Heavy Storm Shadow - Prologue for Windows

Slick sci-fi action roguelike

Heavy Storm Shadow: Prologue is a free-to-play action game for PC by developer SmokingBear Studio. It's an isometric roguelike featuring sci-fi themes and slick visuals. In it, players are deployed to explore unknown planets in the galaxy armed with mechs to deal with hostile enemies they face along the way.

Drawing inspiration from the classic top-down shooter action of Crimsonland and the roguelike unpredictability of Vampire Survivors, Heavy Storm Shadow: Prologue offers a familiar yet fresh take on the genre. This prologue serves as a preview to showcase the game's gameplay and what players can expect from the full game.

Mechs and alien worlds

In Heavy Storm Shadow: Prologue, you set off into space and are tasked with exploring unknown alien worlds. There is no telling what awaits you when you land, hence you will be piloting an advanced mechanized suit to help you traverse the landscape, as well as to defend yourself from hostile creatures that you will come in contact with as you land.

Combat in this game is akin to a twin-stick shooter with intuitive controls and non-stop action. Enemies will come at you in waves, and you'll use your mech's weapons to shoot them down. When you level up, you get to choose from multiple random perks and bonuses called "chips" like increased weapon damage, additional weapons, and support drones, to name a few.

You will also earn credits with each run and you can use them to purchase new weapons and permanent upgrades to increase your core attributes like aim accuracy, defense, and the like. That said, the game needs to work better on its controls as they are rather imprecise and slow to respond to movements, which detracts from the overall fun gameplay.

Hostile environments

Overall, Heavy Storm Shadow: Prologue is an engaging twin-stick shooter roguelike with an interesting mech theme that lets you customize your suit with different weapons and attributes to suit your playstyle. Hopefully, the aforementioned issue with its controls will be addressed and fixed soon. Nevertheless, if you're a fan of these types of games, give this one a try. Recommended.