In a new trailer at the Gamescom edition of the Future Games Show, Heart Machine simultaneously revealed and launched the latest early access update to Hyper Light Breaker, which includes new systems, a playable character, a fresh boss, and floating islands in the open world. I got a chance to see the new additions in a hands-off gameplay presentation last week, and here are the topline changes:
- A new ramen vendor and collectible ingredients for cooking noodle dishes that give single-run buffs.
- “Glitch bar” difficulty system: Think Hades’ heat bar or Halo skulls, with most of the current modifiers focusing on enemy damage, stagger, and other numerical adjustments.
- Sky Labs floating islands, which feature platforming challenges, wave fights, and unique loot.
- New boss fight featuring a pair of gunslinging twins.
- New playable character, a tanky, heavy-hitter type.
I was most excited for those Sky Labs—Tears of the Kingdomy flying islands are one of the quickest ways to my heart in an open world. They certainly look cool, but right now fit in more as one-off challenge rooms rather than a full biome or system of islands. I only saw a challenge fight island during the demo, but Heart Machine lead producer Michael Clark mentioned there will also be platforming-centric ones too.
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It also looks like they’ll open up a new traversal option as well: The gateways to individual islands just kind of warp you up there, no jump pad shenanigans, but you’ll be able to paraglide back down to the rest of the map once you’re done.
Clark also noted that the current version of the Skylabs, like Breaker’s underground zones, represents a “smaller version of what we want to have in 1.0,” meaning there’s more to come up in the air in future updates. Clark also said that the labs’ development was part of a broader push by the team to “add more to the open world that isn’t just the critical path.”
I was caught off-guard by how much I dug the new boss, an Ornstein and Smough-style duo fight with glaive and gun-wielding outlaw twins. Clark said that they’re “technically four bosses” from a design standpoint, with each twin having their own moveset, as well as a unique empowered form for if you kill their sibling first.
The last big ticket addition is the new bruiser/tank playable character, who looks like one of the alligator bad guys from Donkey Kong Country. Clark played as him for the whole demonstration, using a hefty two-handed hammer and new grenade launcher weapon paired with the vampiric health regen Berserker’s Exoskeleton already in the game. The new character looks to finally add some beef to Breaker’s roster, a stand and fight playstyle that reminds me of the Raider in Elden Ring Nightreign.
And you can try all of it for yourself right now, with the update having simultaneously launched with the Future Games Show trailer. You can check out Hyper Light Breaker in early access over on Steam.