Nightmare Reaper in review: One of the best shooters of the year

This is an article from our content partner "PC Games". Here you can find the original article by editor Felix Schütz.

A few years ago, they suddenly appeared: retro-style first-person shooters, often scary graphically, but absolute grenades in terms of gameplay. No matter if Dusk, Project Warlock, Ion Fury or Amid Evil, they all brought back ball fun like from the 90s and rightly received great ratings. Nightmare Reaper is in good company - and even goes a few steps further! Behind the pixelated retro look is not only a brute shooter, but also many modern game ideas, which merge into a captivating overall package. Nightmare Reaper spent three years in development in Early Access alone, and you can see the effort in the result. The shooter surprise has been ready since March 28, but despite great user ratings(94 percent on Steam), it still flies under the radar of many players. We say: wrongly! Because Nightmare Reaper is a lot of fun if you get involved. And that can take a surprising amount of time: Nightmare Reaper can "already" be played through in about 20 hours, but we invested more than double that time for our test.

Edna freaks out

Nightmare Reaper throws you right into the action: You play a young woman who finds herself in a gloomy clinic. In her room, a desolate prison, we discover some notes on the desk. A tragic backstory is hinted at. At first, however, you can't do more than lie down in bed. Every time your heroine closes her eyes, she gives in to her nightmares: she then wakes up in a randomly generated level that is paved from front to back with enemies, loot, traps and challenges. No NPCs, no dialogues, no cutscenes. Pure gameplay.

In the beginning you'll be in pitch-black caves, but later you'll be in forests, mines and offices, in sunken temples, hospitals and space stations, in overgrown grottos and bizarrely jagged harbor areas. The level generator doesn't even bother to build believable environments: All levels are basically composed of blocks, as if you had previously dug them up in Minecraft. There are dead ends, oddly placed elevators and stairs that lead us astray. Locked doors are opened with keys, of course, and switches are also used later to unlock new paths. After a while we also get a grappling hook that allows us to overcome huge distances, from here on the level design gets even more whacky. Fortunately, no level is so big that you can get lost in it for a long time. After all, there's plenty of action on the agenda.

Pure shooting fun

Most of the time you are busy cleaning some monsters from the screen. The beasts are quite varied, stupid and aggressive - if you like straightforward action, you'll be well served. Graphically, all enemies are represented as muddy 2D sprites, but don't let the old-fashioned pixel design fool you: Especially in the first hours, the enemies will put you under a lot of pressure. From time to time, strong elite enemies with special characteristics spawn. Maybe a room will suddenly fill up with a whole horde of trigger-happy zombie soldiers! Or a random effect is triggered, for example icicles suddenly crack from the ceiling or gravity is turned upside down. Of course, there are also positive random events, such as when countless barrels suddenly spawn around you, which can contain valuable collectibles. You can rub your hands together, because the loot system is one of Nightmare Reaper's great strengths.

Weapons without end

Whether in chests, boxes or other containers, random weapons are hidden everywhere, sometimes even defeated enemies leave behind new weapons. The selection is impressive: Over 80 melee and ranged weapons are on offer, often with a second firing mode. You'll capture submachine guns and shotguns, grenade and rocket launchers, chainsaws, energy swords, chain whips, magic wands, magic books, ice cannons, throwing axes and much more. If you're lucky, you might catch a handy atomic bomb launcher, a massive orbital cannon, or a magic urn that creates flying ghosts that will automatically target your enemies. But it's not just the variety that's exciting. Most of the weapons are also really fun to play, feel powerful, and provide for solid splatter effects - even many AAA shooters could take a leaf out of this book.

Similar to a simple Diablo, weapons also have rarity levels and random bonuses that provide variety. The AK-47 suddenly shoots explosive projectiles or the rocket launcher shoots at lightning speed without reloading. A lot of fun! In each level there are also special chambers in which small skill tasks await. These are optional and can even be a bit annoying, but at the end there's always a nice treasure chest that contains a new gun. But of course, there's a catch: every time you finish a level, you'll have to give back your nice found objects. At first you can only keep one gun and take it with you to the next level, the rest is automatically turned into money. You'll get even more money if you manage to kill all the enemies, collect all the treasures and discover all the secrets. This provides a big gold bonus and motivates you to search every corner thoroughly and to watch out for crumbling walls. There are always secret chambers behind them, where a few treasures are waiting for us.

Motivating upgrades

And why all that gold? In the course of the game you unlock three retro mini-games, which you can start at any time afterwards. The first is a simple jump & run in the style of Super Mario Bros. This is followed by a narrow-gauge version of Pokémon, and the third mini-game lets you climb into a space fighter, with which you shoot your way through short levels in Gradius style. These retro interludes are likeable, but also time-consuming and fun for a few minutes at most. Still, it's worth doing as much as possible here, as you'll also unlock tons of permanent upgrades via these mini-games. For example, with your collected gold you can buy more ammo, a useful Dash, a handy double jump, valuable resistances, more health points and much, much more. The second minigame lets you unlock slots and fill them with potions, giving you strong bonuses for each run, but also random drawbacks. And if you don't mind the high time investment, you can even earn permanent pets in the space fighter mini-game, which will then automatically attack enemies or heal you - so the last levels almost play themselves.

Deadly Cycle

Nightmare Reaper uses some Rogue-lite mechanics, but it's still a linear shooter at its core, with a beginning, middle, and end. Once a level is completed, it's off to the next one, so you don't have to start over after a death. In between the nightmares, however, you'll always end up in the barren hospital room. Here, new paths gradually open up, but we won't tell you exactly how. Only this much: If you keep your eyes open and carefully search the creepy building, you'll unlock a New Game Plus mode at the end.

But even if you leave it at just one playthrough, you can easily plan on 20 hours until you've experienced one of the two endings. That's a lot of time, but the gameplay remains the same - and that's why some people might even find the game too long. Nevertheless, we were motivated until the finale: The cycle of collecting weapons, exploring random levels and buying upgrades lacks variety, but is perfect for after work. And if all that isn't enough, you can also try your hand at the numerous arenas that you unlock during the course of the game. Stronger and stronger waves of enemies spawn there, which eventually lead to impressive mass battles, in which the framerate can sometimes drop noticeably.

Brutal soundtrack

While you can be divided about the pixelated retro graphics, the sound deserves unreserved praise: In the battles, the game makes your pulse race with hefty guitar riffs, while during exploration, the action is atmospherically accompanied by calm sounds. The rich sound effects are also a plus point and give many weapons the necessary punch. When the pixels fly (and believe us, they do!), the atmosphere is guaranteed. The music was composed by Andrew Hulshult, who has already proven his skills with shooters like Dusk, Amid Evil or Doom Eternal: The Ancient God s.

Love at second sight

I can understand if you initially shy away from the retro look. After all, it really isn t inviting. But don't be fooled: Behind the pixel facade is a polished noble shooter with massive gunplay, tons of weapons, great pacing and a soundtrack that will still be ringing in your ears at night. The Rogue Lite touches also fit the game concept perfectly and the many ugprades motivate until the end. There's criticism for the somewhat snoozy mini-games and the monotonous gameplay: Despite the varied random levels, I simply missed a few highlights and surprises here and there. On the other hand, the game can be enjoyed in small bites, which makes it ideal for those who just want to let off a little steam in the evening. It certainly hit my nerve: For me, Nightmare Reaper is already one of the best single-player shooters of the year.

Nightmare Reaper is available on Steam and GOG. A console version has not been announced yet.