When solo developer Ashley Ellis said she wanted Hell Breach: Vegas (opens in new tab) To be a throwback, celebrating the arcade simplicity of Call of Duty’s beloved zombie mode, that’s when it really clicked for me. It’s about the simple joy of Even more so if you find yourself doing so in her Discord calls with three of his friends from high school.
I wasn’t sure when I tried the early builds of Hellbreach, but it absolutely nailed the feel of the Xbox 360-era CoD Zombies mode. The first character has the same goofy, Duke Nukemy, Russian-accented one-liners as Black Ops standby Nikolai Belinsk. There is a tight ring of rooms that is almost non-existent, which helps distinguish Hellbreach from fellow wave survival shooter Killing Floor.
Each map opens gradually as you invest money in tearing down barriers, drawing from the same resource pool you use to purchase weapons, ammo, and perks. They’ll start surrounding you with branching options to expand the playfield, but eventually a loop of the map will open up to keep you away from chokepoints and shave off hordes of demons. I found a slot machine that let me play, and the same goopy, low-poly looking pickups as the classic power-ups in the series. His movement and weapon handling is also very old-fashioned in his CoD, and now I can’t help but associate it with fond memories of couch co-op split-screen in Black Ops 2’s Nacht Der Untoten.
Ellis said he hopes this will be a similar social experience, a game that can be used to interact with friends via Discord. He doesn’t want to build something overly complicated or bogged down with a progression system. Other indies are similar to his genre throwbacks: his Quake-like games affectionately dubbed “Boomer Shooter,” and his low-fi, PS1-esque horror games. (opens in new tab) It became popular a few years ago. Black Ops 2 is a nostalgic throwback young theme, but that’s what Ellis wants to play. If no one is making the game you want anymore, why not try it?
I’m also a huge fan of how Ellis settled into the game’s Las Vegas setting. He’s never been there, but CSI, Rainbow Six Vegases, and Fallout: New Vegases are all out there, so you’ll get a good idea of what it’s like anyway, right? It follows the mechanics of the game, so to speak. Ellis tended to slot his machine as a visual alternative to his CoD Zombies “guns floating in his chest,” but modern cities fit for demonic invasion in the middle of the desert are Where?If there was a natural synergy, it had to be Vegas.
If you want to meditate on the moral decline of the Southwest, watch No Country for Old Men—this is goofy vegasMy favorite map in the build I checked out was the cheesy Wedding Chapel, but it also included a police station and a level set to The Strip, plus three more maps set to appear in the final game. rice field.
Hellbreach: Vegas has been in the works since 2020, when Ellis turned to game development after finding new free time amid the pandemic. Ellis and his publisher Iceberg Interactive hope to release Hellbreach: Vegas in the third quarter of 2023, but that date will depend on the pace of development, and Hellbreach plans to conduct multiplayer beta testing before release. is. If you want to follow and support Hellbreach: Vegas, vapor (opens in new tab).