Mixing together the basic elements that go into classic ARPG gameplay with the loot-filled danger of dungeon crawling is the team over at Ronimo Games. Initially shown off by Devolver Digital, Blightbound went from the Devolverland Expo experience to Steam’s Early Access in no time. While you got a small taste of it from that free marketing simulator, the full experience from playing the early access is what truly showed me that this is a title that fans of ARPG should keep their eye on.
Gameplay
Starting out is a bit rough because you won’t be able to pick your character class and it will be left up to a random selection. At first, this was annoying, but it does turn out to be a good idea because the classes don’t each play exactly how you expect. As someone who never enjoyed playing the warrior class, I found it to be one of my favorite options of the three, but I still end up preferring my mage. Once you level up your home base a bit you will unlock the ability to select your fighter.
Your home base has everything you would expect it to have. Starting off you only have essentially a resting area and a home, but as you level up you earn points that can be used to unlock things such as blacksmiths. With the home base gaining levels and you earning points from your, hopefully successful, looting trips, you will be able to set up a full campsite however you see best fits.
As for leveling up, it is completely based on the character and not the class. As you continue to progress through various dungeons, you will start unlocking other heroes that you can play as. However, these heroes will not be gaining any experience when not in use. If the hero is at your home base, it is not leveling up essentially. You will have to focus on leveling up each character as you build your base and fighter up. That means using the same hero over and over, even if another one of the same class comes along - unless you really want to switch and work on a different hero.
When it comes to the ARPG elements, they are completely in the actual dungeon crawling aspect of the game. Once your location has been selected via voting with your teammates, you will be thrown into a dark area with multiple pathways and a clear objective. Here you will have to fight your way through various waves and oncoming enemies in order to progress. Fighting has a basic attack, two super attacks that have a cooldown, and a super which also has a cooldown. Each fighters attacks and supers are different, so know your character. You can also dodge by dashing, unless you are the mage then you are actually teleporting. The dodge does have a cooldown but is handy in a fight against multiple enemies.
Everything that you loot can either be sold or equipped to your various heroes. I like to set each hero up with valuable items that are worth using just in case I end up being different heroes. Since this game is based on a 3-man team and each member can not be the same class as each other, there will be times that you can’t be your favorite hero and so you should be prepared for that.
Expectations
My main complaint with this game is the 3-man team mandatory set up it has. While the dungeons are made for 3-man squads to enter and fight our way through together, I don’t see why there isn’t an option to go solo or as a 2-man team. The forced team size makes this game limiting and somewhat agitating for those that just want to play with a friend or by themselves as it forces you to work with a random.
Furthering my issue with being forced to work with a random teammate, often times this teammate would be a much higher level than anybody else in the party so it would end up just being us running behind the random as they do all the killing. This isn’t fun and needs to be fixed. Put a level range system in place so that similar levels team up together and only a direct invite to a friend can override that option.
I do hope to see more fighting moves added to the game so that players have a chance to customize their heroes to have specific fighting options at the ready. Sure, the initial set up isn’t bad, but having a few choices to work with and being able to update your attacks and super would be a great way to improve the overall experience. This gives players the satisfaction of making it through on their own skills and choices alone.
Conclusion
Blightbound is entertaining and off on the right foot without a doubt! There are some things they could update to make the game better, but I have fun every time I get on and am able to load up with some proper randoms. I definitely look forward to seeing what more they will be adding to the game and what kind of changes they have planned for the future of its development.
