If ever there was a recreation that embodied the maxim of “Present, don’t inform,” it’s Hyper Gentle Drifter. The 2D motion RPG developed by indie studio Coronary heart Machine launched to crucial acclaim again in 2016, buoyed by the power of quick and frenetic gameplay, its evocative rating, and a profitable Kickstarter marketing campaign in the course of the heyday of the crowdfunding platform. Almost a decade later, Coronary heart Machine has returned with a prequel to its breakout hit: an open-world roguelike set in a vibrant world teeming with risks and secrets and techniques aplenty.
Hyper Gentle Breaker’s design feels closely indebted to the likes of Danger of Rain 2, because it interprets the simplified artwork fashion and moment-to-moment fight of its 2D forebear right into a procedurally generated 3D setting. Gamers assume the position of a “Breaker,” a treasure-hunting warrior tasked with rebuilding the world within the wake of a horrible cataclysm. As a Breaker, you’re dispatched into the Overgrowth, a wasteland dominated by the “Abyss King,” a mysterious antagonist with the facility to reshape the atmosphere at his whim.
To progress, gamers should traverse the Overgrowth gathering “prisms” to unlock the sector of one of many “Crowns,” the Abyss King’s lieutenants. These arenas could be discovered scattered all through the world, both secreted away in one of many Overgrowth’s many dungeons or held by a very highly effective enemy that should be defeated. That’s not all you’ll discover, because the world is wealthy with quite a lot of highly effective weapons, monoliths that provide lore concerning the historical past main as much as the sport’s occasions, and a dizzying multitude of collectibles and currencies that, I’ll be completely trustworthy, I haven’t fairly sussed out all of the makes use of for but.
Strip away all that correct noun-laden lore and people byzantine talent timber and you’ve got a reasonably competent, difficult roguelike expertise with satisfying fight and traversal mechanics. I couldn’t let you know to what extent the story of Hyper Gentle Breaker pertains to the occasions of Hyper Gentle Drifter as a result of sincerely, at this level within the recreation’s early entry launch, there’s not a lot in the best way of a narrative to be gleaned. The monoliths scattered all through the Overgrowth could be decoded again on the Cursed Outpost, your base of operations, which in flip unlocks textless comedian slideshows that reveal extra concerning the background of the Crowns and their position within the Abyss King’s conquest. The rest is pure inference.
The place the sport excels most is in its visible and sound design, taking the touchstones of Coronary heart Machine’s authentic recreation and updating them. There have been many moments throughout my preliminary playthrough the place I discovered myself pausing earlier than shrines paying homage to those I encountered in Hyper Gentle Drifter, or gliding throughout a neon plain atop my hoverboard as a melancholic synth observe poured in via my headphones. Hyper Gentle Breaker might not have fairly the identical retro “vibe” as its predecessor, however it’s most definitely a temper. To place it one other method: As Hyper Gentle Breaker indicators the franchise’s transfer from out of the shadow of its aesthetic debt to The Legend of Zelda: A Hyperlink to the Previous or Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, it feels as if it’s turning into increasingly more like a correct, self-contained universe itself, rife with surprises and potential that had been beforehand constrained by a deference to the previous.
That will not be sufficient for some followers of Hyper Gentle Drifter to hold their hopes on. Talking for myself, nonetheless, I’ve loved the handful of hours I’ve spent preventing via the Overgrowth and acclimating to Hyper Gentle Breaker’s steep but gratifying issue curve. I’ve seen and performed sufficient thus far that, whereas I’m not fully offered on the sport because it stands now, I’m assured sufficient in Hyper Gentle Breaker’s basis to consider that Coronary heart Machine can iterate and construct on this preliminary launch to create a worthy successor to its pixelated namesake.
