Lynked: Banner of the Spark is a new game by Max Spielberg, son of Steven Spielberg, and his new indie studio FuzzyBot. While Spielberg’s previous experience in the gaming industry was mainly focused on shooters like Medal of Honor and Battlefield, this new outing is a bit more colorful and laid-back while still leaning into gratifying action. That game is Lynked: Banner of the Spark, and it enters into early access on Steam today.
Lynked: Banner of the Spark is a cooperative action game where players fight robots in a postapocalyptic world. In practice, the game is much more vibrant and less dire than that premise makes it sound, as its colorful world is full of adorable robots. With solid roguelite and town-building gameplay loops to back that all up, Lynked is a solid alternative for those getting burnt out on other early access action games like Hades 2 and Towerborne.
Bite-sized Hades
Lynked: Banner of the Spark starts with a prison break. Players meet a friendly Unibot named Buddy and set off on an adventure to restore the Banner of the Spark, a group of helpful Unibots that helped restore the world after an apocalypse. To do so, players have to fight a lot of robots that aren’t as friendly toward humanity. That means Lynked is an isometric action game where players go on missions that all boil down to beating up hordes of evil robots called Combots.
Lynked gives players plenty of weapons with which to do so. Some are more generic swords and spears, but others feel more distinct. My favorite is the guitar-like Resonator, which deals damage or pushes enemies backward in the area around me. Players can also grab enemies or objects in the environment with their “Wyre” arm. This enables players to pull enemies toward themselves to extend combos, pick up and throw objects, or perform a finisher on enemies with low health.
Combat is exhilarating, hitting the same high notes as great isometric action games like Hades. It does get repetitive after a while, but Lynked puts some systems in place to help pave over that problem. Most obviously, you can change which weapon or mighty Spark Powers your character has at the start of a mission and go through it with a different build. Lynked also has roguelite elements that make each run feel unique.
Within a few missions, you’ll have rescued other bots that add depth to each mission playthrough, like a weaponsmith who can offer players upgrades at the end of each area that makes up a mission. This means you’ll have a slightly different experience even if you play the same mission over and over again, which works to alleviate some of the repetition.
There’s a whole other part of the game between those action-focused missions that may appeal to players. Every player has a hub area where they can move buildings around and customize it to their liking. It’s not quite as intricate as something like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but it is a great way to break up the pace between tenser action moments.
It’s a smart way to complement co-op gameplay, another big draw of Lynked. We all know the logistics of playing multiplayer games together can sometimes be frustrating. Up to eight players can join the same lobby, but missions only support teams of three, so there may be some downtime once bigger groups are gathered as well. Instead of forcing players to sit in a menu or static hub area, Lynked essentially gives players another entertaining style of game to mess around with while they’re waiting.
Lynked will appeal to the same niche as Stoic and Xbox Game Studios’ Towerborne. It’s a satisfying, if repetitive, cooperative beat ’em up best suited for players who want to button mash and fight their way through levels upon levels of robots to kill some time. FuzzyBot made some smart decisions to support that loop, as its roguelite setup makes each run through a level feel unique. And the town hub gives players something engaging to do while waiting to play action-packed missions with friends.
If all of that sounds appealing, you should consider checking out Lynked: Banner of the Spark. The game is available now through Steam early access.
