With some great lighting work, furious action and a good sprinkle of comedy Burning Knight is an fast-paced roguelike that's out now. Note: key provided by the developer.
It's…ridiculous. I mean that in the nicest way I can because I'm at a loss for a better word. The whole game is just pure madness and a massive amount of fun. Much like other similar titles that came before including Nuclear Throne and Enter the Gungeon, it's got that supremely satisfying gameplay loop nailed down perfectly. Run through various floors as you dodge roll, shoot and slice your way through everything.
Here though it's a little different to what's come before. You're a thief, a devious little green goblin and the Burning Knight really isn't happy about you pinching their treasures. Once you find the loot room, you can pick a single item to run away with but this will severely anger the Burning Knight and they will then start firing at you which makes things even more of a panic.
Burning Knight tends to forgive you quite easily though, conveniently each time you go to a new floor.
So why is the action so crazy? On top of getting access to various different types of weapons, and unlocking more to pick before a future run, you also gather a list of unique items along the way too. These special items stack together to create some seriously overpowered combinations. Want homing bullets that also bounce and set people on fire? Yeah, you can do that, to which the developer jokingly said "build your very own game-breaking combos" and if you survive long enough that might even be true.
Not only that, the assorted enemy types keep you on your toes. Some will bounce right over to you and smash, some fire off a massive barrage of bullets and others just roam around waiting for you to accidentally dodge roll into them and die. On top of dealing with various enemies, you can also end up in trap-rooms. There's been a few times I've died in tiny rooms as I was a bit too greedy trying to get every single chest possible in a floor, when a few of those chests turned out to be mimics and my fate was sealed.
As you progress, you unlock more of the game too. There's various NPCs to find, like a well-dressed fellow who runs a hat shop in the local town you start in before a run. You also gain access to a shop during your castle runs, allowing you to buy extra keys to open doors and chests or extra items to power you up even more.
Hilariously, the shop is clearly selling dubious wares just take a look at the shopkeeper and tell me that's not a robber, just look at the mask! You can even start a fight with them, much to my surprise when accidentally clicking next to them and they asked me to stop. So for science, I hit them a few more times and they got very angry and starting running around super fast, firing everywhere. Even though I had clearly done it to myself, it was a bit of a shock but super funny especially with the Burning Knight cheering them on against me.
I managed to beat the shop keeper once too which enabled me to pinch some of their wares.
Plenty of rad weapons to find too, one of my favourites might have to be their own version of a Lightsaber—a Svetsaber. Since you can bounce enemy bullets back (not always though), such a weapon is a lot of fun to go swinging around the castle.
Some of the other weapons are quite surprising too, just wait until the first time you get your hands on the Lava Wand, that was quite a highlight that I wasn't prepared for, neither were my enemies.
Feature Highlight:
- Endless adventures with procedurally generated dungeons
- Unlock and explore 300+ unique items along the way, that open up insane playstyles
- 28 unlockable hats!
- We've been told that our Original Soundtrack is really good
- 5 challenging areas to discover.
- 14 unlockable NPC's and more!
- Supports keyboard, mouse, and controllers
- Show off to your friends by filling the Hall of Achievements (the game includes more than 50 of them!)
- Find a unique challenge every day in the Daily Runs!
- Seeded runs for practice and speedrun tactics!
- Play either as a ranger, melee tank, mage, or anything in between!
I also found it quite amusing seeing this in the system requirements:
Overall Burning Knight is a really great action roguelike, full of little secrets and quite silly in places. Super smooth gameplay although it's tough as hell when parts turn into a bullet-hell, but not punishing enough to stop me going back for more time and time again.
I would say it's easily now in my top 10 indie games this year. There's just so much to it! Clearly plenty of attention has been given to all the little details that make Burning Knight well worth getting.
You can buy Burning Knight on itch.io and Steam. You can also grab the soundtrack on Bandcamp.
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