Games never launch in perfect condition, and with early access games especially there's a greater expectation of jank. When you buy an early access game, you are knowingly signing up for an unfinished experience. But even by those standards, the day-one experience with Hyper Light Breaker fell short. The new open-world roguelike (or roguelite, if we want to get technical) from Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash developer Heart Machine landed on the wrong foot. Performance issues and a stupefyingly punishing solo and new-player experience brought on a flood of negative Steam reviews. Rapid patches from Heart Machine dramatically improved the game within days, and Breaker has since recovered to 63% positive reviews on Steam, but a lot of work remains to be done.
Few people were more excited for Hyper Light Breaker than me. I enjoyed Hyper Light Drifter immensely years ago and awarded near-top marks in our Solar Ash review. A new game from Heart Machine in a memorable universe, combined with one of my favorite genres, was a no-brainer. But despite some positive preview sessions with Breaker, I was also among the most disappointed when it actually came out. I generally agree with what Justin said in our Hyper Light Breaker review: it's a promising idea off to a rocky start.
