Storebound promo shot
Image: Embers

It's a rare thing when a game's development seems to go smoothly and as planned. So often games languish in Early Access for years, but Storebound has made its final debut, a brisk nine months after its initial release. Developed by indie studio Embers, it's a co-op horror puzzle adventure (open-mic voice chat recommended) for up to three players, about a group of Aardman-meets-Muppets customers lost in Present, an IKEA-esque home goods megastore. Despite feeling like it sometimes, most IKEA stores aren't literally infinite fractal nightmares. This one is.

What sets Storebound apart from most co-op horror-comedy adventures recently (including developer Embers' previous game, Murky Divers) is that there's no procedural generation going on here. This is an episodic, linear story full of setpieces and hand-crafted puzzles.

So, More of an extended escape room, perhaps? Give or take a few wandering monsters that want to pummel you into paste. After a well-like demo (sadly no longer available), Storebound's initial early access release featured the first act of the story, split across two chapters.

Back in March, the second act landed with another two chapters. Set back in 1997, the players take up the role of teenage vandals hoping to cause some trouble in the store, only to get lost as well. Today's release adds the third act, making for a total of six chapters.

While the story so far has been following regular people trapped in the endless superstore, the final chapters are set years later, with players taking the role of a corporate research team sent in to assess the store and report back to their bosses. The launch patch notes also mention that Episode 6 is the largest yet, and so was split further into two distinct parts.

While I've yet to get my hands on this one personally, I watched some friends streaming the initial early access release, and they had a great time with it. The game has since seen tweaks and improvements to those early chapters, and Embers estimates that the full game is a breezy 5-7 hours of scares and laughs. And while technically playable with one or two players, it's designed with three in mind. Bring your own buddies.

Storebound is out now for £7/$10, minus a reasonable 20% launch discount until July 30th. There's also some extra savings to be had if you've got Ghost Watchers, The 18th Attic, Murky Divers, Emmisary Zero or The Headliners in your library.