ByteRockers’ Games is about to turn up the action and slay the stage in our Beat Slayer review. Plunging players into a dystopian 90s Berlin, this roguish action brawler challenges players to trash waves of mechanized opponents to an incendiary musical beat. If you’re already sold, you can press play on the Steam Store now.
For the rest of you looking for a little more detail, the inaugural action adventure from Berlin based indie studio is a dystopian take on established rhythm roguelikes and a throw back to arcade classics of the pre 2000s. Taking us to an alternate underground music scene, players find themselves in the role of Mia. This tinkerer and all round badass is on a mission to save her brother from an enigmatic villain who rules the streets and the airwaves. This means opening some crushing riffs and powerful attacks on hordes of robot minions. Across a series of stages, our heroine unloads on waves of machines and the odd overpowered boss fight, all to take down Dietrich.
Despite all the talk of kicking ass and bashing up buckets heads, Beat Slayer does far more than take a traditional beat ‘em up and prop up onto an isometric stage. Tonally, it leans away from obvious comparisons to the likes of Hi-Fi Rush, presenting a different era and a grimier attitude. The subways stations, and overground are all wonderfully detailed but rarely pristine. Industrial equipment intersects the streets, scorch marks and trye tracks litter the roadways, and the ByteRockers has even taken he time to leave litter on the benches. These rough edges extend beyond the backdrops of Berlin. Menus, maps, and animations of Mia could be ripped right from an indie comic book. Even the explosions are comic book accurate, while depictions of Mia drawn deliberately loose in places, making the stylized depiction of this world feel punk.
You won’t find much in the way of pop punk shenanigans here, however. Much like the underground electronic scene and elicit raves that peppered Germany thought the 80s and 90s, this soundtrack is far dirtier. Incorporating thumping beats and an unrelenting analogue vibe, the soundtrack continues to take the likes of Crypt of the Necrodancer in a new direction.
Shred Some Enemies
Music is at the heart of this quest for justice. Once Mia makes it through a blissfully short tutorial the beats begin. In the overworld, a diverse range of stages spawn chrome plated problems that are solved using a basic attack, stun, dodge and ultimate attacks. Best played with a controller, movement is intuitive and still as precise as a rhythm game needs to be. While our protagonist can walk around to her own time, smash and dash is best performed on the beat. Locking in actions on time clocks up a counter, provides battle benefits, and eventually unlocks a powerful state known as Tanzrausch. Try to syncopate the action and you’ll reset the beat counter that’s nestled down in the bottom right corner of the screen. This musical combat refrains from punishing players who need to get out of time. It will make Mia’s many attacks less effective, but never utterly ineffectual.
Between the pitch perfect timing, multi limbed mechs spawn in various forms, flying energy weapon take to the air, tanks rev up, and even the traffic seems set on mowing down Mia. The inventive problems that appear between Mia and Dietrich manage to keep the myriad of stages engaging. Whether these monsters end up smashing their way across the map, dropping mines, or frying anything in their path with a laser, I the mix of unique adversaries and solidly telegraphed firepower means everything form one boss battle to another doesn’t feel cut and paste.
Boss Battles
Much like flying, crawling, revving, and floating trashcans that support them Boss battles are all different. Some sort of massive burrowing aardvark presents the first serious challenge, while others like a weaponised train carriage take things in a different direction. Much like the smaller mobs, these all come with a predictable pattern of attacks but much more firepower. Early runs, however, will leave you feeling like you can barely scratch the chrome.
Upgrades, Add One, And A Path Through Berlin
At its lowest moment, Beat Slayer begins with Mia wielding nothing more than an axe. Stages come in thick and fast in 1 or 2 minute bouts of iron fisted action. Multi limbed mechs spawn in various forms, flying energy weapons exude dangerous bolts of light, tanks rev up to crush opposition, and even the traffic seems set on mowing down Mia. Thankfully, payback progression comes in many deadly forms.
Like any decent roguelike, Beat Slayer isn’t built to be overcome in one run and progression is part of the slay, die, repeat game loop. During each run, buffs, XP, and boosts are handed out after overcoming a stage or boss encounter. The available options change based on the path taken through Berlin and can end up being incredibly powerful. Techo virus attacks, rage inducing dodges, trails of lava and lightning bolt modifiers sit alongside more obvious options such as critical attack boosts, increased toughness, and extra HP drops. Just like the astonishing mix of robots that roam each stage, these boosts and their impact help make a potentially repetitive core loop surprisingly enjoyable.
Progression doesn’t end when you get kicked off stage. Returning to an underground hideout, Mia can count up the XP gathered up top by bashing bad guys and completing side quests. Cash in that XP and Mia can access new weapons and powerful permanent benefits. Some are more powerful than others. Extra lives and HP are a necessity, but new weapons can entirely change the way the Mia rocks up on screen. Three home-made options are on offer to slash, clobber, and grind away your problems up close or at a distance, and every single one of them has their own tempo and playstyle. While an axe angled Beat Shredder adds speed to the ensuing chaos, it puts Mia much closer to danger than the heavy-handed swings of a home-made battle hammer.
Beat Slayer’s gorgeous style drew us into this underground fight club, but the razor-sharp combat systems and constant gameplay updates keep things from feeling overly repetitive. If you ever wondered what an electronica take on Hades would look like, then come kick Deitrich’s ass in Beat Slayer. Grab it on Steam when it launches on 4 April.
