Invokyr Early Access Review - Jumanji Meets Horror Themed Digital Board Game!?
Invokyr Early Access Review
Steam Early Access
10/8/26
Ludogram/Shochiku
I do enjoy a good digital board game from time to time, and so when Invokyr arrived in our inbox, I was actually quite excited to give it a go, despite not being the biggest online gamer. The premise is cool: work together with a group of friends playing a nightmarish version of Jumanji in an effort to reach the end of the board and stop the gamemaster. But how is the execution thus far in early access? Is Invokyr worth rolling the dice on? Well, that very much depends on whether you have tolerance for a bit of jankiness and a fun group of friends to play with.
Invokyr is a co-op survival horror game of sorts where you and up to 5 friends must survive a dark manor filled with aggressively spooky guests and traps. Controlled by the Gamemaster, this mansion changes and twists the rules with each roll. The goal of the game is quite simple: to survive various obstacles and oddities in an effort to collect a set number of haunted idols which need to be successfully returned to the board so that you may roll again until you reach the final gauntlet. Sounds easy, except for all the stuff that wants to kill you, including the idols themselves.
Starting out, players can either host or join a game, and to my surprise, you can actually do solo runs if you choose to host and nobody enters the game. I didn’t experience any major issues when connecting with my partner SilentSigns, so at the time of this review, online play seemed stable enough, though obviously, nobody else in the world was really playing yet, so don’t hold me to that.
What is a bit less reliable is the current controller support, which feels lackluster in spots, particularly when trying to roll dice. At the start of each turn, a new roll is required, though sometimes the dice just didn’t want to activate despite my best efforts in rolling them repeatedly. I tried rolling on the board itself, tossing against the wall, slamming into the ground, and even more extreme measures, but whether my roll would be accepted or not seemed completely random. Thus, I am going to chalk this up to being an early access bug. Controllers also aren’t super responsive on the game’s menus, making them the less than optimal way to play, though the mapping is there and things work well enough if you’re really bad at keyboard and mouse like me and are willing to put up with it.
Whenever you do finally get a roll-off, the real fun begins. Players are greeted with a cryptic message, a clue as to what they will be dealing with. This might be a giant man who looks like a mime that will shoot at you, an alligator that will nip at you if you don’t stay off the ground, or a strange little guy with a cane that will beat you over the head. There’s a trick to each of these distractions that can increase your chances of surviving them, such as crouching in their presence or staying quiet. The mansion is decently sized, though not overwhelmingly so; thus, if you aren’t good at learning level layouts by creating invisible maps in your brain, Invokyr may not be for you. At the end of the day, it's really all about grabbing the next idol and doing what it takes to get it back to the entrance.
As I mentioned, the idols themselves are a bit problematic. Some of them will make the room dark when you grab them, others will even shrink you down to size. Or my least favorite, the one that gives you backwards controls, YUCK! I enjoyed these cursed idols and the many challenges they present, as I feel they added an extra layer of challenge and fun to each run.
As far as controls are concerned, there’s really not that much to the gameplay. You run, jump, shine your flashlight, and can SOMETIMES chat and coordinate with your partner, but not the whole time… Well, unless you are playing in the same room like we were. You’ll also find a few other dice scattered around the manor that can either screw you over or lend a helping hand. My personal favorite was the dice that allowed you to see through walls so that you could tell where idols were hiding. Others can restore lost health or even revive a fallen friend, whose corpse you may need to bring to safety so that you can roll the dice in their general location. Mirrors are also scattered about, which save your reflection and act as revivals, giving you another shot at making it through. Players are able to hold up to 3 helpful dice at a time.
After you’ve successfully retrieved a set amount of idols, the game will change, and the ways in which it evolves are interesting. Sometimes you’ll be avoiding lightning bolts, other times you’ll be in twisting rooms where platforming is required. Hopefully, you don’t run into THOSE rooms too often, as platforming is not the game's strong suit and could be tightened up a bit during the early access period. I appreciated the variety of different challenges, but not all were created equal. Should you roll enough to get to the final gauntlet, you’ll need to run a final idol through many of the obstacles you previously faced to win the game!
While Invokyr’s visuals won’t win any awards, they are suitably spooky with decent lighting and varied room designs. I would love an option to create a character in the future, as right now it seemed like me and SilentSigns were just repeatedly assigned the same character model over and over, which was kind of a bummer. As you can see, it's not a bad-looking game, with decent creature designs and artistic direction, but the sound is much stronger when talking about the presentation, a haunting mix that relies on subtle creaks and shrieks to immerse players. Sound is an important part of the game so that you can hear what lurks in the shadows, and it is implemented beautifully, so play this one with the sound up and the lights down! Or at least, with a nice pair of headphones.
All of this is to say, Invokyr can be good fun, especially if you have friends to play with. Yes, it's janky as you would expect in an early access release (just look at the spectator mode currently, which is almost unwatchable) and can be a little repetitive in longer sessions, but the bones for an entertaining romp are here. Currently, you have a few different themed boards, over 15 monsters to contend with, 20 plus different events, and a decent smattering of dice and upgrades. Ludogram is also promising additional content, including more themes, monsters, events, items, and beyond. But as it stands right now, I think Invokyr is good fun, tentatively earning itself The Bronze Genie Lamp of Approval. We will be back with an updated review whenever the game leaves early access.
PROS
A fun premise that is executed decently
Suitably spooky visuals and great audio design
Online play was working well during the review process
A good amount of content for early access with more to come
CONS
Some of the platforming is cheap and annoying
A few expected early access bugs and glitches
Can get a bit old in extended play sessions
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