Early Access Examination: Fellowship

By JT

Players: 1
Platforms: PC

How long does one expect to get a real feel for a game? Minutes? An hour? Two hours? Well, at least in my experience, if I'm not turned on to a game within the first couple of hours I will just stop playing altogether. Apparently Steam thinks the same, which is why they have the return policy that they do. Fellowship is the first roguelite game that I have been unable to even sit through. It's a slog, and that's a problem going forward. Most roguelites are fast paced, even if they may not seem that way at first. Some even have good music attached to them. Fellowship, on the other hand, has potential to be good. It has many RPG elements that make the game stand out from other titles within the genre. It takes way more than the two hour minimum to even feel a real sense of accomplishment. Here are my first impressions of Fellowship, and my hope that the developer improves on their current foundation.

For the story of Fellowship... Well, there is no story. There was nothing I could see even resembling a tangible story. You just come into the game, pick your region, choose one character from three picked at random, and go. Controls are very simple, using WASD to move, Shift to sprint, Space to swap your lead with another character you've picked up, and Tab to change formation. Your mouse is used for aiming, a bit unlike most roguelites that often aim at the closest enemies. While sprint does make your character go significantly faster, everything still feels bogged down. That includes everything from the main attack to any added upgrades received. Unfortunately all the upgrades feel very minor, and that's what slows this game down. Among all the roguelites I've tested out, Fellowship just happens to be the worst when it comes to tedium. The addition of new units to your group could also be less beneficial than one would expect. With each increase in group size, your characters are often more vulnerable, and another sense of slow-down can be felt. With a need to upgrade each individual character, sometimes it's best to just go for two. The problem is with secondary fire when you acquire additional characters in your party. They only have a set direction they can volley their fire. If they are attached to your right side, you will only ever see them aim right, same with the left-hand side, although rotation is available for those who can utilize it correctly. The saving grace to help combat is complete character rotation, formation, and swapping leadership.

Fellowship, as the name implies, is most likely borrowed form the fantasy classic Lord of the Rings. Aside from being in a fantasy setting, that's where the similarities end. All stages and their background look okay but are noticeably hand-drawn just as with all the characters, enemies, and even the menus. Each character has their own distinct look, so even in the worst chaos you still know who's who. Enemies are drawn with what would be perceived as cool, but some are just larger versions of the enemies you've already been fighting; boss fights can be seen in a similar manner. The music is something left to be desired, it's generic and I found myself tuning it out throughout most my time with the game. Nothing changes when it comes to a boss fight, as you get the same loop in music without any breaks to even let you know a boss has appeared. Roguelites all should be able to find a way to incorporate additional music for boss fights, even if it's some of the most ear-bleeding music imaginable.

Each stage in Fellowship has a new character to unlock. You go and grab a key, then you return to unlock their cage. That's it. No lore behind it or anything. Lore would be nice, even if it's just an encyclopedia of knowledge. There is no reason why people wouldn't want to read something in a game that takes inspiration from Tolkien. To stand out it'd make sense to make one thing the focus. That thing can be lore. Nothing too deep, but deep would be very welcomed. Even if no one reads half of it, lore would be something that makes the game stand out. Give a reason to each character as to why they were imprisoned. Give lore to each beginning character. With each character unlock, unlock their story. It's easy to do, but it's also very effective. Unfortunately there's none of that here.

​What I think should be improved are the ways to acquire the weapons and different armor pieces. Currently, it's only done through boss fights and possibly breaking objects, but equipment is so few and far between that it feels much less rewarding to acquire than money or experience, especially if your characters don't need the item. The vast expression of RPG elements in a roguelite is something that I've not yet seen implemented. It's a breath of fresh air. Imbed gems for extra benefits, equip weapons and armor for bonus effects, such as damage reduction and added attack speed. The use of currency to upgrade skills. Everything culminates into an RPG-based roguelite with lots of potential. Again, if Fellowship had lore behind it, that would be a huge improvement, not just over the game itself, but across all roguelites that I've at least played. As stated before, Fellowship is very slow-paced, and that needs to change. After about an hour, most people have made up their mind on whether they will continue to play or not. If a game doesn't lock someone into it from the start, chances are they won't pick it up again. Within the first 30 minutes, I wasn't hooked. After two hours, I kept trying to get invested. After four hours, I became bored quickly. After eight hours of playtime, it felt like there were so many walls in place that it became a problem with the next stage, and the next stage after that. I felt as if I was somehow starting completely over. Enemies were a lot tougher, but they weren't skill-based tough, they were spongey tough. The addition of fire-based enemies was good though, and I genuinely loved flame damage over time as an effect against you. Effects like being poisoned and frozen are also always good. It adds a lot of simple depth to the game.

An absence of game modes also makes Fellowship feel much smaller in comparison to other roguelites, even though the depth comes from the typical RPG elements found in mainline RPG games. It's always menu, battle, win or die, upgrade, battle, win or die, and upgrade. Nothing else to it. For now, I would wait until some noticeable improvements to the game are made before deciding to pick it up. Fellowship is a decent-looking game with a lot of good ideas, but adding on to those ideas would make the game stand out for the better. Look at how many roguelites there are now and how many don't get enough attention. Look how many roguelites overshadow others that have the potential to be the best experience possible. My impressions on Fellowship are currently mixed. Perhaps I'll pick this game up again when it officially releases just to see if it lives up to future expectations.

Check Out Fellowship on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2445870/Fellowship/

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

#Fellowship