Welcome to the world of Inkshade. A turn-based tactics game oozing with a spooky atmosphere.
At least that is the goal of the developer at Studio Vezelle. It is a small studio that focuses on games that are dripping with ambience. Let’s jump into this new dark and unknown world to see how it turned out.
Story
You find yourself in a room with a table, some wooden game pieces and a shadowy figure that calls you captain. It insists that you play its game at the table. Your goal is to recruit a crew to find your way to the abyss.
You must use your crew to conquer a continent and acquire an airship. It will prove to be a difficult task and you will lose many crew members along the way, but what does it matter, they are only wooden pieces after all.
Gameplay
The majority of your time will be spent at the table, moving your wooden crew pieces around the intricately designed environments.
However, when you are not in the middle of a battle, you can step away from the table to explore your surroundings a bit more. Let’s talk a little bit about the room, and then we will dive into the table and combat.
Rooms
When you get up from the table, you will be able to explore the room you are in. You will also be able to explore other rooms as you progress further in the game.
The shadowy figure might give you a hard time, but it’s vital to your success that you nose around these rooms to see what you kind find. Of the most importance are new wooden pieces. You will want to make sure you find as many as you can to expand your crew for future battles at the table.
As you explore the rooms, you will find that there are doors to many other rooms. These rooms hold unknown treasures. It won’t be easy, though, as puzzles and other methods lock them.
The other thing you might find while you are rummaging through the rooms is coins. These coins can be used at the table to purchase boons, but they can also be used to upgrade your wooden pieces.
The upgrade table is a place you will often frequent. Upgrading your crew is a vital way to advance through the more difficult challenges ahead.
Game Pieces
There are many different units in the game represented by little wooden figures. These game pieces are what form your crew for playing at the table.
You will be able to recruit additional crew during an adventure at the table, but you will lose all those pieces if you lose a battle. The pieces you find while exploring the rooms, however, will be what you use for your starting set.
There are several different features for each piece. Some of these features include health, movement, attack damage, and attack range.
You will find a place in one of the rooms where you can spend your collected coins to increase the features of your wooden pieces. These are not cheap, though, so choose wisely.
It is good to have a variety of pieces that have a range of features because you never know what you might run into on your next adventure at the table. The shadowy figure likes to always keep you on your toes.
It forces you to pick from a random selection of pieces at the start of each battle. This is based on your starting pool of pieces. This is another good reason to have a good range of pieces in your collection before going to the table.
The Table
At the table is where you will learn more about what this game is all about. It is also where you will lose many battles. The battles ramp up quickly. Your crew seems to always be outnumbered. It is going to take all your skill and tactical knowledge to beat the shadowy figure at his own game.
There are three regions to the continent. Each holds a separate piece that you need for your airship. Each region holds its own challenges, which some of your crew might be better equipped for, depending on the region.
After selecting a region, the adventure begins. The shadowy figure will act as the game master, narrating as you go. You will be presented with a branching map similar to other roguelites.
The majority of the nodes are combat nodes, but there are a handful of other nodes, such as treasure, a crew exchange, and story nodes. There is no key to the map, so a bit of trial and error will be required to figure out the meaning of the different symbols for the nodes.
That is true for the majority of the game, though. There is a lot of trial and error to figure out what is happening and how best to work with the situation you are in. There is a lot of mystery, but that is part of the atmosphere that the developer is going for.
Combat
Combat in Inkshade is simplistic but challenging. Each of your pieces gets to move and then attack. You can undo your move, but your character is locked in place once they attack. Once you have used all of your characters, then it is the enemy’s turn.
It is simplistic because there are no special abilities or skills to keep track of. All the information you need is on the table. All you can do is move and attack. Granted, some characters have different attack ranges and even resistance to physical or magical damage, but that information is on the unit when you click on them.
You can click on any piece on the table to see its movement and attack range. You simply need to use that information to make the most adventurous moves with your own pieces. The enemy is smart, though. It will single out your weaker crew members to eliminate them.
There are two ways to beat each combat. You can either eliminate all of the enemy pieces or you can stand on the designated victory space until the end of the enemy’s turn. If you can do either in the designated time limit, then you will get bonus coins.
Progress can feel slow, but it is rewarding. Each time you win a combat, you will be presented with two new crew pieces to pick from. Hopefully, one of them will be a fitting replacement for the pieces you just lost in the last battle.
Conclusion
I am just going to start off by saying that I think Inkshade is a fantastic game. I feel like I am always saying this, but it never ceases to impress me what these small teams of developers can achieve.
Inkshade is a solo developer project. It has a lot of inspiration from games like Inscryption, and you can tell. I think that this game is absolutely dripping with the spooky atmosphere that the developer was going for. The game is a joy to play on both my PC and Steam Deck.
As much as I like Inkshade, it might not be for everyone. Like I said earlier, it can be quite challenging. The game doesn’t hold your hand at all. It is up to you to figure out everything on your own via experimentation.
That might not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, if you liked Inscryption but wanted a more grid-based system instead of a card-based system, then this is the game for you.
The game just came out. If you are interested in learning more or picking up the game for yourself, then go check out the Steam page. I can’t wait to see what the developer comes up with next.
A review key was provided by the developer at Studio Vezelle.
