Nightmare Reaper got me thinking about synthesizing genres.

 Nightmare Reaper is yet another boomer shooter in a seemingly endless sea of throwback slaughter-fests that have been releasing in recent years. However, that sea seems a whole lot less endless to me, a lowly console player, since the majority of retro-FPS titles are released exclusively on Steam and not often ported over to the PlayStation. Still, there have been a select few of these games I’ve been able to get my hands on, such as Project Warlock, Ion Fury and Prodeus. They’re all designed around one refreshingly simplistic task: speed through level after level blasting enemy sprites into pieces, gradually adding to your arsenal until you’ve become an unstoppable lead-spewing machine. It makes for a cathartic and addicting spectacle that never gets old. But just because it’s not entirely necessary to fix what isn’t broken, a game like Nightmare Reaper can still come along and freshen up a well-established formula.

It’s funny to put “subtlety” and any boomer shooter in the same sentence, but what’s so unique about Nightmare Reaper is that it demands I do so in order to properly explain what makes it work so well. While the core experience is built on quick and chaotic combat, there are also several roguelike elements sprinkled onto this over-the-top ode to 90’s shooters. The game understands its limits when merging two genres. Roguelike features never dominate or complicate the core experience to annoy or frustrate a player who’s eager to keep mowing down hordes of 2D monsters. Instead, they add to the addictive nature of the game, urging the player to keep racing through each bite-sized level with their eyes peeled for new loot or modifiers. This results in a game that isn’t desperate to shoehorn itself into a particular category for the sake of jumping on the roguelike train, but rather seeks to stand out from the crowd by making several fun, non-drastic changes to a tested gameplay loop. It succeeds.

During my time with other roguelike titles, I’ve found myself becoming less and less motivated to keep going after I’ve completed their initial cycle, meaning I’ve technically “beaten the game.” I realize that having this outlook does roguelikes a disservice, because a lot of the best stuff comes later. Crazier encounters, overpowered abilities, remixed enemy design, etc. These games are made to be repeated time and time again. At first, I was fully on board with such an approach. When I first played Enter the Gungeon, a top-down twin-stick shooter, I was absolutely hooked. I fought through the game’s five dungeons with each playable character (including both unlockable bonus characters) because I was having so much fun dodge-rolling through waves of pink, flashing projectiles, letting off return fire during short windows of safety. It was blissful anarccy. A lot of the excitement relied on the fact that if I died, it was all over, as well as on the absence of any guarantees regarding the acquisition of viable weaponry. If I got stuck with a T-shirt cannon during a boss battle, I had no choice but to focus more intensely on what was bound to be a much longer fight than if I’d procured the laser-spitting head of a demon from a treasure chest beforehand (yes, that’s a thing, shout out to Shadow Warrior). Any slip-ups typically stacked onto one another as soon as I lost my composure, meaning that starting from square one could suddenly sneak up on me if I wasn’t careful. Enter the Gungeon was the first roguelike I’d ever played at the time, so the formula felt extremely unique. I thought it was the perfect niche for an indie title. Naturally, I became more interested in other roguelikes, which brings me to Hades.

 Hades was a ton of fun during the build up to my first defeat of the God of the Underworld. It also probably helps that I adore Greek mythology and really got a kick out of the divine dialogue on display. Aside from an interesting story, Hades also provided me with fast and strategic combat that really made each upgrade feel like an impactful ingredient to the most optimal builds. Before conquering Hades himself, I had found my favorite gods to chat with in pursuit of their magical boons. Yes, Zeus, I’d love to summon lightning bolts onto the heads of my enemies each time I dash! However, while discovering my favorite upgrades that I’d refuse to overlook on subsequent runs, as well as attaching myself to three enjoyable weapons selected from a batch of six, I also discovered a bit of disappointment with the way things were developing. I had entered a comfort zone where I could always feel confident in obtaining a combination of enhancements that would get me back to Hades in no time. The game began to feel stale as I returned to defeat Hades again . . . and again . . . and then . . . I stopped. Despite the game wanting to me to marathon dozens of runs with new challenges and better weapon stats, I had already become somewhat burnt out after fifteen hours by fighting the same enemies and bosses in the same four areas before finally dueling with the disgruntled father of Zagreus, the protagonist. It’s not the kind of burnout that makes me never want to revisit Hades. The game is certainly a gem that has earned the praise it’s widely received, but I already need a break from the experience, a break I’m not recommended to take from a roguelike until I’ve seen every potential upgrade and combination I can. I can’t help but feel a bit disillusioned with what was once a novel concept (though I suppose the same sentiment stands for any genre that grows so far from its inception, such as the influx of “soulslikes” after FromSoftware paved the way). On the other hand, when I finally decided to put down Nightmare Reaper, I was surprised to find another 40 hours had disintegrated from my life. My experience had been one bright, pixelated blur of coin-showering corpses and Matrix-mode initiations upon shotgun blasts to a dragon’s face, and I had barely even noticed just how long I’d been absorbed.

