Developer Heart Machine has announced that its upcoming co-op rogue-lite prequel to Hyper Light Drifter, Hyper Light Breaker, will launch in early access this summer on PC.
Hyper Light Breaker is set decades prior to the events of Drifter. While Drifter was a top-down, initially single-player action game, Breaker is a 3D rogue-lite open world game with optional co-op. Players control Breakers, mercenaries sent out into the procedurally generated Overgrowth on missions to overthrow an enemy known as the Abyss King. To do so, they must defeat bosses known as Crowns, who are themselves unlocked by defeating powerful Elite monsters.
Hyper Light Breaker has a number of playable characters, custom loadouts of both ranged and melee weapons, and other rewards and upgrades that can be extracted and carried over from run to run. Each biome contains a mixture of procedurally generated and hand-crafted elements, and can be navigated using regular movement in tandem with parkour abilities such as a hoverboard and a glider.
Currently, Heart Machine is estimating that Hyper Light Breaker’s early access period will last roughly a year. Console versions have yet to be announced.
Alongside the release window announcement, I had the chance to go hands-on with Hyper Light Breaker. In my preview, I wrote that Hyper Light Breaker is “mysterious and colorful, movement feels good and combat satisfying, enemies are challenging, customization holds promise, and the music belongs on vinyl.”
You can read my full impressions here.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.