Nightmare Reaper review: a retro-styled FPS that hits more than it misses Rock Paper Shotgun Support us Join our newsletter Visit our store Sign in / Create account If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Nightmare Reaper review: a retro-styled FPS that hits more than it misses Oh sow good Review by Ed Thorn Senior Staff Writer Published on May 9, 2022 10 comments Nightmare Reaper review A reto-styled FPS with a dash of rogue-lite that's a swell time, even if it doesn't commit hard enough to the rogue-lite loop. Developer: Blazing Bit Games Publisher: Blazing Bit Games Release: Out now On: Windows From: Steam, GOG Price: £20/€21/$25 Nightmare Reaper is what you'd get if you crossed Minecraft with Doom and sprinkled it with the ashes of a roguelite. You blast through procedurally generated woods and sewers, bursting enemies for cash and channeling your profits into a skill tree that's also your own psyche. It's rad, basically, but its roguelite dusting doesn't quite hit the mark when a literal nightmare is turning into a metaphorical one. Nightmare Reaper is a retro-styled FPS in which you play an unnamed patient of a psychiatric ward where, by day, you're cooped up in a little cell filled with scrawlings on the walls and mysterious notes that detail ominous experiments. Lay yourself down in bed and night and that's your ticket to Nightmareville, filled with raging demons and M1 Garands and buckets of blood. There are no nice dreams here! Only procedurally generated journeys into a hellscape that get tougher the more often you go beddy-byes. Watch on YouTube But in a way you've got to give it to the nightmares, because they're pretty cool. They're a throwback to the FPS genre's grand age of Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, with strafes aplenty and keys that come in two colours: red and blue. There are modern touches, though, like being able to scope-in with rifles to deliver precise headshots, and enforced slow-mo so that when heads pop like melons under a truck wheel, the game lets you bask in the ensuing giblet rain. And while there isn't a literal truck to drive over enemies, the game's arsenal covers practically every other base. There's a wasp queen's head that spits clouds of wasps like a witch at a talent show. Railguns topple skeletons like bowling balls in a doctor's surgery. Get lucky and you might find an eyeball drone that'll swim into enemies and burn them to a crisp. Genuinely, the variety is off the chain. Speaking of chains, there's a flail. And a katana. Also books that summon your own skeleton army. I picked up a wizard's book that shot bursts of lightning or electro-balls if you charged it up with a right click. It even electrified a pool of water and zapped all the enemies inside, which was a neat touch. And all the weapons you find go from bargain bucket grey, to rarer blue, to epic purple and beyond. They spring out of chests or enemies you down. Occasionally, they'll lurk at the end of a challenge room, which involves a touch of platforming to break things up a bit. You'll need to jump across tiny ledges, avoid spikes, and flame traps. Not quite on par with flying in a lucid dream, but hey ho. The game's levels are almost as varied as its arsenal, morphing enough to keep the nightmares suitably twisted. Gloomy woods? Love 'em. There's a lot of that early on. But as you reap, you also visit moody towns and sulfuric mines. Neon green sewers and a city with cold industrial sectors. Each is reminiscent more of Minecraft than they are, say, Doom, thanks to tight voxel corridors that open into arenas, then constrict again. Their tightknit nature works nicely, keeping you uncomfortably close to the gore and rewarding you once in a while with a messy tango that'll let you flex your arsenal. Of course, reaping means something else too: sowing. You whip out a copyright free Gameboy SP and play copyright free Super Mario and not-Pokémon mini-games to make your character grow stronger. It's in both of these that you spend coins from mulched enemies on upgrades to your ammo count or health pool or whatnot. While quite a fun concept for the first few rounds, the mini-games soon become a bit of a faff that you'd rather trade for an instant level-up, as opposed to a Bouldermon. That's the thing, too; these mini-games are over-simplistic and pretty janky, making them a largely joyless affair after a few repeat runs. Sometimes, no matter how hard you've worked to make your nightmares a little dreamier, you may not be able to escape a tough start. Some levels are just generated more tricky than others. You may have picked the wrong gun to kickstart your campaign, which is an issue when you're faced with dinky dragons that nip at you like horseflies, zombies as tall and fast as Paul Radcliffe, and mecha-spiders with a penchant for missiles. Death isn't punishing – which is nice – but if you're stuck in a rut, you may become reliant on the procedural generation or a random weapon drop to free you from, well, a nightmare. Waiting for strings of code to align in your favour can be quite frustrating, to say the least. And experiencing the frustration of a nightmare that won't budge shines a spotlight on an empty space. When you wake up in the psychiatric ward after a bad run, there's no other option but to go back to sleep and repeat the cycle. It feels like there's a connective tissue missing between life and death here. While the ward's mystery grows as you play, it would benefit from a little something to make the limbo a bit more meaningful, whether that's in extra upgrades or even a prompt to spend your cash. As it is, the choice of framing feels like nothing much more than edgy wrapping paper. Ultimately Nightmare Reaper's a fun retro-styled FPS with a couple of rogue-lite elements to introduce some loot-fuelled pizazz to bloody proceedings. While it lack of full commitment to the rogue-lite reward loop knocks it a touch - you're still in for a treat. The game's sheer volume of randomised weaponry and twisty levels make it worth picking up for retro FPS veterans or newbies alike. More Reviews Scorn review: a staggeringly impressive horror world with messy combat It's pregnant with meaning Alice Bell 23 hours ago 27 The Case Of The Golden Idol review: a gripping detective game with echoes of Obra Dinn Murders most foul Katharine Castle 1 day ago 13 Cultic review: crunchy retro-inspired FPS is a vicious, violent delight Blood brother Liam Richardson 2 days ago 6 Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 review: A wildly expensive flagship GPU with a touch of DLSS 3 magic The biggest, brawniest, and most bankrupting of Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace graphics cards James Archer 2 days ago 12 Latest Articles What are we all playing this weekend? Well? Alice O'Connor an hour ago 21 Past Wordle answers Here's an archive of previous Wordle words Ollie Toms 2 hours ago 1 Wordle answer today (Saturday 15 October) Hints and the answer to today's Wordle word Rebecca Jones 9 hours ago Overwatch 2 hero tier list Which are the best heroes in Overwatch 2? Ollie Toms 16 hours ago Supporters Only You're probably better than me at One Many Nobody You go on without… uh, you? Sin Vega 17 hours ago Supporter podcast - The Nate Files episode 13: dry bones Bad science is also FUN science! Alice Bell 18 hours ago Japanese dating show Love Wagon has surprising parallels with Yakuza and Persona My new obsession Ed Thorn 2 days ago If you're hankering after Bayonetta 3, Valkyrie Elysium might be a good substitute It's not out on PC until next month, but the console demo has been a surprise charmer Katharine Castle 1 week ago 4 We've been talking, and we think that you should wear clothes Total coincidence, but we sell some clothes Buy RPS stuff here