It’s been a few months since Hyper Light Breaker launched into early access, unfortunately arriving in a bit of a mess. The game just wasn’t there, which obviously is what early access is for, but it was rough. Everything was just a bit too difficult, too unbalanced, and the loop wasn’t strong enough to do over and over again, none of which you want in a roguelike. Developer Heart Machine have been tinkering away at it though, bringing in some much needed tweaks here and there, and now the game’s first big update is coming next week.
This update, titled Buried Below, will be coming to the game April 29, just a few days away. We’ll get to the additional stuff in a moment, because first I want to talk about the actual biggest part of the update, which is a complete rework of the game’s core structures.
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For starters, currently you have three lives before a run is finished. With this update, you’ll get one, and when you die, you’ll lose all your items as opposed to keeping them across runs. You do keep certain currencies across runs, but for the most part it’s going for a more traditional roguelike experience now when it comes to dying and loot. Extracting with said loot will be easier too, you can do it at any shrines you come across, and you don’t have to fend off waves of enemies to successfully get out.
SyComs, those lil robots that follow you around, now have their own sort of class-like system, with each Breaker getting one assigned SyCom with fixed stats. You’ll be able to equip them with perks to give your Breaker passive abilities too. For new players, and old ones too, there’s also a tutorial at the beginning of the game, something sorely needed for a game of its challenge level.
Ok, onto the part of the update where it gets its name from. There’s Rondo, a new Breaker whose abilities will let you boost your flash-step and parry. Heading underground will eventually lead you to a new Crown, the game’s bosses, called Maw. It’s a big ole evil-looking dragon whose attack patterns have some Returnal vibes about them. The underground area has been kept a bit mysterious in the trailer for the update, so I can’t really tell you what there’ll be down there, but you’ll be finding caves across the map in general now.
Honestly, good on Heart Machine for killing their darlings and retooling the core structure of their game so much. It sounds like quite a radical change from what they were going for, and personally it’s tempting me to jump back in. I haven’t played since launch, bouncing off of it because it was so rough to play, so I’m quite curious to see how it feels now.
