Kill the Brickman

When I first heard about {Kill the Brickman}, I had absolutely no clue of what game to expect. The name doesn't do much to suggest what kind of project it will be and due to the fact that it has just shadow-dropped without any pre-orders or wishlists, there has been no information about the game out in the wild. But I also appreciate this mysterious nature as it protects the sanctity of the title and allows you to be surprised by it.

So what is {Kill the Brickman} then? This is a turn-based rogue-like brick-breaker where the aim is to destroy bricks and enemies that are effectively human heads in the shape of bricks (think {M.O.D.O.K.}) by firing different kinds of bullets at them and watching the carnage unfold. It's not a very complex game in the sense of offering a variety of unique mechanics to have to master, but there is a broad buildcrafting system that allows you to style your weapon and bullets so that they are more effective in one way than another.

For example, there are a grand total of three different bullet types to use, those being red, blue, and green. Red has explosive qualities, green is corrosive or poisonous, and blue sees the bullets splitting and ricocheting in all manner of unexpected directions. From here, you can after every level head to a {Balatro}-like store to snag upgrades, new weapon magazines, and bullets that fit into these categories to adjust how you play. In practice, this might mean buying more red bullets so that when you acquire power-ups that make explosions higher damage or lead to ricocheting rounds after the initial explosion, you create a hectic and chaotic chaining system that tears the level to pieces and kills as many {Brickmen} as possible along the way. This is important to do because the way to complete each level is to defeat a certain number of {Brickmen}.

The way that the game builds on this is by introducing bosses, either at the end or mid-way through each chapter, and also featuring contracts that you accept at the start of each level to make it harder or easier. The harder ones may require additional {Brickmen} to be slain in reward for more cash at the end of the level, whereas easier ones might give you health back at the cost of hard-earned cash. You can decide how you want to proceed in this regard.

The other main part of {Kill the Brickman} that is worth noting is the weapon and magazine system. The buildcrafting doesn't just revolve around which items you buy and how they combine, it revolves around the magazine you use. Essentially, each magazine has an additional property and effect but to activate it you have to arrange bullets in a certain way. Some may only require one round to be inserted to supercharge that round, whereas others need just one round type to be inserted to get the activated effect, and others need to have multiple rounds slotted in, in the right chambers, to get the desired effect. It's an interesting system that is far less complicated than it may sound but does add a welcome and rather ingenious extra layer of detail to the strategic gameplay.

As for how all of this shapes up in practice, it's actually a really lovely and well-balanced system that has the right level of buildcrafting and challenge matched up with simple and refined mechanics. It does seem a bit too forgiving at times, a tad too easy especially for anyone with a knack for "breaking" games with buildcrafting elements, like {Balatro} and even looter games, and there's only a limited collection of ways to play, as the story mode is over in a flash, leaving you to dedicate your time and energy to the endless mode instead. That being said, there are ways to keep progressing by unlocking two additional weapon types beyond the starting revolver, with all three able to be levelled up by using them and killing {Brickmen} to unlock added effects and bonuses.

But long story short, for a game that brings together a slate of ideas that frankly seems a tad strange at first, {Kill the Brickman} is a wonderful and effortlessly entertaining combination. It's intuitive and straightforward yet complex and filled with challenge, and it's memorably unique and strikingly strange. It's a truly odd indie experience that {Doonutsaur} has created here and one that you absolutely should check out if you have some time to spare and either a PC or an Xbox console on hand.