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Hyper Light Breaker Early Access Impressions – Heart Machine’s Co-Op Open-World Roguelite is Showing Incredible Promise

Hyper Light Breaker key art

Hyper Light Breaker Early Access Impressions – Heart Machine’s Co-Op Open-World Roguelite is Showing Incredible Promise

That Hyper Light Drifter is one of the best indies ever made is no secret. Heart Machine’s 2015 gem is one of several games that found an audience on Kickstarter only to experience massive success and critical acclaim upon launch, setting the stage for later titles to follow in its footsteps like 2017’s Hollow Knight (and many, many others). Releasing at a time when the indie scene was starting to become prevalent as one of the last bastions of creativity and experimentation in the gaming industry, and when players were practically starved for atmospheric action-adventure experiences that paid homage to the classics of the 16-bit era, Hyper Light Drifter was a transcendent experience, mixing elements of The Legend of Zelda, Dark Souls, and Metroid into a potent brew that was impossible to put down with gorgeous visuals and an all-timer of a soundtrack.

So, to say that anticipation for Hyper Light Drifter‘s sequel, Hyper Light Breaker, has been high is an understatement. Switching its genre and focus from a solo, meditative action-adventure to a co-op-focused open-world roguelike, Hyper Light Breaker is bold new territory for both developer Heart Machine and the Hyper Light universe, and its shift to full 3D from Hyper Light Drifter‘s pixel art is a major departure for the world, its characters, and its atmosphere. I’ve spent roughly 10 hours with the game since it launched into Early Access on January 14, 2025, and while it still has some wrinkles to iron out (as most Early Access releases do), the core elements of Hyper Light Breaker position it as being one of the all-time great action roguelikes alongside classics like Hades, Risk of Rain 2, and Dead Cells.

Dropping Into the Overgrowth

Hyper Light Breaker gameplay

Things start with an appropriate amount of mystery and intrigue in Hyper Light Breaker, with the game choosing to “show” rather than “tell” like its predecessor. You’re dropped into a mysterious hub area known as The Cursed Outpost and immediately set about to venture into the realm of the game’s antagonist, The Abyss King. This realm, the Overgrowth, is a constantly changing and dynamically shifting open-world sandbox in which players have 4 attempts to stop the Abyss King and his lieutenants (boss enemies dubbed “Crowns”) in what the game calls a Cycle. Each Cycle presents players with a procedurally generated world that they can explore, gather strength in, and then retreat from, before it all starts over again after either dying 4 times, extracting 4 times, or killing all 3 Crowns and the Abyss King.

As far as roguelike structures go, Hyper Light Breaker‘s is fairly standard. Still, its use of procedural generation results in each Cycle presenting players with a new world to explore, helping things to feel both familiar and foreign each time you re-enter the Overgrowth. Maps are large enough to have traversal tools like a Hoverboard and Glider become necessities, but they’re surprisingly easy to traipse from one end to another. What’s most interesting about Breaker‘s structure is its Extraction Shooter twist, where the world of the Overgrowth becomes increasingly dangerous the longer Breakers are present. While the game’s structure demands that you must kill Crowns before facing the Abyss King and “clearing” a run, sometimes it’s best to just gather weapons, items, and upgrades before absconding back to the Cursed Outpost.

Coming to Grips With Hyper Light Breaker’s Combat

Hyper Light Breaker gameplay

Of course, it wouldn’t be a game set in the Hyper Light universe without some white-knuckle combat, and that’s one area where Hyper Light Breaker‘s core gameplay loop is already delivering in spades. Much like in Hyper Light Drifter, the player characters in Hyper Light Breaker (the titular Breakers) have both melee and ranged abilities. Melee weapons (Blades) run the gamut from the standard sword to larger, heavier weapons like greatswords and cleavers, longer-range skill-based weapons like spears and hammers, or swift weapons that sacrifice damage output for speed like dual-blades and claws. So far, each of the melee weapons I’ve unlocked feels satisfying to use, and they only become even more so with the right Holobytes — modifiers that grant various perks.

Firearms are similarly great, with the different options available each having validity in different combat scenarios. Dubbed “Rails”, players have access to standard-issue pistols, blunderbuss-style shotguns, longer-range rail guns, and semi-automatic assault rifles. Switching between Blades and Rails is seamless, and necessary, in combat. Each Breaker adheres to a specific class type, dubbed a SyCom, but they generally have the same loadout. You head into the Overgrowth able to carry a Blade and Rail but also have special abilities linked to each melee weapon, as well as the ability to dash (which grants invulnerability frames) and parry enemy attacks. To its credit, Heart Machine has successfully translated the flow and satisfying back and forth of Hyper Light Drifter‘s excellent combat into 3D with Hyper Light Breaker, and it’s a treat to experience.

Progression Starts Slow, Then Quickly Ramps Up

Hyper Light Breaker gameplay

The way that Hyper Light Breaker handles progression, both within each run and the more permanent meta-progression across each Cycle, is similarly satisfying. Though it’s somewhat slow to start — with death a more common occurrence than some might be used to in early attempts — it eventually begins to ramp up once players unlock all the Vendors at The Cursed Outpost and have some better options for starting gear. Completing Cycles (whether through exhausting all remaining resurrections or entering the Overgrowth and extracting 4 times) results in unlocking Golden Rations, which are spent on the substantial upgrades to both character classes and Vendors, while other materials obtained in each run are retained upon death and spent on temporary unlocks such as weapons, Holobytes, and equipment.

