''BPM: Bullets Per Minute'' is a

roguelike Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a style of role-playing game traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character. Most ro ...

rhythmic Rhythmic may refer to: * Related to rhythm * Rhythmic contemporary, a radio format * Rhythmic adult contemporary, a radio format * Rhythmic gymnastics Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform individually or in groups on a floor ...

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

developed and published by Awe Interactive. The game incorporates elements from

rhythm game Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to pres ...

s and

s. It was released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

in September 2020, for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

in October 2021, and for

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

in September 2022.

Gameplay

The game is a

in which the player assumes control of a

Valkyrie In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ( or ; from ) is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become ('single fighters' or 'once fighters').Orchard (1997:36) and Li ...

who must combat various monstrous creatures across different realms. The player can choose from ten characters, each of whom has their own unique abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Similar to rhythm games such as ''

Crypt of the NecroDancer ''Crypt of the NecroDancer'' is a 2015 roguelike rhythm game created by Brace Yourself Games. The game takes fundamental elements of a roguelike dungeon exploration game and adds a beat-matching rhythm game set to an original soundtrack written ...

'', the players must use abilities, reload, and shoot their weapons on beat to the game's heavy metal

background music Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...

. As with many rhythm games, each successful beat match boosts a score multiplier, while their guns will misfire if the player loses the beat. The game features dungeons that are

procedurally generated In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, typically through a combination of human-generated content and algorithms coupled with computer-generated randomness and processing power. I ...

, and the player must defeat seven different

boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...

es in order to finish the game.

Development

The game was developed by Awe Interactive, which was a two-person team based in the UK. The game was inspired by early first-person shooters such as ''

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (1934–2020), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitche ...

'' and '' Quake'', while some of the gameplay mechanics were influenced by ''Crypt of the NecroDancer'' and ''

Cuphead ''Cuphead'' is a 2017 run and gun video game developed and published by Canadian developer Studio MDHR. The game follows its titular teacup-headed character and his brother Mugman, as they make a deal with the Devil to pay casino losses by r ...

''. Originally the team wanted to use music from various artists, but they decided to work exclusively with Sam Houghton and Joe Collinson after hearing their work. The game is powered by

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American Video game developer, video game and software development, software developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney (game developer), Tim Sween ...

Unreal Engine Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter video game '' Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of ...

, and used assets from their cancelled project, ''

Paragon Paragon may refer to: Places *Paragon, Indiana, a town in the United States * Paragon, Nebraska, former community in the United States *The Paragon, Bath, a Georgian street in the Walcot area of Bath * The Paragon, Blackheath, London, built by Mi ...

''. One of ''Paragon''s characters, Sevarog, appears in the game. The game was published by Playtonic Friends, the publishing arm of Playtonic Games, the developer behind ''

Yooka-Laylee ''Yooka-Laylee'' is a platform game developed by Playtonic Games and published by Team17. It was released for Linux, macOS, PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One in April 2017, Nintendo Switch in December 2017 and Amazon Luna in October 2020. D ...

''. The game was released for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

on September 16, 2020. The game was released for

and

on October 5, 2021, and was released for

on September 8, 2022.

Reception

According to

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the Windows version received "mixed or average" reviews while the PlayStation 4 version received "generally positive reviews".

References

External links

* {{Playtonic Games 2020 video games First-person shooters Indie games PlayStation 4 games Playtonic Games games Rhythm-action games Roguelike video games Single-player video games Unreal Engine 4 games Video games based on Norse mythology Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games featuring female protagonists Video games set in hell Windows games Xbox One games