We know there are a lot of roguelikes, but it’s still always worth highlighting the ones that either do something new and exciting or just feel good to play. Vellum manages to do both of those things and on top of that, also looks absolutely fantastic thanks to its inky art style and fountain pen protagonists.
Given its fondness for calligraphical objects, it should come as no surprise that Vellum tasks you with fighting your way through different books. Each book is divided into chapters and each chapter comes with its unique rewards that you can unlock along the way. Some of these will be things like allowing your tome-bound wolf companions to use special attacks, while others are quests you need to complete to unlock new buffs.
You’ve then also got your spell buffs and tweaks too. You start with only one movement, one special, and one standard spell and you can unlock more of these as you progress. Each of these can be changed and upgraded as you complete different levels, or as you overcome specific enemies or find hidden objectives. On top of that, you’ve got signature ink colours to utilise. You begin with a blue one, which is a damage-over-time effect and you can unlock new ones as you progress, like the yellow one that allows for critical hits, or the red one that lets you steal the life of your enemies.
And to build on things even further, you have to choose buffs to bestow on your enemies as you progress. You get to pick your poison and make things harder for yourself or choose the one that’s going to be the least awkward to deal with, adding a lovely layer of strategy into the mix. The systems all wrap around each other to make for a truly exceptional action roguelike. Plus, and this is one of our favourite bits, it’s also co-op!
Vellum is currently available in Early Access, but it’s already changed substantially in the two months since its launch, so we can’t wait to see how it keeps evolving.
