The Good
First things first, the visual design of this game is pretty amazing and follows suit from Hyper Light Drifter which was also a very beautiful game. Character designs are awesome, and the world is very pretty. Enemy designs are so and so, a few of them are pretty cool, others feel a bit whatever. The music that goes along with it is also very nice, and I've actually listened to the OST stand-alone already, which is a good sign. I am afraid this is where the outright Good part is over.
The Bad (I Wish They Were Good)
Movement - I'll just start by saying that the hoverboard does not feel very good to use. I've drowned a few times because of it, and the moment you hit a terrain it can't scale on its own it just breaks down. Jumping on the hoverboard is also very janky, and the transition between combat and hoverboarding is basically non-existent as you can't really attack while on it, not even use the guns, which would have been cool. Dashing is snappy, and feels very forgiving to use at times, especially when spamming it. If you don't spam it however, it is very likely you'll get caught in an AoE at the very end of its animation and end up getting damaged for it. The transition between being airborne and on-land also doesn't feel good at all. Also please just remove fall damage, it serves absolutely no purpose in a game like this imo.
Exes - The various characters are very pretty like I mentioned above, but their only real difference lies in what weapons they can use, which is the main differentiator in gameplay. Exe perks feel extremely lackluster, and the fact you can only use one at a time isn't a great choice in my opinion, especially when one of them might be +5% crit chance when no more than 3 enemies are near you, and the other being your execution spreads a negative affliction to other enemies. They just don't feel powerful whatsoever and each character really lacks an identity because of this IMO. Not sure if this is unlocked later on, but it would feel really nice if you could choose your starting weapon from the ones available to your EXE because some weapons I really hate using, while others I can get behind such as the claws.
Weapons - This is basically the bread and butter of the game, and although I haven't used all of them yet, of the ones I have used their Specials feel, once again, lackluster. This seems to be the theme of the game for me at this point. I really don't care about a 20% crit chance boost on my special. Games like Monster Hunter World or Wayfinder (which feels very similar) have way better weapon systems that actually differentiate the weapons between them and provide meaningful boosts/mechanics to interact with. For example, the spear has a single "piercing" attack at its Special, and doesn't really utilize additional range or anything like that which you'd expect from a spear. The "fantasy" of using claws, daggers, or a spear just doesn't feel fulfilled from their gameplay IMO. Thus far my favourite move is the dash attack, and I very rarely find a use for a weapon's Heavy Attack as it locks me in a long animation that allows the enemies to kick my teeth in, and it doesn't feel like it does that much damage anyway. I really don't enjoy ranged weapons and find myself forgetting I even have them, as when I do use them they barely scratch enemies before battery runs out. I wouldn't expect to kill elites with it, but the smaller ones should be more receptive to them.
Progress / Grinding - This is by far the worst offender in Hyper Light Breaker for me. You have like 4 different resources to collect right from the get-go, and then you also have the ingredients to make your soups, but even though you have so many resources to "collect", the progression is such a drag. You have to play for hours and hours to get a single upgrade which ends up being something akin to +5% to X stat. The upgrades in higher Tiers seem more impactful, but I ain't playing 50 hours for that, y'know? During your run, leveling up gets you a new "perk", but again, they don't really do anything special, or feel clanky at best - such as the perk that lets your dash attack reflect projectiles, you have to position yourself perfectly on some weapons as only the last ticks of the animation (at least from what Ive observed) are considered a "strike" and you end up eating projectiles to your face.
Combat - Last but not least, combat in general feels either like a mindless button mash or a straight up punishment considering how many enemies come at you at the same time and how much damage they deal. One misplay during your first encounter and you might end up losing like half your HP. Enemy attacks are not telegraphed very clearly which makes parrying a bit of a pain (I acknowledge this can be attributed to "skill issue"). When I do lock in and play perfectly, I will still end up getting hit during my own attacks which I cannot cancel, and that brings me to my other point - I really wish this game allowed me to cancel my animations so I can parry or dash or jump or whatever. A game this hectic with 15 projectiles coming your way that block the screen so you can't even see what melees are on your ass until it's too late has no business locking you in your animations. Airborne vs On-Land is very badly implemented. I noticed that land attacks will not hit airborne enemies even if the attack's animation goes right through them. It seems the more I play the more bad things I find unfortunately.
Verdict - The game feels like it has potential, or rather, I really wish it does. Right now it feels like a badly designed roguelike with uneventful abilities and mechanics that wants to emulate a souls-like combat experience where panic is your worst enemy, and patience your best virtue. Perks, weapon specials and ranged weapons just don't feel great at this stage for me. Enemies are too spongy, and sometimes just way too many for what your capabilities are. I feel like I die just as easy as your regular run-of-the-mill monster, but those same monsters don't die as easily to my own attacks. At least in Elden Ring, I know I can mow them down just as easily as they can, and staggering them to block them from attacking can be a valuable defensive tool. Here, they have a stagger bar which seems to only fill by the time they are 1 hit away from death.
My last gripe is that the devs state in their Early Access box that they are "essentially inventing this new genre of open world roguelike" which comes off as very arrogant, considering what they already have is just an average core. I don't think by full release my biggest concerns are going to be fixed, and it is very possible they chose to make it a roguelike just because they are a hot commodity right now, because it doesn't feel like they really know what makes roguelikes fun. Oh yay, I played for 2 hours and collected a ton of materials (even materials are scarce as hell btw, which I suspect they made it that way just to artifically extend your gametime, which I hate) Time to get my +5% damage boost, whoo! If I were the devs, I would play the ♥♥♥♥ out of Wayfinder to draw some inspiration from a game with a similar vibe/aesthetic that does combat way better and the different weapons actually feel special and have their own mechanics to play around. HLB as it stands reminds me more of a mobile game than anything, and I am very sad to say this because I was eagerly waiting for its release. This is the second shot I'm giving it after refunding it back when it was first released in EA and I don't think I'll be changing my mind any time soon. I'm not done yet, because I really want to like it, so who knows, maybe if I play it some more I'll get the gameplay loop down and it'll start being more fun. As of now, I just feel frustrated after a run, I don't feel like I make meaningful progress towards upgrades and even if I do, those upgrades are flat out bad.
