Play the game.

book gigachad

NOT WORTH $20 - Vellum's a pretty standard gaming affair covered in black and white blobs. What I mean to say is the art direction here really leaves something to be desired. The lore would have you believe there is this fanciful world you're destined to save but the levels are so uninspiring. The enemies lack any sort of distinction or characteristics which set them apart from dull/ lifeless backgrounds. When you couple that with the fact that your "heroes" starting outfits are all dark caster robes, it's easy to lose yourself in a game that's simply a "3d reverse bullethell" where the object is to shoot as much as possible while dodging the enemies that spawn behind you.

Let's compare this enemy design to a game like Kingdom Hearts where the backgrounds are vibrant. The heartless (aka shadow creatures) were completely black in KH and yet completely distinguishable from the player and his party. These shadow enemies made it clear to the player not only what it is they are attacking but what it was they were saving. Now I do think it's unfair to expect a Kingdom Hearts-esque art team from a game that doesn't have the rights to Mickey Mouse, this is just the clearest example where color played a huge role in the design of "colorless" monsters.

Vellum has potential. The game mechanics themselves have decent qualities; jumping works, attacking works, figuring out builds that work for you are the simple things I personally enjoy as a gamer. And while there is a little bit of a learning curve, the controls are solid. You may have issues like one build fits all scenarios but those are things you can tweak as the community figures out the meta. I think if the publisher focused on tweaking their enemy designs so that enemies are more fun to kill, that will introduce more variety into the ways your player base wants to figure out how to kill them.

OVERALL 6/10 - needs work, support if you like but $20 is way too much for a game that doesn't even have public matchmaking yet. Developers need to stop making players fund their half-thought projects. This is a good idea, not a finished one.

When i first started playing the game, I was expecting something like risk of rain (of no fault of the dev's branding it that way) and was a little dissapointed by what turned out to be more of an arena shooter with few abilities (a movement, an "auto attack" and a "spell" with a "class" specific ability.

after some playing and earning unlocks, I quickly learned what looked simple was actually a frantic and hilariously scaling roguelite with tons of potential for builds. been playing in coop and having a blast. after almost 25 hours, theres still over 100 power's still to unlock and i havent even tried every class.

any roguelite that can have me laughing out loud about the build i've assembled is doing it right.

Fun, fast-paced gameplay with synergistic builds, all in a charming artstyle. Definitiely recommend.

This is such a hidden gem

Haven't got a lot of time on the game but from what I've played I am really enjoying it and having a lot of fun ! Loving the variations and combinations you can have, it gives the game a lot of replay ability. I can't wait to watch this game grow, I think the devs have something really good here !

yes

Satisfying roguelite game loop and really cool art style. It's pretty fun building combos in the loadouts between unique spell behavior and ink mechanics. Also the spells are just all amusing. Summoning planets, rolling dice, launching anchors, etc. The difficulty scaling is unique too, adding more and more effects to play around instead of just "enemies have moar stats". Overall feels like lots to keep me entertained.

Really good game. Lots to do for early access and damn does it feel good to go with teal ink and just spam a shit ton of missiles.

The combat gameplay is decent but in my opinion, overly simplistic, there's not much you can do other than shoot and move. There's so much potential here to add more dynamics, it plays a bit like an FPS without that extra oomph.

In regards to game style/user interface, it's a top tier title. However, I think it would be a lot more immersive if the avatars looked more humanoid (mages with faces, hair, and feet, stylistic robes, personality and voices, etc.) and one could personalize them. Currently, it's too anonymized.

At this point, I'd say 6.5/10, will perhaps change later as updates come.

I originally picked up this game because someone mentioned it being somewhat similar to Risk of Rain 2. I'm so glad that I did.

Imagine playing RoR2, but you don't have to commit to 2 hours for a decent run. You don't have to fight your teammates for loot. You're not playing beat the clock every round.

The biggest endorsement I can give this game is that it takes the spirit of RoR2, distills it into intense 20 minute runs, has lots of variety in terms of builds, and doesn't lock classes behind obscure challenges.

I'm a handful of hours in and I'm constantly unlocking new things and having a blast. Absolutely worth a purchase whether it's on sale or not.

yuh yuh yuh

super fun magic combat game, would recommend to anybody who likes action roguelikes

Disclaimer: I only got half an our in this game but already feel like i need to let people know about my first impressions because i dont think they will change alot the more i play.

I had Vellum on my list for a while now and always saw it as this rough unfinished mediocre game with potential.
And i honestly dont know where this came from ...
During the sale i took a closer look watching some videos and it looked awesome and fun - so i bought it.

Vellum has a beautiful artstyle and really is its own thing in the genre with own terms and ... it feels like its own little universe. The ui is fun and engaging, performance is good, game feels good and smooth and development is still very active.

On sale i definately recommend it right now! Cant wait to hop back in :-)

Fun rogue-like that is updated extremely frequently. Deserves way more attention honestly.

I came to Vellum looking for an alternative to Risk of Rain 2 with shorter run-times - and am pleasantly surprised so far.

The game is remarkably polished and packed with content for an early-access indie title. Its book-themed world is both adorable and fully realized, with a gorgeous art style that shows incredible attention to detail.

It leans more into co-op than Risk of Rain 2, though I haven’t tested this yet. Beyond what the RoR2 offers, it also includes rogue-lite elements, with strict vertical progression outside of runs and plenty of build-crafting potential. Whether you're customizing your free-form character classes outside of runs or experimenting with synergies during them, the systems feel deep and satisfying.

It’s also less of a RoR2 clone than I initially expected, almost feeling more like a survivor-like / Bullet-Heaven or even an third-person ARPG.

Regardless, it’s a recommended experience already.