The action roguelike I want most in 2025 is coming sooner than I thought: open-world game Hyper Light Breaker launches in January with 3-player co-op
Dec. 11, 2024Hyper Light Breaker starts its early access journey in a month
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Hyper Light Breakerhas been at the top of my listof most-wanted open-world games and roguelikes for ages now, owing to an unusual combination of elements which creator Heart Machine reckons is first-of-its-kind. To recapmy hands-on preview from earlier this year, you (and up to two friends) play as a Breaker and generate a new version of the Overgrowth map with each cycle. Embark on PvE extraction-like expeditions out into that world to collect Prisms which unlock bosses called Crowns. Defeat all the Crowns on the map to face the big bad Abyss King. If you lose all your lives, the cycle resets and you start again.
Along the way, you’ll meet and befriend new NPCs, discover and corroborate lore, upgrade your stats permanently, budget items like med kits, and discover new guns and blades to wield – or store in your vault for later.
The home base city evolves as you do, with folks moving in and offering new services. In the Overgrowth, you’ll hunt for secrets and resources while under the watch of the Abyss King, hoverboarding and gliding between points of interest. Once you’ve had enough or completed your immediate objective, you have to extract back to base to recover the limited life spent on that excursion, not unlike the way Risk of Rain makes you clear out level teleporters.
The early access version of Hyper Light Breaker will only have a few playable Breakers, two Crowns to fight, and no Abyss King. More enemies, Crowns, Breakers, gear, and a true ending will be added throughout early access, with Heart Machine expecting to hit 1.0 after “about a year,” with wiggle room “depending on the community’s response and feedback.”
This news notably follows layoffs at Heart Machine, which studio community and PR manager Yiyi Zhang said won’t affect Hyper Light Breaker. “In fact, a strong and timely launch will rekindle opportunities for those affected as we look to evolve and grow the game throughout Early Access. Our other projects, including Possessor(s), will also remain unaffected,” asGame Developerreported.
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