Thunderful Announces Godbreakers - A Co-Op Hack & Slash That Will Be Amazing On Steam Deck

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Yesterday, Thunderful Games teased a brand new game that they said is coming soon, and today, they officially announced the next title they will be publishing. Godbreakers is a co-op action game that shows a lot of promise with its fast-paced combat, simplistically beautiful visuals, and roguelike-esque mechanics:

With 1-4 player co-op, this is going to be a blast to enjoy with friends. The combat is going to feel very fluid, with decent strategic depth thanks to being able to cancel any attacks with the dash at any time, a plethora of abilities, roguelike mechanics to augment ourselves for each run, and the chance to destroy and absorb enemy abilities.

Ahead of its release, the CEO of developer To The Sky, Jugo Mirkovic, said this about the studio's first release:

As the first title for our studio, we wanted to create a game that feels fast, fluid and fun, where every moment is a chance to unleash chaos alongside your friends. We’ve poured years worth of knowledge into crafting the best gameplay experience possible in Godbreakers, and we’re so excited to finally share it with the world.

Jugo Mirkovic - CEO and Executive Producer of To The Sky

In addition to the announcement, a demo for the game is releasing today, giving us all a chance to try it out for ourselves. I had a chance to try the demo early and get a taste of the game myself, and it seems like it will live up to the high bar the CEO has set.

In Godbreakers' demo, we are able to test out two different archetypes, which are essentially different classes with differing base stats, weapons, and movesets, as well as customize our character and go into a run to defeat a god. The mechanics are very solid. Fighting feels fluid, dashing to cancel out combos at any time is exceptionally helpful, and it was wonderfully hectic at times. Trying to fight enemies, whether it be alone or in co-op, was engaging and kept me invigorated as I swapped between abilities, basic and heavy attacks, and stealing powers from enemies.

The powers we can steal seem like they will be pretty diverse as well. There's one that can spit out a glob of acid, one that creates a huge barrier for yourself, one where you dig underground and attack/stun enemies from below, and my favorite one, where you charge up an energy beam and shoot it straight ahead. It goes into a semi-over-the-shoulder view for that one, and I kept gravitating towards getting that power whenever I could.

I also love the roguelike mechanics. Enemies may drop currency, equipment, or blessings. Currency can be used to buy or upgrade equipment at the shop, while you can equip up to five different items that fit within their respective colors. Blessings can be continually picked up for more passive bonuses like increased health, applying debuffs like Poison or Decay, increasing running speed, and increasing crit chance and damage. The more you pick up, the higher the benefit, and it's awesome to see the increase.

The only issue I found so far that irked me was actually dashing. Some of the enemies, especially those bigger spiders, have a larger attack range than expected. Dashing away didn't save me from their grasp, and I still ended up getting hit. This may have been in part my fault, but the range of dashes felt a little too short more often than not.

However, I like the variety in playstyles we can utilize. The full release will have lots more features to add to replayability, including loop tangles and restoring echoes for passive buffs, but the archetypes are going to be very interesting. There are only six, but each has multiple abilities we can choose from to alter the playstyle drastically. In the demo, the Lancer can either release multiple slashes or give the entire team a random absorbed ability, while the Pillar can either hit enemies to give all teammates barriers or taunt enemies and absorb all damage taken before releasing it back to enemies around you.

Along with the aesthetic changes for weapons and character skins, I really enjoy the variety we can have to make ourselves look interesting. Not much is unlockable to choose from in the demo, but it shows a bit about the kind of looks we can expect, and that's what I like.

When it comes to Godbreakers on the Steam Deck, the demo left me with a lot of high hopes. The game runs wonderfully and can handle 60 FPS when playing solo once Global Illumination is turned to Medium. With the rest of the settings being at medium, and 3D resolution being at 60%, we have a silky smooth framerate and stability. This continues into co-op with one other person, which I tested with one of our writers: Nick Hanchet. At these settings, the framerate dipped once or twice, but ultimately held stable 99% of the time.

This, along with the developers specifically mentioning the game will be Steam Deck Verified on release, makes me extremely optimistic about playing on the go. It's shaping up to be a really amazing experience, and one I can definitely see myself playing over and over. I love how the game feels and its mechanics, and if it can be played nicely on the Steam Deck, it's going to be very hard to tear me away.

Godbreakers can be wishlisted on Steam, and a demo is available to try for yourselves!

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