Hyper Light Breaker trailer shows off first gameplay in 'infinite open worlds'

Wood monster man and company crest pink hill under teal sky in hyper light breaker
(Image credit: Heart Machine)

Developer Heart Machine has unveiled its first official gameplay trailer for Hyper Light Breaker, a follow-up to 2016's beloved indie Zelda-like Hyper Light Drifter. While Breaker is a huge gameplay departure for the series, its distinctive soundscapes and visual identity seem very much intact.

Hyper Light Breaker presents a roguelite, distant prequel to the original game, with the titular Breakers exploring "infinite open worlds" that combine bespoke design and procedural generation. Breaker seems to be leaning into new RPG elements, with multiple classes on display like a fast-attacking swordsman in the vein of the first game's protagonist doing battle alongside what appears to be a burly engineer or gunsmith, as well as a more slight, thiefy character armed with Wolverine claws.

It's hard to get a sense for Breaker's combat without feeling it in the hand, but the soulslike, dash-and-bash rhythm looks like a faithful translation of the original game into 3D. I'm most intrigued by the direction Heart Machine has taken with its environments and worldbuilding though.

The trailer shows off neon pink beaches and sandstone ruins cut with surprisingly vibrant cyberpunk cities and desolate arctic bases. Hyper Light Drifter felt like a world on its way out, but this one seems full of life. A recent NoClip documentary drilled down on Heart Machine's designs for "infinite open worlds," with failed runs leading you to wake up in an entirely new generated map. That promise of procedural generation is often made but rarely fulfilled, but what's on display here is incredibly enticing.

In a lot of ways Breaker reminds me of Risk of Rain 2, a fellow 3D, roguelike follow-up to a well-liked 2D indie, but the team at Heart Machine also has their work cut out shifting genres in addition to rendering and perspective. I'll be eager to see how it all comes together when Hyper Light Breaker enters early access this fall, and you can currently wishlist the game on Steam.

Associate Editor

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch.

Read more
Three hyper light breaker characters running toward camera viewed from below.
Hyper Light Breaker has great combat, impeccable vibes, and its ambitious randomized open worlds actually work⁠—the real test is if it goes the distance in early access
Hyper Light Breaker player characters standing in a row with yellow cloud and dark background behind
Hyper Light Breaker will cost $30 and for a limited time come with a free copy of Drifter
Hyper Light Breaker characters standing on glowing platform looking toward camera
Hyper Light Breaker gets a community-driven update that makes 'some pretty big changes' to the game's enemies and medkit system, following its debut to mixed reviews on Steam
Two Hyper Light Breaker characters in arena brandishing light weapons
Undaunted by mixed Steam reviews, Hyper Light Breaker dev says it's 'encouraging' to have 'extremely reasonable' early access feedback
Three hyper light breaker characters running toward camera viewed from below.
A month into early access, Hyper Light Breaker has already added a new playable character, with a perk designed for players who like to 'shoot fast and shoot a lot'
sci fi guy points a neon gun toward camera
Despite a 'teamwide oops, guess we made it too hard moment,' Hyper Light Breaker has 'no regrets' about its mixed-response early access launch, and now it's got a roadmap so everyone can 'git gud'
Latest in RPG
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Sphene applauds in Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story.
I'm not yelling 'we're so back!' yet, but Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story could be the first sign the MMO is returning to what made it so critically-acclaimed
Latest in News
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event