Hyper Light Breaker Preview
We all know that no matter how daunting it is to develop a brand new IP, making a sequel to a popular game might be even more challenging. Gamers are a fickle and often vocal bunch. Pleasing everyone? Forget it. Heart Machine’s Hyper Light Drifter was released 9 years ago. It was a critical and popular hit and soon made its way to consoles and an even bigger audience. Heart Machine has just released Hyper Light Breaker into Steam early access. If nothing else, it’s a bold move, subverting expectations for a direct sequel to Drifter.Â
Less of the Same, More of the New
Hyper Light Drifter was a challenging, top-down hack-and-slash action game. It had incredible and vibrant pixel art visuals and a knockout soundtrack. Hyper Light Breaker, on the other hand, is a third-person co-op action game, a procedurally generated open-world roguelike. The developers suggest they were influenced by Witchfire, Breath of the Wild, and Risk of Rain 2. Hyper Light Breaker checks a lot of game genre boxes. That approach often leads to unfocused or unbalanced gameplay, but Heart Machine has a clear design in place, and Drifter knows what it’s about, even if it might not please everyone. There are some changes in its future to be sure, but it enters early access in a pretty solid state.
Hyper Light Breaker is actually a prequel to Drifter and takes place in the same neon-bright sci-fi universe. You’re sent into the Overgrowth to battle monsters, collect loot and face off against bosses, called Crowns. You have a limited number of Rez’s (i.e. lives) per run. If you decide to extract back to the Cursed Outpost (hub), you face off against final waves of enemies. Breaker’s basic gameplay loop is classically simple: fight-die-upgrade, rinse, and repeat. It’s made interesting and challenging through procedurally generated versions of the Overgrowth and the various synergies that playing with others brings to combat. And, of course, a level of difficulty that increases during each run.Â
Risk and Reward
While it overlays them with very specific jargon, Hyper Light Breaker’s mechanics are recognizable from other action games. Breakers (the game’s name for players) choose between different SysComs, each with specific passive abilities and starting stats. Breaker has a classless character system, which means all the SysComs have access to a variety of weapons. Each Cycle (run) earns Golden Rations, which can be used for various upgrades and passive EXE Abilities, like additional healing.Â
Moment-to-moment gameplay is focused on exploration, loot gathering, and combat. Moving around the world on foot can be a little cumbersome and frustrating but the zippy hoverboard is a cool alternative. The colorful world is a collection of angular and organic shapes, but it’s often difficult to parse and can be visually fatiguing. There’s also a degree of imprecision about the hoverboard controls and movement in general, suggesting the need for refinement.
There are several resources to collect out in the Overgrowth, most of which are necessary for unlocking new areas, or character or weapon upgrades. The most important collectibles by far are Medigems, which can be crafted into Medikits. The game starts characters with very limited healing, making early Cycles extremely difficult. That level of challenge is baked in by design. It won’t be for everyone.
Combat Ready
The Cursed Outpost hub contains the usual flavors of NPCs like vendors, upgrade stations, and mission givers. After time in the Cursed Outpost, players choose a loadout and teleport into the Overgrowth. Combat mirrors the mechanics popular in a range of current action games. There are light and heavy attacks, blocks and parries, melee, and ranged weapons. Some of these are more well-implemented than others. The frequent swarms of enemies can confound the game’s lock-on system, and make the ability to parry nearly irrelevant. Generally, melee combat can be enjoyable but isn’t as weighty or polished as it could be. Hyper Light Breaker can be played solo, but I can attest to that mode being more frustrating than fun. It’s definitely an experience best shared with a group and luckily the game’s matchmaking system works well.
Next Steps
Hyper Light Breaker is not more of the same that many players were expecting and/or hoping for. This is a risky move on the part of Heart Machine. Combining bits and bobs from a range of genres often results in a chaotic mash-up. The developer has happily dodged that particular danger, but Hyper Light Breaker isn’t without some other issues. Extreme difficulty and a lack of polish are the two biggest impediments to lasting fun. My wish list would include some significant changes to the single-player experience (or eliminating it entirely), and addressing the early game difficulty. Beyond some early access stumbles, I think Hyper Light Breaker has the potential to join its older sibling as another excellent game.
Thank you for keeping it locked on COGconnected.
