PC Games

Published on April 15th, 2025 | by Daniel

Reignbreakers PC Review!

I’m someone usually rooted firmly within my tastes as a gamer. I like FPS, Racing Games, Arcade Flight simulators and story driven RPG as well as some select few RTS games. I’m not someone who goes too far out of their way to try new games, but I do have an eye for quality. I generally know just by looking at a game’s style and within moments of seeing the core gameplay. As to whether it’s a game that I’ll enjoy or not. And I’m usually right about my intuition as well, it’s rare that I’m surprised to like or dislike something I’ve decided to take a chance on.

So when I saw Reginbreaker, watched its gameplay trailer and learned a bit about the game. I was equal parts surprised and not when I put my hand up for it.

I never did get into the Hades craze, sure it looked alright, but I’m not sure what turned me away from it. Perhaps it was the over used rope of Greek history retelling. Or perhaps it was the hype surrounding the game, and my innate desire to be different from everyone else by not jumping on trends like the masses. But I never had the desire to reach for my wallet to buy and play Hades. But I can say now, that after playing Reignbreaker, I might finally go back and play it.

On the surface, Reignbreaker looks just like Hades, with maybe some minor design differences. And for the most part, you’d be right. 2.5D style gameplay, a heavy focus on constant movement, upgrades to power yourself up as you dive deeper into the world and who could forget the hoards of enemies and badass boss fights? But little indie title has done what Hades failed to. Present a style like this, for a fraction of the cost to players. It’s polished, smooth and very easy to pickup and play. Within moments of me trying out the controls, I was already playing around with different weapon and perk combos.

You play as Clef, a powerfully strong, muscular woman, a former member of the Queen’s Guard. She’s revolted against the oppressive regime of the royal family and now seeks to dethrone the tyrannical leaders. She must enter the Bastion, an everchanging, steampunk dungeons filled with clockwork contraptions and machinations. Battle through room after room, slay guardians and hunt down the Queen of this oppressive regime with your fists and your javelin!

Gameplay

As mentioned, it is very much like Hades. Both in design and in gameplay. Your main attacks are your fists, but the star of the show is the Javelin. There are a number of different types of javelins, the basic fires are barrage of projectiles. But there’s a few other models to choose from, bombs, shotgun, lightning rail and more. Within them you can find different versions of them that feature different perks. Some have higher impact on their projectiles, others create a field to slow enemies within, while others might attach sticky bomb to them that detonate after a few seconds.

Additional to the Javelins, there are permanent and temporary perks you can get. By clearing lockdown challenges you can earn permanent currencies in the form of these purple crystals. These can add skills, improve base stats or increase the appearance of certain lockdowns and increase the rarity of perk drops. These temporary perks are earned in lockdown challenges, or bought from the key stores found in some areas of the dungeons or in the intermission levels between zones. These keys are found in by defeating enemies, destroying caches of them in the overworld or by completing challenges. They’re only available within the same run you’re currently in, finish a floor and you lose all those keys you gain, so you may as well spend them. These upgrades are more unique and fit within a theme for the various factions supporting the Queen in her twisted, tyrannical rule. Some of these boost base stats, grant extra abilities directly on yourself, or have adverse affects on the enemy. But only last until the end of the current floor, or until you die.

With each floor you clear, each Guardian you take down, the game gets progressively more difficult. Enemies are more numerous, they hit harder, bosses from previous floors join forces to take you 2v1. The harder it gets, them more important it is to find and keep a good build that synergises well with your style of gameplay. The right combo to suit you can take you far, the wrong combo can end in frustrating repeats to try it all again.

There’s not much in the way of story in the game, but that’s okay, what is there is quirky and charming. But the main fun is absolutely the gameplay and yes, you can pet the mechanical doggo. 10/10 game of the year.

Graphics

Reignbreaker is a game about breaking the chains of oppressions and finding the keys to unlock freedom for everyone. Something I think everyone can relate to!

