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There Will Be Ink is a tactical action game for 1-8 players. Play solo or with friends in battles between stick figure armies on a paper notepad, just like you used to draw in class instead of paying attention!

RSS Reviews
7

ResExsention says

Early access review Agree Disagree

A nice game, particularly strong in its classic revival, in a time where fully 3D games are the new style. Also quite highly replayable, especially because of the featured map editor that was added in. I had a "survive as long as possible against an infinite stream of enemies" scenario up and running in less than five minutes, which is quite a strong point.

However, not all games are perfect, like this one. As great as it is, there still aren't that many features. This game does lack customization with the editor, and adding a few more buildings (ambient houses, roads, even being able to enter them) and units (I really like grenades, but there is no grenadier) would really help out in scenario creation. More options should rivers should be added too, in my opinion, since as of right now there are only two options to choose from and both only flow up and down. It is also decently buggy, especially when working with the checkboxes when configuring building in the editor. Apparently the bounding box of the popup menu on selected buildings is still active even though the building is selected, and this can get in the way if you're trying to set up multiple buildings in close proximity.

One of the strong points in this game I would say would be an actual, working AI that attacks enemies effectively, uses cover, goes prone, and realizes the value of grenades, and that is quite good in comparison to a few other games I've tried. My only problem with the AI is that it can't be configured when using the editor -- you can't set it to stuff like don't fire unless fired upon or don't do anything unless an enemy gets close.

As for gameplay, I really liked it. It's easy to learn and master, firearm recoil actually exists, and trying to be a one man army isn't going to get you far without some hardcore tactics. Though the campaign doesn't tell a story it still was able to hook me into the game, and it kept me like that. Of course, a separate campaign could definitely be created, by the author of this game or by someone else who can use the map editor efficiently. Being so open with scenario editing will get this game far.

So? Is this game worth it? Yes. Future updates should be downloaded as well, as I think this will only get better. Sure it has bugs but doesn't every game have some fault or another? Even better, it is actually quite lightweight and portable, and can easily be run on some of the slower PCs, making this a quick and easy time killer. And if you run out of campaign missions, there's always the editor.

P.S. there should be some kind of forum where players can share their created scenarios for other people to download and play. The tutorials could probably be updated as well. Of course, having a sharing forum would require an upgrade to the editor but I think it would be worth it.

P.P.S Keep at it! I think this game could become quite successful, especially if you distributed it across other platforms (Steam has quite a big community, you could draw attention there, and don't forget about the other operating systems (Mac, Linux, the like).