‘Backpack Hero’ Is About Letting Go… Of That One Potion You’ve Been Holding Onto
Backpack Hero takes the worst part of most other games and makes it more fun than you could imagine.
You know in games like Diablo or Deus Ex the frustration of finding a great new item, but then dealing with the whole ordeal of shuffling your whole inventory around in order to fit it, and the internal struggle of deciding what to keep, and what to toss? What if that was a game?
Backpack Hero is getting a lot of attention for currently being the highest rated roguelike on itch.io, where it is available to play for free! It takes the core mechanic of inventory management and turns it into a fully fleshed out core mechanic. It’s currently running on Kickstarter until May 7th, and is also on wishlist on Steam.
Gameplay
Despite the thematic leaning into the inventory management aspect, Backpack Hero is, ultimately, a roguelike at heart. You enter procedurally generated dungeons, fight monsters, collect loot, find helpful NPCs, the whole nine yards.
Where Backpack Hero differs from other roguelikes is that rather than your character gaining levels and growing more powerful, it’s your backpack doing the growing. As you gain experience from killing monsters, you’ll have the option to grow your backpack in order to hold more loot.
What makes this so compelling for the way the game is designed is so many of the items rely in synergies. Sure, you can find a strong sword or axe. But that weapon alone won’t be enough to let you survive once you reach the deepest levels of the dungeon. Backpack Hero thrives on item synergies. This makes each run exciting and unique as you work on a new build based on the items you find along the way.
Backpack Hero does a lot with the mechanics of the inventory. Helmets lose their bonuses if they aren’t on the top row, and the opposite with boots. Bow and arrows gain bonus damage with more empty spaces in front of whichever way the arrow is pointing. Curses will clog up the inventory with immovable burdens. It’s so much more than just making it all fit. The space itself is a usable resource.
You’re going to want to hold onto every item. But Backpack Hero will help you learn to let go of the things you don’t need. Marie Kondo would love this game.
Review
Backpack Hero eating up so much of my time and I love it. I’ve backed it on Kickstarter and been playing the demo on itch.io all week. I kept putting writing this review off, not out of dread of having to do it. But rather, because I would get started writing then want to go play.
I’m the sort of person who loves the satisfaction of finding the perfect place for everything in my home. But I also love me some synergies. Each run is completely different. There’s the archer build, the mage build, the cleaver build, or my latest run which used a double edged halberd, two letters, a Ring of Doom and a TON of magic orbs.
I play a lot of Magic: The Gathering and my friends can attest most of the decks I build are janky af and always super weird combos that rarely ever work. But at least I’m having fun. That’s the same feeling I get when I play Backpack Hero. I love seeing how the various items work together. It’s great having to puzzle out how I’m going to fit this Token of Energy into my inventory when it can’t be adjacent to any other items.
If you like brain teasers and puzzles or games like Tetris (for the item management aspects), or games like Slay the Spire or really any good RPG (for the character builds), you will love Backpack Hero. So check it out on Kickstarter! Only a few days left!
