I really gave Lynked an honest try, and mindful that this is early access. I think on paper, the idea of mixing city building and the roguelike gameplay could be truly something special.

TL;DR: while I think the city building aspect is charming and decent, I think the roguelike/combat design is really holding this game back the way it exists currently, as of the date of this review.

To start with the positive, the city building. I keep coming back to 'charming' as the way to best describe it. If you have played anything like Stardew Valley, it feels familiar, albeit simplified as your robot arm works as an omni-tool. The build menu and interface is solid and easy to get the hang of. There is also fishing, with some cleverly-named fish. On land, you can also chase and catch little, also cleverly-themed ground bots for various rewards. In addition, there are quests from townsfolk to keep you busy around town, and as you rescue them from dungeons.

But to segue off of dungeons, let's talk the roguelike side of this game. To be brutally honest-- overall, the combat is just...NOT fun for me. The positives is they've got a decent idea going with the Wyre feature and the environmental hazards/traps to get creative with and use to your advantage. However, my issues stem from mainly two things: 1) combat seems to be 90% mashing the dodge button, and 2) you simply don't get a chance to feel all that powerful during a run.

Feel free to think this is a skill issue. Or it could be just that awkward noob phase before you get traction. But even after exploring enhancements from the upgrade shrine, the town smithy, tinkerer, etc, it has felt next to meaningless when, while trying to perform even one combo, I am severely punished when either 5 different enemies/projectiles come flying at me, or a boss charges multiple times, or both of these all at once. You have to dodgedodgedodgedodge- until MAYBE you can get in one attack without eating ♥♥♥♥. Your most unique asset, the Wyre, is also pretty useless when grappling something to throw is SLOW and makes you a wide-open target, and when you have a split second to react to danger.

I have played plenty of other roguelikes, so I get that constant motion and feeling like a glass cannon is part and parcel to many examples in the genre. I'm not saying there shouldn't be any challenge. But in Lynked, the challenge is not balanced well enough right now by the upgrade system, imo. Especially not with the scrap system, as it is often not very rewarding for good gameplay.

To explain, with each run, you pick a starting weapon type (sword, spear, etc). Each stage you complete, you get an opportunity to upgrade it from a choice of random mods. In addition to this, depending on how well you play, you also collect scrap which you can then use as a currency to open certain chests that spawn randomly throughout the run.

The problem is the chests will spit out a RANDOM weapon-- sometimes an upgrade of the type you picked at the beginning, but usually not. You also get some armor, and health restore. That's it.

So even if picked a weapon type you prefer to use at the beginning, and you've been upgrading it they way you like, you might end up wasting your accumulated scrap to get the choices of A) equipping a weapon type that is totally different, and with different mods, B) scrapping it for a FRACTION of the scrap you just spent, or C) destroying it for it's elemental core, which will overwrite the one you already have, and does NOT enhance it you have the same core already equipped. So many times I have been patient in accumulating scrap to afford the more expensive chests, only to be disappointed when the best I can get for it is +25 scrap refunded. Come on. Or I bit the bullet and begrudgingly changed out the weapon, even though I didn't really want to change my playstyle, but needed the damage output.

I think the scrap chest issue could be improved if they were only to contain a possible upgrade for your CURRENT weapon type. And if you want to switch weapons during a run, have that be a through a separate NPC or chest type during the run.

I know I am griping a lot here, but it's early access, so I'm griping because I have hope that, with some tuning and rework of the combat, I could come back and play for hours and hours and annoy my friends to play. Really, I hope to come back someday and update this. But it could be this game might simply just not be for my taste. So as it stands, and despite the positives, I have to not recommend.

So i wanna like this game, i do badly. i love the sim style island/base building(so many options). its cool it mixes with a rouge-like element. you build up up gears and do runs for loot or missions. my only issue is as a friendless player, its dead.... nobody ever host a game, the servers are always empty :( and this makes the missions a good bit harder to do and can take multiple attempts and that would be cool but you dont get a lot for replaying missions which is hard when ur missions are rouge like(PLEASE MAKE SOLO PLAYERS ACQUIRE MORE SOULS SPARKS!!). i feel as if u should get a boost when ur alone. or maybe add a quick join button so we can join games it progress. all i know is by myself the grind for the mats to get to ur next upgrade that will actually make a diff in the fight is a uphill annoying battle. id wait for more updates

FISH