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A copy of Hyper Light Breaker was provided to us by Arc Games. Thank you!
I remember the first time I saw Hyper Light Breaker and was blown away by how it looked. It seemed to combine some of my favorite multiplayer roguelike titles with a gameplay loop that reminded me of a nicer version of Escape From Tarkov. Then, I got to try it out, and it blew my mind. The combat felt snappy and the world was gorgeous with animations that felt like they were plucked right out of Hyper Light Drifter (the previous game in the franchise). There's a lot of potential with this title, and from what I have seen so far, I have hope for it and for its performance on Steam Deck.

Before getting into my thoughts, I want to establish that Hyper Light Breaker is an early access title. The game is not in its final state and is still actively in development. For these impressions, I am focusing on its current state that you can experience right now, and I am sure some of my thoughts, especially on optimization, will change as development progresses.
Hyper Light Breaker Shows A Lot of Promise
I adore Hyper Light Breaker's gameplay. It feels like an extraction shooter that is more accessible and easier while also having tough, skill-based combat. Essentially, you get four chances to drop down onto a procedurally generated map to destroy the bosses there, but if you don't, the world will restart with new bosses and gear to find. There are different types of gear and weapons to collect, and the longer you stay in the world, the more enemies and events get thrown at you to try and kill you. Outside of the map, there are different vendors that you can use to buy and upgrade items to prep for the next run to give an advantage and hopefully kill the bosses.
The overall game loop feels like Escape From Tarkov lite. All the gear you equip, including weapons, has a durability meter that decreases by one if you die on the map and disappears forever if it's depleted. However, when finding gear on the map, you can equip it immediately or send it to your cache to put in your inventory. Unlike other extraction shooters, you keep items you send to your cache regardless of whether you die or extract. It motivates me to play more and find more gear to try upgrading and building a stock of weapons, armor, and other gear to be prepared for future fights.

Combat feels extremely smooth and gives me wonderful Hyper Light Drifter vibes. The combination of melee attacks from your equipped weapon, ranged attacks from your equipped gun, your two special abilities, and your dashing dodge all blend and form addicting combat mechanics that I fell in love with.
It also feels amazing to play with friends. The game can be played with up to two others, and while I do enjoy going in alone, it is also an amazing experience playing with people. Getting everyone to coordinate and take down monsters and bosses together was a blast, and I can see myself returning for more with them.
It is a bit rough at the beginning of the game; you will die constantly, but it gets better the more gear and weapons you get, as well as medkits. I wish these came about sooner, but I can understand why it isn't there, and it helps me learn the gameplay loop. I also did find some minor bugs here and there, and I got caught on some objects when trying to jump or ride around on my hoverboard, but it wasn't the end of the world. It's a solid start for an early access title, especially one of this scale, and I think Heart Machine is doing a fantastic job for an early access title.

Hyper Light Breaker's Steam Deck Performance So Far
With Hyper Light Breaker being in early access, I didn't expect much performance. This is an in-development game that hasn't had its optimization passes yet, so it's possible that its performance wouldn't be the best. When it launched, it was not running the best, but a patch was released yesterday that improved performance a bit. It wasn't able to stick to 30 FPS before, but after this patch it is, though it has some compromises to visuals.
To make sure it can hit 30 FPS at least, Shadows seem to be almost completely gone, and there is a solid amount of pop-in. Textures also seem to be low resolution, and the overall image looks a little blurry. However, the game hits at least 30 FPS almost the entire time, even in larger fights, which is a departure from pre-patch performance. There are still some spots where the game will drop, but it's usually when running around and doesn't go down below 27 FPS. This is all without any TDP limit.

If this were a full release, I wouldn't recommend playing it on the Deck, but with it being early access, I would say this shows some promising results. For a less optimized version of the game to be playable on the Steam Deck means it can only get better as development progresses, and after the latest update, I do have hope it will.
While I understand why, I do wish the developers didn't lock the quality settings when playing on the Steam Deck and instead just changed the defaults. Hopefully as development continues, the quality settings will return and allow us to customize them on Deck, but for now, you can use the "SteamDeck=0 %command" launch option to bring the settings back. I don't recommend changing them much yet due to the lack of more optimization, but I still like the option to play around with them.

So, would I recommend getting Hyper Light Breaker right now? If you have a more powerful PC or handheld, then it's an easy yes. I love the gameplay so far, and with the full version slated to get new skins, upgrades, mods, overhauled NPCs, and the full story added in, I would say this is a safe purchase that will become an extremely enjoyable experience. I would also say it is playable on the Steam Deck, though there are some big compromises to enjoy it on the go. If your only way to game is the Deck, I would say this is going to be an alright purchase, and I do hope Heart Machine will optimize further, given how quickly their last patch was released and how it improved the performance.
Hyper Light Breaker can be purchased on Steam at 10% off until January 21st for $26.99. If you purchase before January 28th, you will also get a free copy of their last title, Hyper Light Drifter, which is amazing on the Steam Deck.
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Oh nvm I got it, it’s “SteamDeck=0 %command%”
I recommend setting the resolution to 1024x640 and using FSR via the decks interface to get some extra FPS. I can get almost a consistent 45 and at 90hz refresh rate it’s pretty smooth.
I will try it out!
I’m trying to use the “Steamdeck=0 %command” launch option but it’s not working, I still only have ambient occlusion, film grain, chromatic aberration, and the other one, I still don’t see more settings.
Sweet baby inc detected, 59% reviews
Not a single chance they will get my playtime even if it goes free.
Then you are missing out on a really awesome experience. It's worth playing, especially if you enjoy games like Escape From Tarkov.
You are actually the best community manager I've ever seen, for what it's worth.
Respect
Thank you! I appreciate that. I try my best.