Backpack hero managed to be a masterpiece and a complete mess of a game at the same time, culminating in what is possibly my most frustrated experience in a long time.
Imagine you play a roguelite like Slay the Spire, Enter the Gungeon, Binding of Isaac or Risk of Rain. You start a run, you have fun, you unlock things along the way depending on your actions. It's great, it's a fun time. Now imagine, in-between every run, if you want to unlock anything or even see later levels of the game, you have to run across a huge open field, talk to 10 NPCs randomly scattered along the map (the game won't tell you which one you need or in what order), sit through endless repetitive dialogue that goes nowhere about how your dad thinks it's dangerous to go into the cave over and over and over again. Not only that, but it wants you to build endless buildings, sell loot you've found in the dungeon (the game doesn't tell you if you'll need them for anything or not), and it constantly want you to check in on every single NPC to even receive missions or get the pleasure of going to the next floor in future dungeon runs.
Even if you know what you're doing, it takes forever to get anything done in the main hub.
Every item you ever collect in the dungeon (a lot, this is an inventory manage game after all) is collected in your hub inventory. An NPC may be looking for one specific item, you might even have it, but good luck finding it
* The game does nothing to tell you what is important in the NPC town, so you have to spam every dialogue and every option select for every character just to make sure you don't miss anything.
And to top it all off, the game is insultingly easy. If you have ever played a deckbuilder (roguelite or not) or any form of strategy game, it will be almost impossible to lose as long as you read the effects of what you are using. Heck, even when I completely failed to do that and I accidentally burned my only arrow during my an archer-only "challenge", where every other game would kill you for failing to have any synergy or ways to deal consistent damage, I was able to win because an enemy dropped a rose earlier, letting enemies take very small amounts of damage every time I blocked. I was able to win, including beating a boss, dealing 1 damage at the time. Absolutely ridiculous. After 5+ hours of gameplay, every run feels like this. It is so easy it is almost insulting. There is never any risk, never any challenge, nothing that makes you reconsider your choices, and once you get a powerful weapon or two, never any need to think. Click the same inventory slots every turn, and win for free. Never the need to swap anything out of your inventory, which is a shame because it's one of the main mechanics.
All of this, and I still found myself wanting to play. There is a fantastic game deep down somewhere. Inventory management is fun, and having your inventory slots tied to abilities you can freely use is creative and fun. It is such a shame it is held back by you never needing to engage with its systems due to the absolute lack of difficulty, to the point where I have won games by not adding or removing anything from my inventory. Furthermore, when the game forces you to engage with its systems in the hub world, it strips the game of everything that made it fun, including making the graphics look like Backpack Hero from Wish. It is tedious, stays in the way of what could be a fantastic game, and despite hours of gameplay, you are still stuck with the same starter loadout you begun with. It's a shame.
Imagine you play a roguelite like Slay the Spire, Enter the Gungeon, Binding of Isaac or Risk of Rain. You start a run, you have fun, you unlock things along the way depending on your actions. It's great, it's a fun time. Now imagine, in-between every run, if you want to unlock anything or even see later levels of the game, you have to run across a huge open field, talk to 10 NPCs randomly scattered along the map (the game won't tell you which one you need or in what order), sit through endless repetitive dialogue that goes nowhere about how your dad thinks it's dangerous to go into the cave over and over and over again. Not only that, but it wants you to build endless buildings, sell loot you've found in the dungeon (the game doesn't tell you if you'll need them for anything or not), and it constantly want you to check in on every single NPC to even receive missions or get the pleasure of going to the next floor in future dungeon runs.
Even if you know what you're doing, it takes forever to get anything done in the main hub.
Every item you ever collect in the dungeon (a lot, this is an inventory manage game after all) is collected in your hub inventory. An NPC may be looking for one specific item, you might even have it, but good luck finding it
* The game does nothing to tell you what is important in the NPC town, so you have to spam every dialogue and every option select for every character just to make sure you don't miss anything.
And to top it all off, the game is insultingly easy. If you have ever played a deckbuilder (roguelite or not) or any form of strategy game, it will be almost impossible to lose as long as you read the effects of what you are using. Heck, even when I completely failed to do that and I accidentally burned my only arrow during my an archer-only "challenge", where every other game would kill you for failing to have any synergy or ways to deal consistent damage, I was able to win because an enemy dropped a rose earlier, letting enemies take very small amounts of damage every time I blocked. I was able to win, including beating a boss, dealing 1 damage at the time. Absolutely ridiculous. After 5+ hours of gameplay, every run feels like this. It is so easy it is almost insulting. There is never any risk, never any challenge, nothing that makes you reconsider your choices, and once you get a powerful weapon or two, never any need to think. Click the same inventory slots every turn, and win for free. Never the need to swap anything out of your inventory, which is a shame because it's one of the main mechanics.
All of this, and I still found myself wanting to play. There is a fantastic game deep down somewhere. Inventory management is fun, and having your inventory slots tied to abilities you can freely use is creative and fun. It is such a shame it is held back by you never needing to engage with its systems due to the absolute lack of difficulty, to the point where I have won games by not adding or removing anything from my inventory. Furthermore, when the game forces you to engage with its systems in the hub world, it strips the game of everything that made it fun, including making the graphics look like Backpack Hero from Wish. It is tedious, stays in the way of what could be a fantastic game, and despite hours of gameplay, you are still stuck with the same starter loadout you begun with. It's a shame.