Indie Impressions - Heavy Bullets

 Heavy Bullets

 Now Available on Steam Early Access

 from Terri Vellman 

 The moment I start Heavy Bullets I'm assaulted with a minimal bright neon colored title-screen and a trippy melody with hazy vocals blaring over the glitched sounds of the menu like I've stumbled upon some kind of Philip K. Dick-ian Hotline Miami. I instantly think to myself "Yep this feels like something Devolver Digital would pick up and publish." This is of course a very good feeling.

The colorful neon cyber-jungles of Heavy Bullets await.

This exceeds any rogue-like FPS before it in every way, and ups the ante by having very well-thought out and carefully planned gameplay. The action and combat are more than solid, intense and the atmosphere is engaging; with enemies that can pop out of bushes killing you in a heartbeat, the panic of realizing you haven't loaded all those bullets you picked up, all powered by a pulsing electronic soundtrack that creeps up on you as you come closer to dangerous areas. 

Open wide!

The roguelike elements here work *very* well. You are placed into the thralls of a glitched neon world with harsh and bright hallways randomly generated every time, the goal is to reach the end of each floor and eventually make it to the 8th floor where you're tasked with resetting a malfunctioning mainframe. Sounds simple, but equipped with only your 6-shot revolver this will prove to be a true test in frustration as there are monsters, turrets, and worms hiding around every corner to whittle away at your already very limited life. The floors are randomly littered with items to help with this, and you'll find keycards for doors with exceedingly useful equipment and banks where if you're playing smart enough you can buy life insurance or deposit money that carry over into your next playthroughs, making things slightly easier each time.

Facing the 4th floor mid-boss, my death was very swift.

Heavy Bullets continues to receive updates and bugfixes, a lot based on community feedback. It's already incredible and continues to become even more refined, proving to be one of the more promising Early Access titles around. Seriously if you like roguelikes at all buy this game. If you like first person shooters at all, buy this game. If you like crazy artsy games with insanely stylish visuals and trippy sound design, buy this game!