Kill the Brickman is a bizarre sport. However after enjoying for a couple of hours, it wasn’t the enemies, the music, or the genre-busting — all of that are bizarre, to be clear — that struck me probably the most. It was the controls. One thing so simple as controls received in the best way of what Kill the Brickman was going for. The weird presentation right here is enjoyable, however it could possibly’t cowl up how lengthy it takes to succeed in the deeper roguelike components lurking beneath.
Kill the Brickman, out now for Home windows PC, is a roguelike puzzle sport developed by Doonutsaur and printed by Poncle (sure, the creators of 2022 bullet-hell hit Vampire Survivors). You’re given a gun and tasked with killing the titular brickmen, however to take action, you could deflect your bullets off of partitions, different brickmen, or numerous brick hazards. The title is a twist on the breakout style; as a substitute of shifting your paddle (on this case, your gun) to deflect a bouncing ball (on this case, bullets), you simply line up photographs to wreak as a lot havoc on the brickmen as you possibly can.
I initially tried to play Kill the Brickman with a gamepad however that required using each thumbsticks with a purpose to line up photographs, which wasn’t comfy for me. With thumbsticks, discovering the proper shot was a nightmare, since I struggled with sustaining my angles. Switching to mouse and keyboard allowed my intention to be much more constant.
Regardless of its rocky begin, as soon as I received comfy with the controls, I noticed that Kill the Brickman is a enjoyable time-waster. It has that “only one extra stage” power, the place it is easy to lose monitor of time. The moment-to-moment gameplay isn’t revolutionary in any manner, but it surely will get the job achieved.
Kill the Brickman, in different phrases, is the proper commuting sport.
The issue, although, is in its pacing. Through the 4 hours I performed, I noticed hints and flashes of one thing deeper beneath the floor, but it surely took me too lengthy to succeed in it. There are layers of mechanics, resembling methods to extend the variety of instances your bullets bounce or how they work together with blocks upon contact. These are supplemented by upgrades to your revolver cylinder, permitting you to load your bullets in a selected order for bonus results. Different techniques encourage experimentation, such because the variously coloured bullets that work properly when aligned with sure cylinders.
There are a number of weapons to unlock, however I nonetheless had the beginning weapon after finishing the primary chapter of content material, and the weapon upgrades have been simply variations of a pistol, besides the shotgun, which I didn’t unlock in my playtime. Every chapter is damaged down into 10 ranges, and through these ranges, I by no means felt challenged nor felt the urge to experiment with the sport’s techniques. Enjoying the sport like a typical brick-breaker you might discover on a flip telephone from the 2000s labored properly sufficient, and by the point I used to be via with it, I didn’t really feel triumphant, extra like fatigued.
Actually, the longer I performed, the extra bored I grew to become. Roguelikes are designed to introduce sufficient random likelihood to require you to adapt on the fly. Whereas Kill the Brickman markets itself as a roguelike puzzler, it doesn’t have a lot to fulfill these labels, outdoors of providing random upgrades for buy and requiring changes to your photographs to maximise worth.
I saved asking myself: Is that this a ability difficulty? Or is the sport simply sluggish? The reply may be each. On one hand, there was room for me to decide on to optimize my playstyle or capitalize on the mechanics supplied. The sport doesn’t punish nonoptimal play. I didn’t lose the whole lot or face any setbacks in any respect. As an alternative, my punishment was time. Every part merely took longer. It’s an attention-grabbing design alternative for positive, but it surely’s additionally irritating. It actually retains the sport accessible, as you don’t get harshly punished for errors, but it surely additionally makes progress really feel padded. I didn’t fail in any respect throughout my playthrough, however I’m unsure I used to be “profitable” both.
In its present state, Kill the Brickman is a contradiction. It is clunky, particularly on a controller, but it surely’s a genuinely fulfilling solution to kill time when you get into the groove. There could also be one thing sensible beneath, however I’ll by no means get there if it takes greater than a handful of hours. Do I like the sport? Certain, but it surely felt like the sport was dragging its toes. Enhancements concentrating on its pacing and enhancing controller help would go a great distance. (I additionally wouldn’t say no to a catchier soundtrack.)
Kill the Brickman has a weirdness value celebrating, but it surely’s greatest loved in bursts. You won’t binge it for hours such as you would for Vampire Survivors, however it’s the kind of sport to maintain put in for everytime you wish to kill half an hour.
