After last year’s Steam Shmup Fest on Steam, I locked eyes with dozens of games I knew I could sink some time into in the future. With most of them at a price point varying between three and ten dollars, it’s a cheap point of entry to start up a game you can tangibly feel yourself get stronger with. One such game that was an afterthought, but still a wishlist addition, was Heroes & Redemption, which entered Early Access on Steam on February 28th and sat in my downloads for a few weeks before I remembered why I bought it. Is this game worthy of being in the conversation with the rest of the great Bullet Heavens?

Heroes & Redemption starts off with nary a tutorial – but at this point, anyone who has bought this game has played Vampire Survivors or any multitude of its imitators by this point. The only trial-and-error I faced in my early goings was determining what each new “weapon” did, and which had better synergies than others. It was a breeze after this got figured out, with the real difficulty coming in learning how to kite the onslaught of skeletons and other assorted baddies which boast pretty solid pixel art.

The twist on the genre within Heroes & Redemption is that there are two quests to be completed before facing the boss after five waves of five minutes each. These quests include remaining in a stationary place for a certain amount of time, to escorting a slow-moving ally to a destination minutes away. The latter one can be excruciating if you’re not able to clear out enemies quickly enough, but the permanent upgrade system after each run is more than enough to get you up to speed in only a handful of runs once you get the hang of it.

There are several characters to unlock and choose from in Heroes & Redemption, and it’s a nice touch that all of the attack abilities have their own unique sprites depending on what character is utilizing them. With differing stats and starting weapons, this makes for ample experimentation before you find the one that fits best for your playstyle. Melee weapons tend to hit more enemies at once, whereas ranged weapons give the player more breathing room at the start of runs. Even in its early state, there’s enough to mess around with to provide plenty of gameplay from the get-go.

The $2.99 price point is so easy to recommend for just about any game worth a damn, and Heroes & Redemption earned that from me as well as a keen eye on its development. It’s been a stellar time-killer and a Rogue-lite where the upgrades really make an impact without too much of a grind needed to succeed. Observer Games feels like a true indie studio with a minuscule following to start, but Heroes & Redemption gets a lot right from the start and if the developers stick with it, there will be hundreds, if not thousands, more purchases to come.

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Heroes & Redemption

$2.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Gameplay Loop Already Fun
• Plenty of Upgrades
• Ultra Cheap

Cons

• Some Grinding Necessary
• Missing Audio Bits