Hellblusser

I love this little game. Simple ideas executed very well and entertaining boss fights that challenge you to be a little more perceptive. Really fun achievements that motivate you to try different ways of playing without feeling like a chore. Totally worth 5 bucks!

It’s not often we get a really strong, small-scale roguelike. It understandable given the genre’s heavy-hitters are lauded for their endless replayability, but Hellblusser’s modest scope make it a refreshingly breezy take on the formula. This linear first-person dungeon crawler see you slash and burn your way through three procedural locales. The combat is core to your survival from floor to floor. You must mix your melee attacks with ranged fireballs. Your sword and kick are riskier as you must approach enemies closely, but your fire magic is limited by its ammunition. Luckily, fire is abundant and you’ll rarely want for more for very long. Some foes will resist one attack type or the other, but it’s really your blessings and equipment that will determine your fighting style. Most upgrades come with a trade-off, so you’ll want to pick and choose such that your perks complement one another. Admittedly, if you focus your build toward fire magic enough, you can become overpowered with relative ease, but I don’t mean that as a criticism. It feels great to incinerate oncoming foes with flame and fury. And if you find the Ring of Kicking you can essentially replace your sword with the stun-locking kick for your melee kills. Bosses are a highlight, cleverly incorporating your fire magic as you absorb flame attacks and literally return fire. They act as miniature puzzles while still testing your defensive abilities. Speaking of which, you can block oncoming attacks with your sword, a powerful maneuver that is somewhat underutilized but contributes to the nuance of the combat appreciably. The art style is charmingly rough and cartoony, but the first two areas of the three blend together visually. Though not all too demanding, the game is rather hard to play at lower resolutions, with text quickly becoming illegible. Hellblusser might be a bit too easy for its own good, especially if you find a build that clicks with you, but it’s a good time while it lasts. It’s a fairly relaxed dungeon crawler, with more careful, measured combat, and some lo-fi beats to hack and slash to. Extinguishing hell may not be an epic conquest for the ages, but it’s still a pleasant little budget roguelike.