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Blightbound Preview: A Co-Op Dungeon Crawler Brawler
Three friends, some action-packed RNG, and a whole lot of loot makes for a compelling dungeon dive in Blightbound, the new Devolver-published action-RPG/brawler hybrid which hits Steam Early Access this week. Boasting familiar qualities to MMOs and Diablo-likes mixed with a beat’em-up-styled sensibility and some devious traps, Blightbound could end up as the perfect seduction for committed loothounds, but the current build is fraught with an array of bugs and some prickly online requirements that may prove challenging to early adopters. For those taken with its dark art style and cooperative tactics, though, this could be one to look out for as it grows, but single-player stalwarts need not apply.
Blightbound looks terrific in motion, with a hand-animated style for characters set against familiar fantasy 3D backdrops. The trinity of classes in the game – rogue, mage, and warrior – represent a constant team unit concept, with one player taking on each role every run. Rogues have cooldowns that emphasize high DPS, AOE poison, and subterfuge, lending large damage bonuses for sneaking behind enemies and backstabbing. The mage is able to output quite a bit of damage as well, but seems most useful as the party’s healer, whereas the warrior can tank blows with their shield and deal heavy damage with their extra-large ultimate ability.
The synergy of this trio is the direct heart of the game, and Blightbound rewards camaraderie and careful play, especially on its higher (and reward-rich) difficulty levels. Gameplay is relegated to specific discrete dungeons, with players voting on level and difficulty, reaping better gear for tougher runs, then deposited back to a hub area where they can level up and purchase or craft items. The usual town like one might find in Diablo or Torchlight is a kind of jarring, scrollable map called the “Refuge” here, rather than a rendered environment to explore, which does give Blightbound’s hub a weirdly disconnected quality at first blush.
It's for a good reason, though. Instead of picking a specific character to dump all time and resources in, Blightbound considers the player as a manager of the Refuge’s growing roster of heroes. At first, there’s no way to even pick the specific class you prefer playing, which is a bold and possibly off-putting decision that does have its purpose as well: the game wants players to have a basic understanding of how each role functions in the game. Stomping through dungeons in a straight line or lone-wolfing will inevitably lead to an early death, and even though players can resurrect each other mid-battle, it’s a tricky maneuver that takes uninterrupted time. Blightbound isn’t a game for an Overwatch Widow main who just wants to be off doing their own thing and ignoring the larger fracas, but rather a team player who realizes what’s best for the group. Additionally, heroes are regularly afflicted with "Blight," which can require that they be replaced by alternates for upcoming runs, similar somewhat to a similar mechanic in Children of Morta.
It’s a bold philosophy that, it must be said, may threaten to kill the game before it has a chance. New players will undoubtedly be confused that they cannot pick their starting role (currently, role selection is unlocked at experience level 9). Additionally, loot drops in a level are not prioritized to the currently selected character, so it’s entirely possibly to run through a dungeon with a present favorite but only find drops for second-stringers.
Another reason, though unmentioned, might feed this forced-class decision: queueing. Blightbound has absolutely no single-player function outside of its brief tutorial, and the developers don’t appear receptive to adding one at this time. Randomizing player roles for the initial hours of the game will probably help find a game for players who queue in public lobbies, making it so that early players definitely have to tank, whether they want to or not. It seems unusual that there doesn’t exist even a bot function or anything of the like to fill-in roster gaps, so it should be made very clear: this is a game for three players, and three players only.
The combat in Blightbound takes a little getting used to, and video of combat doesn’t accurately communicate its tactical nature. This is absolutely not a Streets of Rage clone, and playing it like one will lead to defeat on anything higher than moderate difficulty – particularly painful when realizing that loot is only retained after successful runs. The persistent online nature doesn’t help here either, with DC’d players sending the remaining team back to the Refuge, usually emptyhanded. In a hyphenated word: rage-inducing.
When everything DOES click, though, preferably with a team of friends, there’s a lot to recommend. Dungeons are full of baddies to blow through and tough huge bosses who require reflex-ready skills, not just epic gear. The mage uses mana orbs to heal the party, and other players can zip off to retrieve them from slain enemies mid-combat, adding a constant feeling of team support that is unusual for a game like this. Levels also feature a slew of spike traps, laser wires, and fun puzzles, all of which feel more vibrant and chaotically entertaining to resolve as a team. Looter-shooters are often fixated on sending wave after wave of enemies as the sole means of progression, but interrupting the action to present alternate paths or a laser-filled elevator reveals Blightbound’s unique and commendable approach.
Unfortunately, those taken with this gameplay mix will inevitably run into some of Blightbound’s bugs (as a repeated but necessary reminder: the game is launching in Early Access). The developers are indeed active on their Discord channel and are constantly improving the game, day by day, but there wasn’t a single session absent of at least one unpleasant surprise. Things like weapon and gear disappearing upon equipping or crafting, game freezes at the end of a level – in one session, this required a player to disconnect, sacrificing their own loot, while the other two were kicked back to the Refuge with treasures luckily intact – and several other rather infuriating snags.
There are some brief tutorials and tooltips to get started, but there remains a lack of helpful, coherent information available to new players. Better methods to learn the game and bug squashing will probably be patched along the way, but a bad bout of luck could really damage a player’s first impression of the game, which is a worrying consideration for a new persistently online release. It also doesn’t help that some enemy effects look much too similar to player abilities, which can make a frantic fight against a boss more confusing than intended, but that’s another aspect that will probably be tweaked on the road to a v1.0 launch.
Our preview experience featured several attempts to use a PlayStation 4 controller, though some issue caused it to repeatedly disconnect and revert to keyboard and mouse. This meant that most playtime was spent using the latter input, which seems less than ideal (though it does make cooldown abilities easier to activate). For those married to their PS4 controller, it might be wise to wait until any of these bugs are taken care of, and maybe the controller input itself gets refined.
Blightbound does have its charms, and those looking to sink into a deep instanced loot-rich ARPG will find a lot of the right checkboxes ticked. It doesn’t look like many games in its field, and some timely tweaks may bring it up to must-play status, but players will find that generous patience is probably required for its Early Access phase. With two other friends on board and available, players should find plenty of dungeon crawling joy, but anyone hesitant to commit to a game in development may want to wait for a few updates first.
