Battle Shapers preview — Shaping up to be great!

When I first played and previewed Battle Shapers back in June, I knew it was going to be a banger of an FPS roguelite. Recently, I got my hands on it again, and I can positively say that it’s on track to be one of the best roguelites of 2023. It seems like every new addition adds layers to the gameplay and lore, as it should!

To give a quick overview of the story, the city of New Elysium has fallen under the control of robot overlords. It’s your job as a shaper – pretty much an android – to take them out and restore order. The story is rather simple, yet leads to some good banter between the overlords and Ada, the aforementioned shaper.

Progression through the various combat arenas is mostly linear, but less so than most other roguelites I’ve played. You start in The Hideout, one of the few places the overlords can’t influence, and fight your way through various arenas until you come to a forked path where you choose which overlord to take on. There are a few other instances of non-linearity too, such as junction rooms with branching paths. In a nice convenience feature, you can just teleport back to the junction upon completing a branched-off room.

Once you’ve chosen which overlord to fight, you have to battle through their domain. Each domain has its own perils in the form of enemies and traps, however, as a shaper, you also have some sway. Often, you can give yourself advantages in the form of elemental explosive barrels, room attributes like ricochet bullets, and by manipulating arena rewards.

The gameplay is as pristine as ever, with the core system remaining the linchpin of gameplay. Before every run, you can choose a core that gives you some base abilities and influences which core enhancements you find in a run. I was able to play with two cores, the Adamant Core and the Strike Core. The Adamant Core allows you to redirect enemies’ projectiles back at them with melee attacks and a forcefield. On the other hand, the Strike Core adds damage to your dash ability and allows you to slow time and unleash three devastating strikes. They’re both good, but the Adamant Core seems stronger given that it adds offensive and defensive capabilities that can be utilized at a distance.

There’s a new biome, the Gravity Garden, which is a massive hydroponics center and serves as the domain of the Volt Colossus overlord. In the digitized world of New Elysium, some greenery is quite refreshing! The new location also adds some lore with the addition of microgravity. Apparently, they managed to trick plants into growing upward, which is pretty neat! It’s little nuggets of lore like this that make me excited for the game’s release so I can learn more about New Elysium.

The short platforming sections between combat encounters have been improved upon. One section has a button that activates various platforms for a short time. Usually, getting to the end in time would be the extent of it, but now I found another platform that rises while the others fall. Reaching said platform in time brought me to a hidden chest with enough money to equate to an item in the shop. It always feels good to have extra effort rewarded, so this was a welcome change.

In addition to adding more to the platforming, it also helps fix a problem previous iterations of the game had. Before, getting to the shop before a boss fight was a little dull, knowing that you could only gain one upgrade due to the lack of funds available throughout the map. Even if that hidden chest doesn’t contain money, it could contain a core enhancement, so it all works out in the end.

Boss abilities seem more personalized to the bosses and the level. For example, since the Volt Colossus inhabits the Gravity Garden, there’s a noxious green poison trap that fits in with the surrounding verdancy. The Volt Colossus itself has various electric attacks that he can deploy to the arenas. There’s also the new speed generator, which spawns somewhere in the arena and grants enemies a speed boost while it’s active. Overall, I felt like I had to be more cautious while moving around.

The bosses aren’t the only enemies to receive a change. There’s now a greater variety of mobs, such as the dredger, who fires multiple shots in a flat line, and the juggernaut, who is shielded, tanky, and fires a missile barrage. There’s also the addition of bomber drones, which fly after you, adding pressure and keeping you on the move. Finishing off a robot and sending it tumbling and exploding behind the juggernaut’s shield never gets old.

These new enemy types add variety to the combat. My only critique is that I wish combat lasted longer. It’s such a blast to play with all of the abilities, weapons, and effects, and it would be great if there were more waves of enemies to use them on or a greater density of enemies in each arena.

On the aesthetic side of things, I appreciate how well Battle Shapers incorporates visuals into basic aspects of progression. You can see what items look like in their blueprint forms, which adds anticipation to purchasing them. The cipher cloud, the place where you go to buy upgrades, has images of the various unlocks floating around. It’s little things like these that help give players a sense of excitement and pride in what they unlock.

The progression ties into the story nicely. Ada is an all-purpose droid, not suited for combat at first. This explains the limited arsenal at her disposal at the start of the game. The progression actually feels like Ada is slowly becoming specialized for combat and adapting to challenges. She goes from only having a pistol and some grenade abilities to high-powered rifles and summoning pillars and turrets.

Speaking of Ada, her visual and audio design are both great. Ada’s voice sounds slightly echoey and digitized. Although she doesn’t speak, she does grunt while jumping and taking damage, and she’ll occasionally laugh at the destruction she’s wrought. On the note of her appearance, it will change depending on what core she has active. The Adamant Core looks sleek and clean, whereas the Strike Core looks daunting and predator-like.

Ada’s weapons are just as pleasing to the eyes and ears. All of the weapons sound futuristic in their own distinct way. For example, the tectonic launcher sounds like a punchier version of Halo’s fuel rod cannon and has a design of green, white, and carbon fiber gray. With unlimited ammo, you can fire the various weapons to your heart’s content.

Overall, Battle Shapers has the potential to be one of the best roguelites of 2023. It seems like every time they add to the game its greatest aspects compound onto each other. I can’t wait to be able to delve into the full game, exploring the lore and expanding Ada’s arsenal to decimate some bots. Battle Shapers will be out in early access on Steam in Q3 2023.

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