What do you get when you combine Doom’s Demonic ass kicking, Enter The Gungeon’s procedurally generated dungeons and progression system with a shooting mechanic that’s based on Rhythm? You get a fresh and innovative First person shooter that you can easily sink hundreds of hours into. Turn off the lights, put on your best headphones and get ready to descend into hell.
What is Bullets Per Minute (BPM)?
Bullets Per Minute is a fresh take on the FPS genre that takes Doom’s combat system and builds upon it even further by putting a larger emphasis on Rhythm and movement. Every action you take in BPM needs to be on beat and in time with the tempo of the game’s music. This makes the game’s combat highly addictive, entertaining and fluid.
Nothing’s more satisfying than clearing an arena full of monsters and demons by jumping and moving around the stage like a gun-toting adrenaline addict with too much drugs in his system.
BPM oozes both style and substance. Stylistically, each dungeon features a cel-shaded and bright aesthetic that despite looking good, it can get a bit disorienting after a while. Most enemy types have similar colors so getting used to tracking them around the stage can take some getting used to, especially when encountering a new type.
The design of the demons felt a bit bland and the game could’ve benefited from more unique demon types. The graphics left a lot to be desire, especially since the levels are randomly generated and offer the same repetitive elements sprinkled throughout. The enemy and level designs were truly uninspiring to say the least.
Metal and Rhythm
Like Doom, BPM shines most in its music department. Its heavy/dark/doom/satanic metal soundtrack with its wailing guitars and heavy synths is like Christmas for your ears. It’s loud and overwhelming but will leave you head bobbing as you kick demon ass. It’s nowhere near as legendary as Mick Gordon’s work of course, but it gets pretty damn close.
This is a rhythm game after all, so the music perfectly complements the fast-paced nature of the action. Reloading and blasting demons’ faces off while trying to stick to the beat is an orgasmic experience. It might seem like a broken record with the Doom comparisons, but Bullets per Minute is basically a rhythm based Doom game with procedurally generated levels.
Rogue-lite goodness
At first, you’ll feel like a fish out of water as you stumble your way around the game’s arenas trying to figure out where to go and what to do next. However, veterans of rogue-lites will find themselves at home with its usual tropes of the genre.
You’ll get a challenge dungeon where you can get a reward for clearing out a challenging wave of enemies; you’ll also get a bank to store your coins for future playthroughs, and a shop where you can spend your hard-earned coins on new upgrades, health, abilities and new weapons.
Like other rogue games, the randomness of its procedurally generated stages often leaves you at its mercy. More often than not, your progress depends on the game’s generosity or lack of it when it’s offering you your share of chests and abilities to unlock during a particular playthrough.
Do you think your lack of rhythm will make playing BPM a living hell for you? Well worry not, as it offers many options and settings to tweak that will make your assist you in hitting those beats. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner at rhythm games, BPM will make damn sure that you’re having plenty of fun blending the sound of your shotgun shots with the background music.
Overall,
Bullets Per Minute skillfully blends a wide variety of genres all while maintaining an addictive gameplay loop. Its combat is visceral, fun, fluid and keeps things fresh by offering you a number of modifiers, powers and weapons to unlock and discover.
While the graphics could’ve been much better, it’s to be expected with an indie game like this. The entrancing bloodlust you’ll get as you mow down waves of demon hordes across a multitude of arenas while keeping your rhythm with each beat makes BPM a superb FPS game, despite its flaws.
Once you get into the groove of playing it, it’s hard to put the controller down. For any fans of FPS games or rogue-lites, this one’s a must buy.
Special thanks go to the publishers for providing us with a review code.
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