In an gaming era filled with first-person shooters Heavy Bullets does a great job of standing out above the crowd. In most shooters you can unload clip after clip into to enemies with an array of weapons in your arsenal. In this game thats not an option. The revolver is the only weapon available and it comes with a mere six bullets. You'll need to collect your bullets after firing them and individually reload them back into the cylinder. If that wasn't daunting enough be aware this is a procedurally generated roguelike. When you die you will lose everything on you and have to start from the very beginning. Read on to find out if you're up to the challenge.
On each floor you'll find enemies, shops, banks, items, and locked rooms. There are a variety of enemies from snakes hidden in the grass, spiders that can guard their bodies, to turrets that shoot out lasers and bombs. You can use money dropped by dead enemies in the shops which can sell both items and upgrades. Some upgrades can help you attract coins/bullets, some let you carry more of the same item, while others let you reload multiple bullets at the same time. One time use items include weapons like bombs, mines, and rockets. Other items offer passive effects much like the upgrades. You can sacrifice a key card to open locked rooms and grab the random item within.
The mapping of the floors is different each time you play but they all basically feel likes narrow mazes with a couple openings here and there. A series of doors break the floors into bite-size chunks to help give you a sense of progression. Also, its important to know once a door has been open for a extended period of time lasers will stop you from going back for items or shops. The maps aren't particularly pretty, their neon rainbow walls serve more of a practical purpose to help distinguish hazards than anything else. The rest of the art is more cartoony with a lot of simple textures and polygons. The art isn't awful but seems like its purely there to serve the gameplay rather than standout in its own right.
Caution and and steady aim is key to survival. Audio ques are honestly just as important as visual ques as each threat will make a noise as its about to attack. Some enemies even generate noise standing still, warning you that danger is right around the corner. With such limited ammo its crucial to take your time, even just a second, to line up your shots right the first time. You can quickly find yourself out of bullets and in the bigger rooms in can be especially dangerous to track them down. Enemies move and shoot quickly so its best to take them on one at a time when possible. Half the enemies will follow you allowing you to fall back and let them come to you.
This is just a wonderfully unique rogue-like that will keep you coming back for more. It feels a lot like Spelunky with both the way the levels are laid out and in the sense of each death is a lesson. Even with the procedural generation the game rarely feels unfair. Its easy to get into a tight spot if you're not careful but if you take you time you shouldn't go through you're health too fast. Just don't jump into Heavy Bullets expecting much visually as the gameplay was clearly the focus. The bland looking levels get old pretty fast but thankfully the gameplay is fun enough to keep you hooked. Fans of shooters and/or rogue-likes need to do themselves a favor and try out the uniquely crafted experience.