The graphics in this game is actually one of my favourite things about this game. The streampunk aesthetic works really well for a procedurally generated dungeon, the junk and broken down machines really speak to the idea of an oppressive ruling faction. With exposed gears, broken machines, scattered components and neon graffiti sprayed all over the walls and floor. It’s clever design too, because the graffiti alludes to a lockdown challenge nearby and which of the four factions it belongs to. Clefs design, is top tier. Strong, muscular and powerfully built to wield her large javelin around and swing it with all the force that she does. The other characters too, all have unique designs, all with an interesting blend of old English renaissance meets fantasy steampunk. From the clothes to the manner in which they speak, it’s a combination I don’t really see much of but it’s done pretty well here.

The enemies too, have pretty interesting designs too. Most, if not all, can be boiled down to five categories: jumpy boys, shooty boys, rolley boys spinny boys and Guardians. There are a few different designs of them and all are distinct from one another making them easy to recognise and prioritise. Traps can be used for or against you, are clearly marked on the floor and also have a few different unique designs that clearly make them stand out. Making it easy to tell what type of trap they are, my favourite so far has to be the battery trap. Which allows you to slam your javelin into it and it’ll keep using it’s unique ability for a time.

I do think they did miss an opportunity, however. One of the biggest tools in your arsenal is without a doubt the Javelin and with its variation in ability types, they missed a perfectly good opportunity to give each model a different design. What I did like, was the sense of 3D I could feel despite the 2.5D semi top down view the game provides. It’s reminiscent of classic RTS games like Command and Conquer, but much more densely populated with environment and effects.

Audio

The game has a bangin’ soundtrack and pretty good vocals to boot. The menu song which featured in the trailer is a real banger, filled with high octane rock to get the blood pumping as you tear through mechanical monstrosities and throw up a middle finger or two to the ones in power. Anarchy is the name of the game here and the music really gets you in the mood to tear down oppressive governments. The voice acting isn’t half bad either, a little cliche and cheesy but I enjoyed some of the banter between Clef and the other characters. But it’s definitely a battle between music and sound effects for the best sound design in the game. There’s just something so fun about deep explosive bass from a shotgun blast or the electrical pew from the electric rain pouring down from the sky, the little chainsaw rip as you use the Javelin to unlock a new area.

Even the ambience between fights as you explore the depths of each floor has a mysterious hum to it. And I found it really cool how they added audio cues when completing a challenge or finding a secret. It’s not quite Zelda music when finding a treasure chest, but it definitely makes the game feel more immersive for me the player. My only issue with the sound design is that there simply wasn’t enough songs, I could only hear what sounded like a handful of different lyricless songs that sorta recycled after a while. And while that’s not bad per se, if I have time to stop and listen to the music beginning to get repetitive, then I have to take some points off for that.

Final Thoughts?

Reignbreaker is a game I thoroughly enjoyed, from the moment I set eyes on the design and the gameplay. I knew I wanted in, and like my intuition thought, I was immediately drawn in to gorgeously visceral graphics and blown away by amazing sound design. It’s a game that has thoroughly shown me that I can step out of my usual genres from time to time when a game provides a good experience. No shiny coats of paint, nothing fancy, just good, honest, fun. The procedurally generated aspect does eventually wear out its welcome, but only in the lower echelons of floors where the game is hard enough that a bit of familiarity with a repeated floor would come in handy.

It’s a game that is able to accurately present content that gets decently harder the deeper you go. Not so hard it makes you give up and never come back, but just hard enough that you want to experiment with different build, as not one build is perfect for every situation. And one that’s as cheap as this? It’s crazy. So if you’re looking for an experience like Hades, but can’t afford or fully commit to the bit. Try out Reignbreaker, it’s a great place to start and I only hope that I find more examples of games like this in genres I don’t often get to play!

Game Details

Game Genre – Action-Adventure, Indie, Roguelike
Developers – Studio Fizbin
Publishers – Thunderful Games
Rating – PG
Year of Release – 2025
Platforms – PC
Mode(s) of Play – Single player

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About the Author

Daniel Hi I'm Dan! 33 and Non-Binary. When I'm not writing reviews. I like to get deeply immersed in the lore of an mmo or rpg, cruise the forest or coastal roads of Victoria, watch anime, read manga, build model kits and do a bit of sketching on the side.

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