Once I considered the reasons why this game was able to entirely capture my attention for over twice the amount of time as my most recently played rougelike (Hades) I realized that Nightmare Reaper’s accomplishment boils down to the fact that its rogue influences are inserted into a game that could work just fine as a standard old-school shooter, a type of game I am probably a bigger fan of than isometric hack n’ slashes, for the record. Nightmare Reaper is constructed in an episodic format, like classic Doom and countless other Doom-inspired titles. As you progress, the aesthetic of each episode changes. Keep in mind, the levels are procedurally generated, and while a more personal touch in the design could have really bolstered Nightmare Reaper’s appeal, it’s simply not that kind of game. Nightmare Reaper isn’t looking to flex its design muscles in the face of staggeringly artistic and technical masterclasses in throwback level design, as seen in Ion Fury, but that’s just fine. It’s a smaller project that does something different, with a focus on niche ideas.You’ll start off running through dark, tight caverns and snug corridors that open into wider arenas full of enemies. Eventually, you’ll be grappling onto city rooftops and leaping across floating platforms in an ethereal realm where purple eyeballs watch you from their place on the walls. The levels are never too complex. They become varied enough to make an impression without lingering too long. Therefore, when playing through the “story mode” (there’s not much of a story to discuss, but what is present provides a fine, mysterious incentive) you’re not getting too bored of your surroundings. Cosmetic alterations like texture reskins are minor but they still matter, yet more significant inclusions like portals and separated areas accessible via grappling hook are what really keeps things fresh. This is one of Nightmare Reaper’s main diversions from the typical roguelike standard of providing a smaller set of areas to be repeated ad nauseum.

But wait, I know what you’re thinking . . . if that’s something setting Nightmare Reaper apart from other roguelikes, what is it that makes it similar to them? So far, Nightmare Reaper sounds like basically just another boomer shooter. Here’s the catch: there are no checkpoints per level until you complete it. If you die, the level must be played again from the start, including those that harbor a spongey boss battle at the end. Keep in mind, only the individual level (not the entire episode) has to be played again, making for a very forgiving system that doesn’t force the player through a daunting gauntlet, which makes it all the more motivating to jump back in after dying. This contrasts with my hesitation to jump right back into Tartarus after being killed by Theseus and the Minotaur. Starting from scratch in Hades sometimes left me rolling my eyes and deciding it’s actually time for lunch.

Here’s another catch: weapon drops are randomized, and all weapons acquired throughout a level (whether they’re dropped from enemies or found in treasure chests of varying rarity) must be sacrificed before reentering the mental hospital hub area, except for one. Random weapons popping out of chests sounds a lot like Enter the Gungeon, only in that game every gun you find can be held onto until the entire run is over, meaning it’s easier to coordinate which guns are best for which upcoming scenarios. For instance, a gun that shoots ricocheting sawblades is ideal for a room crammed with easily dispatched adversaries while a laser rifle is ideal for focusing in on bigger brutes. In Nightmare Reaper, those choices are made on the fly. You may not even realize, in the midst of pink flesh exploding in your face, what gun you just picked up until you equip it in a panic because whatever you’re currently using just isn’t getting the job done. Is it a howitzer cannon capable of obliterating everything assaulting you? Nice. Or is it a single-shot assault rifle with an effect that pulls enemies closer to you? You’re dead.

The weapons come with custom stats as well, so one shotgun may function entirely differently from what on the surface appears to be the same shotgun. The combinations you can find tend to be either very empowering or hilariously ineffective, especially when random projectiles can range from raw pizzas to bowling balls. Finding so many weapons on every level means that the decision concerning which one to retain at the end can often be difficult. There were plenty of times where I was having fun with a new gun but was only given a few minutes to test it out, so I was stuck between continuing to experiment with something new or hold onto a workhorse weapon I knew could most likely get me through the next level without much trouble. Typically, I chose to experiment with something new because that is where the game shines brightest. It’s a blast to begin a level completely clueless as to what tools you’ll have at your disposal, and the quest to find the next best thing never ends. But these weapons aren’t static. Sometimes, you’ll come across a strange doctor without a head (no big deal) who offers various modifiers for one of your weapons. You can reroll an established stat or duplicate a weapon at an increased rarity, meaning its stats will be randomized again without losing the original (that’s the no-brainer option if you enjoy the base weapon you’re primarily using). All things considered, keeping one weapon the entire game would not only be difficult to accomplish as enemies get tougher and weapons get better, it would also be defeating the purpose of engaging in the most interesting feature Nightmare Reaper has to offer.

Another rougelike element Nightmare Reaper repurposes is the upgrading system. Usually, roguelikes provide permanent upgrades as consolation for repeated deaths in the player’s attempts to complete a run in one go. Nightmare Reaper’s don’t shake things up in any jaw-dropping ways. Most of them are what’s expected. More health. More ammo. More speed. You’ll unlock the upgrades by picking up coins that burst from dead enemies and gems hidden in crates. There is one final step to be taken before you’re able to purchase each upgrade. It’s impossible to guess. The player character literally whips out a Gameboy. Playable on said Gameboy are three games: a side-scrolling platformer, a space shooter and discount Pokémon. Each upgrade is locked behind either completing a short level of the platformer, surviving a wave of alien ships in the space shooter or defeating another trainer’s (totally not) Pokémon. Simply put, it’s a charming addition to the game that cleanses the palette. The developers could have created a direct exchange from treasure to upgrades and no eyes would have been batted, so it was pleasantly surprising to see the incorporation of several minigames which are fun for what they are. Again, Nightmare Reaper gives an example of subtle tweaks to what’s expected, which go a long way in contributing to the unique identity of the game.

While Nightmare Reaper may not be for everyone, I’m grateful that it was ported to the Ps5. What I assumed would be another short and sweet 2D romp turned out to be a skillfully crafted piece of innovation that I didn’t see coming. Merging frantic retro-FPS gameplay with hints of rougelike elements proved to be a recipe for temporary addiction. The game grabbed hold of me and wouldn’t let go until I’d beaten it twice in a row. Had Nightmare Reaper been purely a throwback shooter or purely a roguelike, it may not have left such an impression on me, but I became very interested in the subtle ways in which the game makes something new from something common. Even though I was hooked, I’m not suggesting that everyone should play this odd little indie shooter for as long as I did. What I am suggesting is that everyone interested in either roguelikes or boomer shooters should at least give it a chance. Once you get trapped in the nightmare, you may not want to wake up.