Thomas Wilde: We had some fun last time with all the clown murders, so I was looking for a follow-up. Then the solo developer behind Grapplers: Relic Rivals agreed to provide me with a fistful of Steam codes, so here we are.
Grapplers is a pixel-art, multiplayer-focused game where 2 to 4 players compete to escape from a trap-infested tomb. Your primary tool for navigating that tomb is a grappling hook, which you can also use to beat up your fellow players. The winner is whoever can grab and keep the most coins, but anyone who dies loses most of their money stash. It’s capitalism with more explicit traps!
Thoughts?
Amity Gilmour: I’ll kick things off by flashing a content warning for any archeologists out there. Forget planning permission, careful excavation, and eventual storage in a museum backroom. You’ll be hooking ancient walls and other players’ spines as you plunder the treasures of a forgotten world. So, for a Brit like me, it’s thoroughly enjoyable and respectful of my culture.
Testament Crux: The first thing I notice is the selection of characters: a pirate, a spooky hooded figure, a cute wizard, and Anubis, Egyptian god of death. Of course, I want to main the scary edgelord guy, but Thomas has already taken him, so I guess I’ll settle for the Dog who Swallows Millions, Master of Secrets and Protector of Graves, the jackal-headed lord of the underworld himself.
HG Punk: The moment that I saw this game for the first time, I could see that it followed in the footsteps of some of my favorite indie games. The aesthetic of grabbing relics and competing for the gold brings Spelunky to mind, which may honestly be one of the most replayable games ever made. Add the quick, simple yet intuitive and depth-filled competitiveness of something like Duck Game and you have the makings of a true winner.
Testament: Despite a minimal amount of content and features, the core gameplay is extremely polished. The art and animations look great and the visuals are easily readable to the player. When a giant swinging ax comes hurtling directly into your torso, you’ll see it coming, and you’ll know that you had no one to blame but yourself. Yourself, and the giant swinging ax.
Amity: I’ll happily double down on what Crux has said. The movement is snappy; the grappling hook comes with a super helpful visual aid to see exactly where you’re aiming. The game also manages to teach you 80% of what you’ll need to know in the waiting lobby in a single miniature room. Some surfaces can be grappled while others can’t, and make sure you pick up as many coins as you can.
As a game writer, I also appreciate that each character has their own unique “start game” message, distinguishing them narratively as well as visually. Though speaking of visuals, the mage is gender goals.
Amity: If there’s one place I’d have to fault the game here, it’s concerning the titular Relics. These are power-ups that give the owner substantial buffs. Now while you can probably guess what some of them do (like the Lifeblood Gem giving you an extra heart), for other Relics you’ll most likely need to play several rounds to deduce their bonus, or look up what they do in the round customization settings (I did the latter).
Testament: Indeed, the game boasts a robust set of custom match settings. Hardcore™ gamers can turn Relics off altogether, just like the most annoying person at a Smash Bros. party.
Punk: One setting that I wish would be included in the game is the ability to set a timer for how long it takes to respawn. If you keep getting your ass handed to you (like I was), time can slow to a crawl while you wait for the ten-second cooldown.
Amity: At least they added a Big Head Mode, undoubtedly the most important addition to any decent game.
Testament: Unfortunately, the lack of online play will make Grapplers inaccessible to many potential players. Since the game was essentially developed by a single person, it may be unrealistic to expect the dev to set up their own servers anytime soon. Still, the reality is that many gamers just don’t have anyone to do couch co-op with.
We tried using Steam’s Remote Play Together feature, where one person essentially hosts the game by streaming it to their party, and it was barely functional. Maybe a group with much faster internet could manage better than we did, but that’s still a significant barrier to entry. Since I was hosting, though, I had a great time absolutely demolishing my peers.
Amity: The Remote Play Together means of online play really does hamper the game. Even with all of us having good internet, we were experiencing significant amounts of lag. While it was manageable in a 1v1 game against Thomas, with only a slight (albeit noticeable) bit of input delay, a full 4-player match was laggy to the point of unplayability.
Thomas: I do want to add that Amity’s in France and I’m on the west coast of the U.S. I’d had a Play Anywhere match between myself and a buddy in Illinois that went fine. Getting Grapplers to ship its packets internationally was always going to be a steep ask.
Punk: I think it should be noted, however, that Steam Remote Play just kind of sucks in general. I’ve never once had it work when playing with anyone, from those halfway across the world to connecting to my desktop in another room in the same house – sometimes you’re too damn lazy to go up the stairs, okay? Just save yourself the trouble and download Parsec.
Testament: Either way, Remote Play’s viability is on Valve’s shoulders, not other devs who sell on Steam.
What I would really like to see in a future update is single-player functionality. Grapplers is exclusively PvP, but what if we could fill a lobby with bots to style on? It would surely open up the game to a wider audience, though I can only speculate on our beloved indie dev’s capability to implement such a feature.
Thomas: “Our beloved indie dev”? What’s his name, Tess?
Testament: Grapple Sam.
Punk: Tim Grapple?
Amity: John McRelic!
Thomas: Okay, those aren’t bad.
Anyway, Grapplers was made by Paul Kankiewicz, who used to work as a mission designer on AAA games like Shadow of Mordor. Taking that into account, it’s not surprising that Grapplers is a polished production. It sets out to do a handful of specific things and does them all well.
As Amity said, I do think that the Relics could stand to be explained better at some point, since they end up being crucially important in a match. It’s a good example of how Grapplers relies heavily on what I have to call your “game sense,” where you’re apparently supposed to intuitively know what everything does. It’s not a problem if you challenge your fellow game-playing dorks to a round, but it’s not as accessible from outside the hobby as I might’ve liked. It’d be nice if it had a quick, easily-skipped tutorial screen before you start a match, like Shredder’s Revenge.
That’s the sort of complaint you really only make if you’re looking for downsides, though. Grapplers could stand to be a little more than what it is, but as a cheap 4-player party game, it’s not bad. It’s always good to have a couple of socially acceptable ways to throw your friends into spike traps.
Amity: Despite the couple of gripes I had, Grapplers is genuinely a really fun time. It’s also the only game which let me jump on Anubis’ head. I got to flatten the lord of the underworld, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted.
Punk: In terms of gameplay, Grapplers offers a fun time with friends that will be easy to go back to again and again. While there isn’t a great depth of content, it can truly grow into a multiplayer staple if given the right post-launch care and attention. The game is sure to be a hit for those nights with pals over. Just make sure you can get them all together in person.
Testament: It’s certainly not the Duck Game killer, but you’d be hard-pressed to find another game quite so centered around grappling hooks. For me, that’s enough. The real relics were the rivals we grappled along the way.
