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My most-anticipated open-world game looks better with each new trailer: Hyper Light Breaker shows off a fiery boss ahead of the roguelike's summer launch

Open-world roguelike Hyper Light Breaker launches in Steam Early Access this summer, featuring an ever-changing 3D world and challenging boss fights like the Flame Wizard. The game expands the universe of Hyper Light Drifter, offering combat-first gameplay, gear unlocks, and a mysterious narrative. With its slick movement and impressive boss designs, Hyper Light Breaker is poised to be one of the biggest roguelikes of 2024.

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Open-world roguelike Hyper Light Breaker is launching in Steam Early Access this summer, as developer Heart Machine affirmed in a new trailer showing off another slick boss fight.

Heart Machine was one of the many indie devs included in today's joint Triple-I showcase, and as ever, Hyper Light Breaker was a personal highlight for me. The follow-up to the 2016 classic Hyper Light Drifter, which builds mechanically on the stellar 3D movement Heart Machine demonstrated in its previous game Solar Ash, expands the universe with an ever-changing 3D world that's functionally bottomless. It could well be one of the biggest roguelikes of the year in more ways than one, and this new boss is yet another challenge to look forward to. 

The star of today's trailer is the aptly named Flame Wizard, who packs a mix of melee and ranged attacks, teleports, and seemingly a chunky melee buddy who I'm going to call the Flame Warrior. The Flame Wizard fight looks a little less bullet hell than some of the other bosses we've seen, though there are still clearly a lot of attacks to dodge.

Hyper Light Breaker has been described as a combat-first experience glued together by slick movement, mounting progression like gear unlocks and light settlement expansion, and an evolving narrative tied to the mysterious Overgrowth. Boss fights are front-and-center, with rich lore backing each one, like the Last Master swordmaster who could just about slot right into a FromSoftware tapestry. The Flame Wizard joins a rapidly growing ensemble of threats, and I'm as eager as ever to take them on for myself, and maybe again with some buddies in online co-op.  

We recently spoke to Heart Machine about two key details*: roguelike build-crafting and cool hoverboards. *