When you’ve got a game that loads faster than its download time, you know you’re in for a treat. Enter Haste: Broken Worlds, the speediest experience I’ve had all year—its demo gets you playing in under half a minute.
The concept is refreshingly straightforward: the world’s crumbling, and your only option is to run like the wind. Haste doesn’t bother with lengthy backstories. Instead, it thrusts you into the energetic life of Zoe, a girl whose glasses seem tighter than ever, and before you know it, you’re sliding down slopes, all systems go, without a single line of dialogue to interrupt your pace.
If Sonic the Hedgehog thought he cornered the market on speed, he might need to think again. Haste embodies that exhilarating rush of continuous momentum. Essentially, you’re controlling it with just one button—tapping the spacebar to glide softly and hit the ground smoothly before taking flight once more. Stick those landings, and your hoverboard meter charges up, letting you recover from any missteps, like crashing into rocks or getting engulfed by those menacing waves of corruption. The only time you’ll put the action on pause is for a quick upgrade purchase or a chat with friends.
At its core, Haste is a roguelike that lets you pick your route for each run. Cross the finish line, and you’re faced with a decision on where to head next. One moment you’re racing through a monochrome landscape, restoring its vivid colors, and the next, you’re dodging black holes, racing against time to find an exit. Along the way, shimmering trails of crystals mark your path, and you can cash these in at shops for upgrades. Most enhancements focus on boosting speed or health, but others, like those that replenish your health when you gather crystals, can shape your strategy in each level.
The demo’s grand finale pits you against a massive robot, showering the area with lava. It’s a test of agility, requiring you to weave through danger before taking the offensive. Keeping your speed up is crucial to evade the encroaching lava, urging you to nail those landings for more hoverboard power. You’ll also want to scoop up crystals to maintain your health, adding an intriguing layer of complexity.
In games where mechanics aren’t as refined, handling a boss battle with this much going on could be a nightmare, but Haste’s smooth design keeps it all flowing seamlessly. Even if you’re struggling, maneuvering through its stages feels natural, rewarding you for taking bold risks. When you’re on top of your game, it resembles a rhythm title where every move hits the mark perfectly, only interrupted when it finally concludes.
Landfall, the developer behind the quirky multiplayer horror game Content Warning, plans to launch Haste: Broken Worlds later this year, and I, for one, can hardly wait.
