BPM: Bullets Per Minute is addictive, deeply challenging, and equally as rewarding. It is by no means perfect, but what it lacks in visuals and polish it makes up for with its rock-solid concept and spot-on fundamentals. A unique blend of genres, BPM‘s core elements mix together to create a rhythm FPS rogue-like in which players will shoot, reload, jump, and dash in time with an adrenaline-pumping hard rock soundtrack. Both FPS gameplay and the rhythm elements are executed near-perfectly, which helps to make up for the game’s terrible visual style and occasionally grating rogue-like randomness.
BPM is vaguely Norse mythology themed and heavily DOOM inspired, with players stepping into the role of a Valkyrie or other unlockable characters to defend Asgard and other realms from hordes of enemies. Each level is randomly generated, so players must explore each dungeon to find its unique assortment of enemy-stuffed chambers, mini-bosses, specialized shops, and a boss room that leads to the next level. New weapons, powerups, coins to buy items, keys to unlock special chests, and other goodies are scattered throughout, but once the player dies all progress is lost and they will have to re-start from square one. Unlike most rogue-likes, there is practically no progress to be made or permanent upgrades to purchase between runs.
The rogue-like elements are a double-edged sword for BPM. The game is challenging, so having randomized dungeons makes the grind to improve less monotonous, but the randomization system has some serious flaws. It is very common to get an outright “bad” level, where there are no keys and every chest is locked, or every reward is a coin, the shop has nothing useful, and no healing items are to be found. This combined with the lack of progress between runs can be quite an annoying mechanic at times. Having seen some of the catered levels provided for gameplay previews, it seems like the game would be far better with a well-designed campaign, and the rogue-like version as an “endless mode” or optional playstyle.
The rogue-like elements may simply be a matter of personal preference for each player, but one feature of the game is undeniably bad: the graphics could be better. The first two levels of Asgard are bathed in a ghastly, high-contrast, bloomed out orange that makes it difficult to differentiate enemies from the room around them and is entirely unpleasant to look at. Later levels aren’t much better, taking on different hues but maintaining monochrome ugliness. Luckily, the game doesn’t have to be pretty to be fun, and the flawed randomization and sub-par graphics are where the downsides end.
The music in BPM is great. Throbbing synths and a wailing guitar being shredded to bits get the player pumped up to dish out some damage over a steady, easy-to-find 4/4 beat that never stops. The gun-play and movement are also superb, hearkening back to what made classic retro shooters like DOOM great. Shots are satisfying, each gun has a unique, lovable character, and rapidly dashing or double-jumping around swarms of enemies is pure joy. Awesome music and polished shooter gameplay aren’t what makes BPM unique though- it’s the rhythm-game elements that mesh these two upsides together perfectly and bring BPM up to the next level.
The hardest part of getting used to BPM is learning to slow down and make every shot, movement, and reload a deliberate, well-timed action. FPS players are likely used to relying on pure reflexes and instinct for snap movements, but BPM forces the player to do everything in time with the music. Shots ring out on eighth-notes, reloads require quick taps of the button in time with the music, double-jumps can only be performed on off beats, and dashing past an enemy attack has to be done on the same drum beat or guitar riff as the incoming strike.
Managing all of that can be frustrating at first, but once the mechanics click and players find their rhythm, the game becomes engaging and addictive enough to make most titles out right now blush. The satisfying challenge, engrossing action, and pure, simplified fun of both the FPS and rhythm-game genres is not just added together in BPM, they are multiplied by each other to innovate something really great. It’s easy to keep coming back again and again, getting further and further through the game, discovering favorite weapons and learning each enemy or boss until they become an afterthought in the player’s ongoing metal-as-hell FPS music montage.
That satisfying flow and well-tuned gameplay make the lack of big-budget polish a negligible issue. The game is also only $20, making it well worth every cent, and further excusing some of the repetition and lack of polish. The biggest complaints with the game are not that the concept and execution aren’t good enough, the issue is that the game deserves more content, more attention, and more development of its great ideas.
BPM: Bullets Per Minute is on PC now and will release on consoles soon. Game Rant was provided a PC code for this review.
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