Recent reviews by Stabb #horseracetests

I don’t think there’s been a game in the last 5 or 10 years that sold me with only 5 seconds of gameplay and kept me hooked until I fell asleep.

This is the spiritual Star Fox successor I’ve always wanted—one that I’ve been wanting for quite some time. The flight controls are spot on, not feeling too tight but not too loose, either. The upgrades feel meaningful and, more importantly, fun to play around. I’ve already decided that my favorite build centers around executing tight boosts (flying through a small gap between either two walls or a floor and a ceiling) and holding onto the resulting buffs as long as possible.

Although your selections of ships and weapons are few in quantity, each of them are different enough from each other to warrant giving all of them a shot. Currently, my favorite combo is the Dagger (the fastest ship), the Burst Blaster (the shotgun lasers), and the Crater Missile Launcher (the Smart Bomb). Using this combination allowed me to blast through each level like it was a bombing run, annihilating anything that dared get between my crosshairs while I weaved between buildings and enemy projectiles without taking a scratch.

The music and artistic choices made for this game are all outstanding. The vaporwave aesthetic combined with the pseudo-orchestral, electronic soundtrack made for something that was pleasant simply to look at and listen to.

Like I said earlier, the game is fairly limited in the choices it can offer you. But this is perfectly acceptable, as at the time of this review, the game has only been in Early Access for a little over a month. What the devs have at present is incredibly impressive as is. Additionally, they intend on making a fully-fledged 3D space-shooter using this game as a foundation, which I cannot properly express my excitement for.

(Side note, I think one of the achievements is bugged — I completed a run with the Fatal Collision modifier, but I did not get the Smooth Sailing achievement. Doesn’t change my opinion of the game, though!)

this game is great for pirating board games

played it for nearly 900 hours, starting when it came out in 2016. this game has had its ups and downs, but i still think it can be some fun if you play it with the right people. a little too harsh on newcomers, but what modern fps isn't? wish they had stuck with the old payment model, but thanks to the success of other battle-pass games (*cough* FORTNITE *cough*), we have this now. oh, well.

wish the people who were review-bombing this game had anything useful to add that actually pertained to the game, but that's like asking a swarm of hornets to not sting your face.

TLDR:
BPM: BULLETS PER MINUTE is a kickass game with amazing gunplay and sound design. Its lack of additional content leaves much to be desired, but the foundation is so solid that it doesn't matter too much.

9/10

--- FULL REVIEW ---
I'm just going to say it - I fell in love with this game FAST. Faster than any other title I've played this year. The gun/gameplay, aesthetics, and rhythms this game has to offer are all fantastic in their own right.

For the most part, every weapon in the game is satisfying to use. My personal favorites were the pump-shotgun, the quad-revolver, and the grenade launcher. The lever-action rifle and the SMG are honorable mentions, as they grew on me during subsequent playthroughs. The only gun I did not enjoy using was the energy magnum. I found it to be too slow for my liking, especially on Hard difficulty runs. The energy cannon and minigun both took a bit of getting used to, but learning to use them was worth it.

During each playthrough, the player can pick up various items that can be used to make a unique build. This makes each playthrough refreshing, as your build will ideally be different each time. However, not every item is created equal. Items such as the Poison Boots and Seiar's Hat are outclassed by the Helm of Rage and the Rhythmic Chaos Boots. Laying poison terrain or dealing AoE damage in a small radius around the player is neither as efficient nor satisfying as just dealing more damage with your gun. The game is meant to be fast-paced, and slower/more methodical tactics are less efficient and, more importantly, less enjoyable to use because of that. Two of the most powerful items the player can find are Loki's Bargain and the Miogard Bracelet, both of which increase each of your stats more and more as the run goes on. These are way too empowering as is and outclass all other pieces of equipment. That being said, not a single piece of equipment in this game is useless. Each one has its own set of benefits. When used correctly, every item has the potential to be an extremely powerful tool.

Throughout the run, the player can find secondary and ultimate abilities to use. These can do anything from healing the player to firing a massive energy blast to summoning barrels that explode when shot. Each Valkyrie has their own set of unlockable abilities, too. These abilities do not have the same problem that items do, since their benefits make an immediate difference. Although some ultimate abilities take a little bit too long to charge and end up being a chore to use.

New weapons, items, and abilities are obtained by clearing rooms, opening locked chests/libraries, or buying them from one of two vendors. This power progression is paced well enough and sometimes forces the player to make a decision regarding how to manage their resources. In addition, both vendors can be upgraded by buying their wares over the course of many playthroughs, allowing them to expand their inventory and give you more things to buy. Challenge rooms live up to their name, offering the player the chance to test their skills against much harder enemies in exchange for some sweet loot. Doing three challenges in a row often results in obtaining a new piece of equipment or a consumable upgrade. The bosses of each level serve as tests to see if the player is strong enough to move on. On initial playthroughs, they will punish the player for not paying attention to their attacks. Each attack is telegraphed to give the player just enough time to react properly.

One thing this game does well is forcing the player to learn through experience and experimentation. There is not a single tutorial screen or level for the player to read or sit through, so the rules of the game are taught through regular gameplay. Loading screen tips are helpful to newer players but do not provide enough information to act as primary sources of knowledge. They are supplementary tidbits of info that compliment what the player experiences and what they learn from that. Brief on-screen commands will sometimes flash at the player, telling them what to do in case they aren't picking up on the game's cues. By focusing on the diamond surrounding the crosshair, the player can plan ahead and act accordingly based on what attacks are coming next. The game's difficulty does not come from extremely powerful bosses. The name of the game is pattern and rhythm memorization. Enemies have attack patterns, and it is the player's job to act accordingly when facing each enemy. The game IS about playing to the beat. Speaking of...

The music in this game does wonders making the player feel like the kickass Valkyrie they're controlling. Every single track in this game is an absolute blast to listen to. The sound design is on point too--everything SOUNDS amazing. Guns are loud and powerful, monsters are gross and utter distorted noise with the audio, and none of it is offbeat or jarring. I don't know TOO much about Norse mythos, but I believe that centering the game's aesthetics and lore around it was a good decision, to say the least. The heavy red saturation enforces the brutal nature of the Valkyries' rampage, much like DOOM before it.

My only issue with the game as a whole is that there's just not a lot here. The folks at Awe Interactive have made an amazing foundation of a game here, but there are only eight levels, five Valkyries, one extra difficulty, and a small handful of bonus challenges. It's much shorter than it's roguelike cousins. There is no endless mode, so the challenge is not how far you can go, but how quickly you can reach the end. With no branching paths or alternate levels/bosses, you will become intimately familiar with each of the eight levels fast.

yes

It's incredibly saddening to see the state this game has fallen into. Between the infrequency of updates, the complete lack of meaningful new content in these updates, and the rampant bot problem that has persisted for far too long, this game is a shell of its former self. I only want to see this game get better, as I want new people to feel the same excitement about TF2 that I did when I was younger. I may play more OW2 than TF2 these days, but I can't think of anything I want more than to see TF2 return to its former glory.