Hyper Light Breaker was a bust at launch, but a huge new update is luring me in

A stylish co-op roguelike base in the world of one of the all-time great indie hits, Hyper Light Breaker's elevator pitch seemed like a strong one. However, since its early access launch at the start of the year, it's really struggled. Sure, early access is designed to be a time of learning and improvement, but it failed to make a lasting impact with fans of the genre and its celebrated sibling, Hyper Light Drifter. With 1.0 coming next year, developer Heart Machine is putting in some serious graft to turn things around, and today it's shadow-dropped a new Hyper Light Breaker update that I believe is its most important to date.

Heart Machine has already pushed out some pretty transformational updates in an effort to make Hyper Light Breaker one of the best co-op games - we spoke to the team earlier in the year about the Buried Below update that tinkered with pretty much every mechanic and system. It also scaled back the extraction side of things to create a more traditional roguelike experience - something the studio says will give it a "stronger foundation" for its eventual 1.0 launch.

Titled Double Down, this new Hyper Light Breaker update, which has dropped out of the blue during the Future Games Show, isn't quite as radical in terms of altering core systems. However, it does bring swathes of new content and an all-important endgame challenge to give it the longevity it needs.

First up, there's a new boss to encounter - or should I say, there are two new bosses to encounter. Known as The Twins, this battle sees a duo of deadly, staff-wielding foes swing and stab at you and your teammates in the same arena. While Heart Machine's light on the details right now, it teases that you'll have to be strategic with which one you take out first - but it doesn't sound like things will get much easier once one of the Twins have fallen.

They look pretty lethal, so it might be wise to take Hyper Light Breaker's new character into that encounter. Beefy new Breaker Gravenheart arrives as an option for those that want to play a Tank-style role, so they should be able to soak up plenty of hits from The Twins. The new weapon being added to the game could also prove useful - the Burst Launcher is HLB's first grenade launcher, and will give you an explosive, ranged option for taking down opponents.

If you've played Hyper Light Breaker before, you'll no doubt have spotted the mysterious levitating islands that float above The Overgrowth. Well, these are now explorable areas called the Sky Labs. Heart Machine says they'll be expanded on throughout the rest of early access, so they're not the finished article just yet. However, between Sky Labs and a few other new points of interest, there are more locations to uncover in the game now.

While new content is all well and good, there will always be a small but crucial community of fans that master everything a game has to throw at it. To appease them and give a game more longevity, a higher-difficulty gauntlet is usually required. The Double Down update brings just that to Hyper Light Breaker with the introduction of the Glitch system. "This new game plus-style difficulty system gives players searching for the ultimate challenge the ability to enable modifiers, like increasing enemy damage, to make their next run even more deadly. The harder the difficulty overall, the greater the challenge and rewards."

Again, this is an initial version of the feature that will evolve over the course of early access, but it will be completed and fully fleshed out by the time 1.0 hits.

Speaking of, Heart Machine has also given an update on its early access and 1.0 plans. "The team is planning for one final major Early Access content update for this fall, then following that, they will fully focus on version 1.0 development. A launch date for the 1.0 version will be revealed later this year. Additionally, a roadmap with more details on what's to come will be shared sometime in September."

Hyper Light Breaker's Double Down update is live right now. Check out every change and pick the game up yourself on its Steam page here. For more, check out some of the best roguelike games, or upgrade your setup with our best gaming keyboard guide.

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