Hellbreach: Vegas is a title that, to my ear, sounds like a weird mashup of Hellgate: London and Rainbow Six: Vegas. And it sort of is, in the sense that terrible supernatural horrors are afoot in Sin City and it's up to you and your heavily-armed pals to do something about it. It's been in early access on Steam since March, and today publisher Iceberg Interactive announced that the full 1.0 release is coming on August 14.
In actual gameplay terms, Hellbreach: Vegas is a co-op shooter that's really more akin to old-school Call of Duty Zombies mode. Associate editor Ted Litchfield took it for a ride in March and was suitably impressed by the experience: "It perfectly replicates the cramped, frantic wave shooter gameplay I remember, but with its own arsenal and an aesthetic fusing Norse demon enemies with a gaudy Las Vegas setting, the latter dovetailing quite nicely with the game's mechanics for gambling on guns and perks."
Another nice touch is that Hellbreach: Vegas has no microtransactions or battle passes: All cosmetics and unlockables are earned through gameplay. Yes, that means you have to pay for it up front, but—more good news—it's just $10. Let's be honest, a lot of you have paid more than that for a single skin in your free-to-play shooter of choice.
The 1.0 version of Hellbreach: Vegas will include five game modes—Survive, Trapped, Gun Pro, Royale, and Nightmare—and eight maps, including a brand-new one simply called Hell. Rounding things out will be 18 guns, a trio of melee weapons, 11 perks, nine types of enemies, and five slot machines. This is Vegas, after all.
Given all the changes made to Hellbreach: Vegas since early access began, solo developer Ashley Ellis has also updated the demo on Steam to better reflect the current state of the game. Inspired by Ted's enthusiasm, I took the demo for a spin and it really is quite good. It's not quite a boomer shooter but it definitely has an old-time vibe to it: You can shoot 'em, you can hit 'em, or you can run. Sometimes, simplicity really is best.
A beta of backyard FPS Neighbors: Suburban Warfare is out now, and the balance discussion is hysterical: nerf trash can lids and children
An FPS studio pulled its game from Steam after it got caught linking to malware disguised as a demo, but the dev insists it was actually the victim of a labyrinthine conspiracy