Defeating each Cycle’s boss enemies, the Crowns, is incredibly challenging at first. But with persistence, and perhaps a little bit of luck in terms of your loot drops, you will eventually take one (or more) of these foes down, earning some very worthwhile rewards. Once things begin to click into place and you start to advance along Hyper Light Breaker‘s power curve, it becomes apparent how much depth there is to the game’s character customization and progression. Just don’t expect to get there quickly. Hyper Light Breaker makes players work for the feeling of becoming powerful. That said, the satisfaction of finally reaching that point is a sensation not felt often enough in gaming.

Getting the ‘Perfect’ Drops and Cutting Loose

Hyper Light Breaker gameplay

Make no mistake, Hyper Light Breaker is very unforgiving at first. Eventually, players will come across the right weapons and Holobyte combinations that cater to their play style. Reaching that point takes both a bit of skill and a bit of luck, but it also provides an unmistakable moment where everything “clicks” into place. To illustrate this point, I’ll walk us through a recent run where I would end up defeating my first Crown.

After a handful of failed Cycles, where I used all my resurrection chances (dubbed “Rez”) without ever making significant progress, I dropped into the Overgrowth to do it all again. Having stuck to the basic swords in an effort to come to grips with the combat system, I made the decision to try something new. Heading to one of the Blade icons on the map, I acquired a dual-blade type weapon that was a set of claws. Not long after, I was fortunate to pick up not one, but two orange-quality Holobytes. One granted HP upon successful critical hits, while the other increased the strength of any dual-blade type weapon based on how much currency my Breaker was holding. Zooming around like a hyperactive Wolverine, quickly dispatching any foes unfortunate enough to land in my path, completely transformed the experience.

While the careful and methodical encounter design of Dark Souls is still a cornerstone of Hyper Light Breaker‘s combat, the game does eventually open up to allow players to get creative with how they approach its potent mix of both melee and ranged options. Just know that, like most roguelikes, you may be at the mercy of RNG before reaching that point.

As Expected, Hyper Light Breaker’s Vibes Are Immaculate

Hyper Light Breaker gameplay

Outside of its already strong gameplay, Hyper Light Breaker is a game all about its atmosphere. Like Hyper Light Drifter, HLB is absolutely bursting with style and personality. Even though The Overgrowth utilizes procedural generation to repopulate the environment each cycle, you’d be mistaken for assuming that each refresh of the world was a painstakingly created bespoke sandbox. The Overgrowth also uses similar biomes and a striking color palette to bring Hyper Light Drifter‘s mystifying world to life in 3D, and the results are a definitive win. In terms of its art style and animation, the 3D of Hyper Light Breaker is fairly similar to Risk of Rain 2, but its biome diversity and impressive verticality set it apart from both other roguelikes in its wheelhouse and Heart Machine’s other works.

Like its predecessor, Hyper Light Breaker also features an evocative earworm of a soundtrack. While Disasterpeace did not return to craft the OST for Breaker after his much-lauded work on the Hyper Light Drifter score, what’s present in HLB is similar. It’s a minimalistic, synth-driven electronic score that hits all the right notes. During combat, things appropriately shift and swell to signal tension and danger. During the more peaceful and serene moments spent traversing through The Overgrowth, the soundtrack appropriately transitions to more thoughtful (and, occasionally, unnerving) soundscapes. Simply put, Hyper Light Breaker is a game that kind of lives and dies by its vibes. It might not be to everyone’s liking, but it is 100% to mine.

What’s Working in Early Access, and What Still Needs Fixing

Hyper Light Breaker gameplay

But that’s not to say that Hyper Light Breaker is a flawless experience. Far from it. As an Early Access title, there are still several notable issues that will eventually need resolving. To its credit, Heart Machine is incredibly receptive and responsive to player feedback, spinning the game’s currently “Mixed” Steam user score as a silver lining that indicates where the team should direct its resources as it continues to refine and improve the experience. Thankfully, most of the issues that HLB currently has are items concerning the game’s performance, accessibility options, and general quality-of-life functions, as opposed to more problematic and systemic issues related to the gameplay or progression. For the most part, Hyper Light Breaker‘s gameplay loop is already hitting it out of the park, it’s just logistic items that need to follow suit.

There are a few feedback items that I would like to see Heart Machine address in the ensuing patches and updates to HLB, including the following:

  • Resurrecting after death and hopping back into a run takes entirely too long. Roguelikes needs to have seamless transitions to make failure less punitive. Diving back into the gameplay after failure should be easy to encourage multiple runs, and HLB currently has a lengthy wait between dying and respawning in The Cursed Outpost.
  • While HLB features different balancing for solo or co-op play, it needs some tweaking. Mini-boss enemies and Crowns still feel more balanced toward co-op even when playing solo. As a result, they end up being too “damage spongey”.
  • Hyper Light Breaker is a game that deserves Steam Deck optimization and verification, and this should be a priority.

A Strong First Impression

Hyper Light Breaker gameplay

Thankfully, I have yet to experience any of the performance issues players have noted in their reviews of Hyper Light Breaker‘s Early Access launch, and my choice to play with a controller means I have no gripes with the game’s apparent lack of acceptable key binding options or mouse and keyboard optimization. And while I do have some general gripes for things that Heart Machine will likely address during the Early Access period as the game continues to receive regular updates, patches, and content drops, what’s already present and playable right now is incredibly solid. From a gameplay perspective, Hyper Light Breaker absolutely nails everything it’s setting out to do.

Combat and progression are satisfying, the Overgrowth is a joy to explore, and the general roguelike structure and gameplay loop are addictive. Hyper Light Breaker makes an incredibly strong impression, and it’s arguably putting its best foot forward given how high expectations were for the title. I, for one, can’t wait to see how it develops during its Early Access period, and I think it has every chance of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the greatest roguelikes when it hits 1.0.

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