Hyper Light Drifter is getting a fully 3D rogue-lite follow-up with online co-op

eurogamer.net:

Say hello to Hyper Light Breaker, a fully 3D rogue-lite spin on developer Heart Machine's acclaimed 2016 action-adventure Hyper Light Drifter that's due to arrive on PC early next year.

While Hyper Light Drifter delivered a tautly designed single-player adventure that blended rich exploration with challenging melee combat in a strikingly presented top-down, 2D world, Hyper Light Breaker looks a whole lot looser based on its early showing.

It all takes place in the Overgrowth, a new «vast, ever-changing» (and fully 3D) world consisting of massive, open biomes and deep labyrinths that players can navigate using the likes of wall-dashing, hoverboarding, gliding. Here, they'll be able to «defeat brutal monsters, create new builds, survive the mysterious Crowns and overthrow the almighty Abyss King.»

Hyper Light Breaker — Reveal Trailer.

All that takes the form of a rogue-lite adventure, with players — either working solo or playing co-operatively with friends online — tasked with defeating «hordes of enemies and gigantic bosses in frenetic third-person combat». In order push deeper into the game, adventurers can tailor their builds each run using a «wide arsenal of weapons and items» unlocked through play, and there's a settlement that can be upgraded between each run.

It is, then, quite a departure from its illustrious predecessor, sounding more like a Hyper Light riff on Risk of Rain 2 (it even shares the same publisher in Gearbox) than the meticulously crafted solo adventure of yore. We'll need more than the currently available animated trailer and handful of animated in-game gifs to get a proper sense of how it plays, though, so hopefully Heart Machine will be ready to reveal more soon.

Expect Hyper Light Breaker to