BPM: Bullets Per Minute

Developers at team Awe Interactive managed to catch rhythm-shooter hype with a real finesse, and showing others how to make games in this new subgenre.

The biggest complaints with the game are not that the concept and execution aren't good enough, the issue is that the game deserves more content, more attention, and more development of its great ideas.

It's not a forgiving experience, and though it's difficult to master, BPM proves surprisingly easy to pick up and play. If you're prepared to die a lot, you'll find an incredible game within, and it's one title rhythm fans would do well to put on their playlist.

BPM: Bullets Per Minute is an addictive, innovative, and punishingly hard roguelite shooter-slash-rhythm game - and it's great.

The bastard child of DOOM, Devil Daggers and Tetris Effect, BPM: Bullets Per Minute is one of the most pleasant surprises of the year and a game I’d thoroughly recommend to anyone with a hankering for something different in the FPS genre. Just don’t expect an easy ride. Even on Easy.

If heavy metal has you running for the hills, then BPM: Bullets Per Minute won’t convert you. But for everyone else, this is an adrenaline fuelled heavy-metal ride that you’d be daft to miss.

An interesting, unique FPS for rock music and roguelike games lovers.

BPM: BULLETS PER MINUTE is an extremely fun-yet-punishing game to play, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. The improvements are present, though far less noticeable than the leap taken between the betas and pre-releases. Concepts have been refined, and the controls are better, but the steep adjustment and lack of level variety remains a thorn in the side of an otherwise ambitious title. If you had a stab at the pre-release and enjoyed it, there’s absolutely no need not to get it now.

BPM is a brash, earwormy delight, aimed at the heads of Doom fans and lapsed Guitar Heroes alike.

Bullets Per Minute has an interesting foundation without bringing anything too complex, and then gives you just enough tools to mess around with it. Even if you’re not a big rhythm game player, it’ll keep you at your own pace, and you’ll get better and better as you go. This subgenre is barely starting, and whilst it is early to tell how it will evolve from here, others would do well in taking cues from this experience, where simplicity behind the premise and a set of rules is enough to hit the right notes.

BPM’s developers managed to bring together their love for classic first-person shooters and a fresh idea. The result of their ambitions is a hellishly fast FPS with procedurally generated environments and a twist. Good reflexes are not enough to complete even the very first level, because to survive, you need to sync your actions to the beat of the music (the soundtrack is fantastic, by the way). For instance, if you pull the trigger at the wrong moment, your gun will misfire. Once you get used to it, you’ll be rewarded with intense, satisfying gameplay. [12/2020, p.71]

BPM: Bullets Per Minute is a rhythmic shooter done well gameplay-wise, although it needed some more polishing and some additions here and there, it's a game that may become addictive once you get the grasp of it.

An unrefined rogue-like, but a hell of a rhythm shooter. A killer soundtrack and some striking visuals blend beautifully with frenetic shooting to produce pure adrenaline.

BPM: Bullets Per Minute is an old-school shooter with a twist, adding in roguelike mechanics as well as rhythm-based gameplay. Jump, dash, shoot and reload to the beat to advance through a host of monster-filled levels, collecting keys, coins, equipment, and stats to try and get through the seven stages that constitute each playthrough. The gameplay is fun, fast, and frantic, it looks good and sounds great, with a perfect heavy-metal soundtrack, though there are a few flaws. A lack of enemy variety, particularly bosses, as well as level variety starts to show quickly.

On one hand, BPM: Bullets Per Minute is a neat mix of FPS and rhythm gameplay. On the other one, it's a terribly unbalanced roguelike that is also in dire need of variety. Throw all these in a bowl, and the end result is a soup with a couple of ingredients that shouldn't be here… but, somehow the taste remains pretty darn good. After all, how can you go wrong with a game where you are in control of a Valkyrie that blasts monsters in Asgard with her shotgun, in sync with some fine heavy metal.

The game lacks information and suffers from repetitiveness. It might be better down the line or if a sequel comes out. For now it's an interesting idea still worth picking up.

This is a roguelite with a fun and original concept, although it quickly runs out of content.

BPM is a well-executed, unique take on the rhythm-roguelite genre that has a lot to offer – if you can get accustomed to its demanding gameplay hook.

This is a fine calling card for the Derbyshire developer: far from flawless, but clear proof that this new hybrid has a bright future ahead. [Issue#350, p.102]

BPM is a great concept somewhat fumbled, redeemed when it breaks its own rules.

There is no middle ground for BPM: either you love it, or you hate it. Personally, I feel this game crosses the line between challenge and frustration, offering a learning curve that is almost impossible to climb if you are not a true FPS lover. The soundtrack is excellent and the bundle with it is worth your money, but if you're not a very, very patient person with lightning-fast reflexes and an excellent sense of rhythm, you better look somewhere else.

As it stands, BPM is a solid idea that's well executed, but it's wrapped in some mediocre game design that ultimately drags down the experience. This may sound like a harsh deconstruction of the title, but I would still recommend it to the right person. If you're very much into rhythm games or intrigued by the title, give it a shot. Its gameplay is promisingly solid, but the rest of the experience feels either underwhelming or too repetitive to appreciate over time. I would have loved to see some more drastic gameplay variations, skill-based additions, or maybe a change of pace or music to mix things up.

Although BPM is suffering from some issues, its combination of shooter and rhythm-action genres is very innovative and interesting, and despite this idea is not as developed as it should have, it can still be very entertaining for those who are looking for a challenging Roguelike game.

BPM: Bullets Per Minute is a fun shooter with some interesting ideas but with a difficulty curve more akin to trying to ram yourself through a brick wall. If you're a fan of the roguelike genre and rhythm games, provided you can get past the annoyances, then this could be a fun time killer.

BPM: Bullets Per Minute is a fun shooter with a banging soundtrack, but its roguelike elements feel a tad undercooked. Still, where else can you dance around like a demon slayer while tearing through the hordes of hell, shooting on the beat and keeping the party going?

The inclusion of rhythm into otherwise “classic” shooting is refreshing and exploring all the secrets certainly is fun, but the difficulty level is frustratingly high, while you will encounter some problems interms of visuals and game design.

BPM is a difficult game to recommend because it is just too damn difficult! There isn’t so much a difficulty curve as a brick wall, and the resultant over-reliance on RNG can make for a frustrating experience. The core game is brilliantly inventive and it feels fantastic when you get in the flow, but there are just too many obstacles in the way. Hopefully Awe Interactive will patch things to make the game more accessible as there is the basis for an indie gem here.