We often long for the good old days when polygon counts were like, three, and the internet was something we didn’t have access to because it was too expensive. We also have a painful nostalgia for games we played in simpler times, and two of the best of those were Dark Cloud and Dark Chronicle. These games were RPGs where you had to go out and take pictures of things, beat up baddies, and then build up a hometown or two. The disparate ideas fit together perfectly, and no game has come close to hitting that specific target like Lynked: Banner of the Spark.
Lynked has you taking up resistance in a world overrun with robots. Thankfully, you are not alone as you have a friendly robot called Buddy, who can become different weapons, plus the friendly robots you rescue and whoever you decide to play co-op with. You go out on mini-roguelike missions to fight the Combit threat – upgrading your gear for that particular mission – before returning with new materials, friendly bots, and weapon blueprints.
As you get into it, you get more and more abilities. You can start to use your Wyre – a sort of grappling hook – to grab an enemy, pull yourself towards them in a slide tackle, fly kick them, or swing them around you before slamming them down. As for the weapons themselves, there are ten different classes, each of which has multiple variations for special attacks and unique mods. It’s just a lot of customisation and makes Lynked: Banner of the Spark feel awesome.
Not only is Lynked cute and a lot of fun to play, but it also has a nice mix of downtime, with the base building and chatting providing a perfect breather between the fast-action sections and some surprisingly challenging bosses and enemy types. It’s a great little game, and as it has only just been released in Early Access, it’s surely only going to get better over time.
