Developer: Byte Rockers Games
Available on: Steam
Played on Steam
Copy provided by PR
I’m a big fan of rhythm-based mechanics in games. Doing anything to a beat just feels incredibly satisfying and I do not trust anyone who thinks otherwise. This is why Hi-Fi Rush was one of a trifecta of personal Games of the Year last year. Providing a goofy, over-the-top character action game and then setting it all to a soundtrack? Absolutely brilliant, more of this please.
Now here’s Beat Slayer, attempting to provide more of this. Sort of. It’s not quite the curated, story-driven experience offered by Tango Gameworks, but the fundamental concept of smashing up robots to the beat of some bangin’ tunes is here. However, we have a problem. It’s a roguelike. A genre I famously dislike. Oh no.
What is Beat Slayer?
Let me explain what Beat Slayer is first, though. You play as Mia, a brash, tomboyish rebel living in a cyberpunk version of Berlin where a disc jockey dictator named Dietrich is using a persistent soundtrack to control the masses. Mia is safe from the influence of these brainwaves because she is always wearing noise-cancelling headphones, and mostly lives underground with the rest of the resistance. However, Dietrich has taken Mia’s brother and now she wants to get him back.
The gameplay is an isometric top-down affair. You have an attack, a dash, a kick for knocking back opponents and a powerful ultimate attack that you can activate with enough energy built up. You travel through a series of stages battling increasingly difficult robots in different combinations using these moves.
The enemy placements are randomised because this is a roguelike. As you progress through the stages you unlock random upgrades. Some increase your damage output or defence, while others add status effects to your attacks such as Virus, Fire or Lightning, all of which turn you into an unstoppable killing machine.
Going Rogue
The core gameplay is a lot of fun. Moving to the beat is generally a fun time. I found myself dashing around to keep the beat, throwing out attacks whenever it felt right to do so. The added effects that you gain through a run also add to the fun factor significantly. One of my runs had Chain Lightning flying out of my basic attack, flames coating the ground every time I dashed, a Virus effect that activated on anything in range and the ability to cause all Virus effects to explode when kicked. It was an amazing combo that destroyed everything in the vicinity, up until I screwed up and died.
This is where the problems with Beat Slayer creep in though. The main problem I have with roguelikes is repetition. The idea that every time you load the game up, you’re starting from scratch. Progression involves you starting from the beginning, trying to survive as long as possible and then doing it all again. One argument in favour of the genre is the randomness inherent to level layouts and drops makes for a new experience every time. Except I become very aware of how much the same elements re-appear in different combinations, meaning the experience never feels new, it’s just the same thing I’ve already seen, just in a different order.
Sure, the upgrades are random so this changes the experience, but while some runs are the joyful destructive power fantasy I described above, other runs force you to be much weaker. You have limited control over this too, as it’s all decided by RNG. Again, this stuff is central to the genre, but that’s exactly what causes me to bounce off everything in the genre.
Beat Slayer does nothing to address this issue. The progression through the game’s levels is consistent – you start out in a junkyard and gradually move closer to the city and eventually enter Dietrich’s TV tower. There are three distinct bosses and you have to fight them with the same pattern every single time you attempt a run, always at the same points.
You’ve Got the Look
The levels always follow the same visual structure every time you play. These locations aren’t particularly interesting either. A third of the journey is drab industrial wastelands, the kind of dusty yard you’ll find tucked away behind an abandoned train station. The city and tower levels do improve on this a little, but only marginally. The city is still mostly alleyways, and the tower levels feature more maintenance corridors than should be acceptable. For a game that prides itself on a bold visual identity elsewhere, the levels feel like an afterthought.
That’s the thing. Elements like character design and the rebel base you return to between runs are a lot more visually interesting. Character portraits are illustrated in a bold comic book style, all heavy outlines and sketchy highlights to make a bunch of characters with unique punk aesthetics. I like it a lot and if the rest of the game followed these visuals consistently, it would be so much better.
Of course, for a game like this, the soundtrack is hugely important. And just like those character portraits, they’ve nailed exactly the kind of soundtrack a game like this should have. It’s all dramatic electro wave beats designed to pump you up, and it’s excellent.
Of course, some good music tracks would be good enough but they went one step further. The music is a continuous track that plays through the journey, with new elements blending in as you progress. What starts as a simple techno beat builds into a soaring electro tune full of orchestral stabs as you venture closer to Dietrich. I’m a sucker for a good mashup so this was pure dopamine for me.
Clearly Needs More Robot Cats
There’s a lot to like about Beat Slayer. The combat mechanics are superb and combined with that soundtrack it’s easy to fall into a flow state and go nuts. However, I feel like the developers shot themselves in the foot by making it a roguelike. As much as I enjoyed the combat, it did get tedious replaying those same levels over and over, especially the boss encounters.
I can’t help but compare it to Hi-Fi Rush. That game was an authored, linear experience and was all the better for it. It allowed the writing and visual identity to loom strong, enhancing its central rhythm combat mechanics. In Beat Slayer, it dips its toe into those same waters, but then pulls back by forcing you into randomised bland levels on a loop. It also forces the goofy references and jokes to also run on a loop, which kills any impact they could have had. Oh, is that a reference to They Live? That may be cute the first time but I was rolling my eyes by the tenth.
That said, I did like Beat Slayer overall. I rarely ever wanted to do another run immediately after ending one, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find myself having a blast in the moment. It’s quite likely that anyone with more patience for the inherent repetition of roguelikes might love this even more, but in my opinion, there’s a solid game here held back by its structural choices.
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