While plenty of games are billed as “popular game/genre X meets popular game/genre Y”, it’s somewhat rare that such efforts become more than the sum of their parts. Too often, the key elements of the various titles and genres end up watered down, as depth is sacrificed for breadth. Not so with Battle Shapers, the freshman title from Montreal’s Metric Empire. Borrowing with equal deft from Overwatch, rogue-lites, and Doom 2016, Battle Shapers is shaping up to be a fun, fast-paced, and unique entry in the rogue-lite genre.
You play as Ada, a very human-looking android who is woken up by a little robot buddy in order to save the city of New Elysium from a classically-purple corruption. Doing so requires battling your way through a series of towers and defeating the boss at the top. Die and you’ll be sent back to base, where you can permanently increase your strength and then try again.
All of the game’s elements should be familiar to anyone who’s played the hits of the past few years: you’ve got the now-commonplace rogue-lite progression system, going room by randomly-generated room, killing enemies, collecting upgrades and currencies; you kill said enemies with a gun in one hand and a big metal gauntlet on the other, gaining armor when you punch a near-death foe; supplementing your primary weapons are special abilities, which go on cooldown after use and change depending on what core you equipped for the run.
One of the most important aspects of any good rogue-lite is how satisfying it is to craft a build from your starting options and the randomly-offered rewards you find in your run — and Battle Shapers does a great job letting you both feel powerful no matter what “enhancements” you’re offered, while also rewarding smart choices. The UI does a fantastic job of explaining what all the obscure terms like Fortify and Fury actually mean, so it’s easy to make build decisions even as a novice. As you defeat bosses and progress through the game, you unlock additional starting cores, which can be paired (you have a primary and a secondary) to create different builds — these cores also affect what enhancements you encounter on your run.
Said cores additionally give you different special abilities: for example, one core lets your punch deflect projectiles, while another simply makes your punch do more damage. You also slowly charge up a special ability that has a powerful effect, such as deflecting all incoming projectiles, or letting you dash around like Genji from Overwatch, slicing up your foes as time slows down. You’ll eventually unlock three movement abilities: a dash, a wall ride, and a special punch. In between combat rooms, there’s some light platforming where the movement abilities can come in clutch (and it seems likely they’ll be required for finding some hidden goodies).
Combat is fast, tight, and satisfying — punching enemies into the grinders on the wall and floors was a particular treat — although it can be hard to tell what’s going on with all the crazy colors and projectiles flying around. Fortunately, the UI is good about showing you where enemies are; the game also helpfully highlights important loot and room exits once you’ve finished off the final foe. However, it can be tough telling when your abilities are available, thanks to the color choices on the UI — a similar issue exists with the small boxes of currency scattered around rooms, in that they’re just kinda hard to spot sometimes. Weapons are fairly standard, but all feel good to use, and you can expand your (potential) arsenal by spending currency in between runs if you don’t like what’s currently on offer.
Only one tower was available for the preview, but there will eventually be three in the game, with each one offering a unique challenge. The boss present in the tower will also affect the run even before you reach the boss room, as they’ll occasionally throw a new obstacle into a room while you’re fighting the regular enemies. The boss fight I got to try was fun, albeit a little disappointing in terms of difficulty — I would have liked a deeper move set and/or more adds, or perhaps some platforming or environmental obstacles to spice things up. In the end, circle strafing and the occasional dash or jump was all that was required to bring down the big bad on my first attempt, and I’m not a particularly talented FPS player.
Still, it all works together quite smoothly, and — assuming you’ve played Doom (2016), Overwatch, and Hades already — the learning curve is very gentle. If anything, Battle Shapers might be a bit too easy in its current state; fortunately, the game is first releasing in early access, so they’ll have plenty of opportunity to tune the difficulty before its 1.0 launch. The foundation of the game is solid, and if Metric Empire can get the balance right, Battle Shapers will have players saying “just one more run”.
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DanielD
Unabashed FromSoftware fanboy still learning to take his time with games (and everything else, really). The time he doesn't spend on games is spent on music, books, or occasionally going outside.
