Just months after releasing Solar Ash, Heart Machine has revealed a sequel to the beloved pixel art action RPG Hyper Light Drifter. A departure from its predecessor, Hyper Light Breaker is a 3D third-person action game in a roguelite format, retaining the speed and colour of its forebear but replacing pixels with polygons.
Hyper Light Breaker is set in the Overgrowth, which is a “vast, ever-changing world with massive, open biomes and deep labyrinths.” This being a roguelite, that means the environments will be randomized, but there’s a hub-like ‘Settlement’ which becomes more populated throughout the game (think Hades, or Spelunky 2, or… most roguelites).
The fighting sounds like it’s aiming for something as fast and fluid as Solar Ash, albeit with a focus on RPG-style build crafting: there’s a “wide arsenal” of weapons and items to discover. The player-character has a hoverboard and glider at their disposal, and can wall-dash as well, all the better to move through those “vast” environments with speed and grace. The Steam page also promises online cooperative play, in addition to single player.
The trailer above is light on gameplay footage, but the small glimpses we do get definitely look like the studio behind Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash making a game that adopts the best elements from both. Hyper Light Breaker will hit Steam Early Access in spring 2023.
In the meantime you could try Solar Ash, which scored a respective 70 in our review. “Despite its strengths, Solar Ash fails to skate free from the gravity of its influences,” Sam Greer wrote, noting that regardless of these failings, the movement is superb.