Hyper Light Breaker Is A Tricky Neon Blast

I missed out on Hyper Light Drifter when it was released in 2016. It was a game on my radar, due to its great reception, but it was one that evaded me, both upon release and in the years that followed.

Ahead of its imminent release, though, I got to go hands-on with the game’s sequel, Hyper Light Breaker, for roughly 30 minutes at this year’s Summer Game Fest and it does a lot of things right, but it won’t be for everybody.

Neon Glory

I’ll start by saying that Hyper Light Breaker is a very pretty game. It evolves on the 2D neon aesthetic of its predecessor into a brightly colored 3D world, complete with a vibrant hub location and a collection of procedurally generated environments to explore.

The character design is really fun too. I had to choose from a selection of three different Breakers, each with unique designs and stats, and of course, I picked the one that looked like a bear.

After selecting Goro, and its loadout, I took a giant elevator to my destination. I then headed out with the end goal of defeating the boss, Exus. To do this though, I had to explore the world, fight its dangerous inhabitants, loot its treasure and find a key to the boss’s lair.

I exited the elevator and set course towards a mark on my map which suggested a key-holding Elite was nearby. I hopped on my hoverboard, which did feel a little slower than I’d have imagined, and headed in its general direction. On my way, I took out a handful of enemy mobs, and found some treasure which consisted of weapons and the game’s currency. After finding, and swiftly dispatching the Elite with some of Hyper Light Breaker’s fluid and punchy combat, I moved onto the boss, and it was really, really difficult.

The Rogue-lite Structure

Exus swiftly handed my ass to me but, as with most games of the genre, death is not the end. After I succumbed I was transported back to The Cursed Outpost, the game’s central hub, and was able to use the currency I’d found to shop with the game’s four vendors. These shopkeepers had weapons, armor, and gadgets for me to purchase, each of which was color-coded based on power/rarity, and I was ready for my next run.

After picking up a powerful assault rifle, and some gadgets that stacked to increase my health and armor, I returned to Exus, and, despite getting further, I died again. I could already feel the game’s roguelike hooks digging their way into me. This process was repeated three more times, with me unable to overcome Exus in any of the attempts, and I lost all of my lives.

Unlike other similar games, Hyper Light Drifter gives you five attempts at a run, each, theoretically, better than the last. However, once you lose all five lives, your run is reset, and you start from nothing.

The loop of the game is addictive, as all good roguelikes should be, looting, collecting better gear and beating big bosses, but I knew what my downfall was. Parrying. If you’ve been keeping up with my Summer Game Fest previews, you’ll know I’m just not good at it. I mention it here, and here, so it was no surprise that Exus destroyed me. While I felt Phantom Blade Zero’s parrying mechanic was forgiving, Hyper Light Drifter’s felt the opposite, and I was unable to parry more than a handful of times across my multiple attempts. Aside from that, though, as I mentioned, I found the game’s combat to be fun, and surprisingly deep with dozens of weapon/item combinations for my builds.

One of my issues with Hyper Light Breaker is how its world works with the procedural generation. The level I got to play on was huge, and I was told by the dev team just how lucky I was with the map that was generated for me. My main objective was located right by the spawn point, which I was very accustomed to. This meant, that when I died, I didn’t have far to travel back to the main boss. Those who weren’t as fortunate as me had to traverse a significant distance through a dangerous, enemy-laden landscape to reach their goals. I can imagine this would be frustrating given how common deaths are likely to be early on.

I understand that procedural generation is a common practice within roguelikes, however, I just feel it works much better within a 2D setting. With limited directions to explore, you always feel like making progress towards your goal. I get the feeling, Hyper Light Breaker won’t always be like that. This is all speculative, though, as I did only get to play on one iteration of an endless variety of possibilities, and given that the perilous world was fun to explore, it may be more of a non-issue.

I came away from my time with Hyper Light Breaker a little conflicted. I had a fun time in a beautiful world, with cool characters and slick combat, but the steep difficulty coupled with my questions on the procedural generation marred things a little. That being said, the first 30 minutes of every roguelike are always tough, and it’s a game I’ll definitely be checking out when it releases later this summer.

You can check out all of our coverage from this year’s Summer Game Fest right here.