LifeisXbox’s Bounty of One preview | Bounty of One is a fast-paced casual roguelite bullet hell for 1 to 4 players, made by the Belgian studio OptizOnion. They set out to make this interesting project in a short amount of time and managed to get a modest amount of success by leaning into the genre’s upcoming popularity.
It’s releasing in Early Access on Steam on the 18th of august and will receive updates with new content as the game progresses. This way the studio can already get some player feedback while also obtaining some funding to keep the electricity on and the coffee flowing. (coffee being the main fuel source game developers run on)
So how do games in this genre play? Your character shoots automatically and has to kill wave after wave of enemies, simply by moving around and avoiding damage. You pick up money that can be used to level up and unlock new and powerful abilities. It’s quite fun and you can almost play it one-handed if it weren’t for the addition of a Dash button. As a matter of fact, I could theoretically keep playing the game with my left hand while writing this review with my right…
ℹ️ Previewed on PC | Early Access Preview code provided by the developer. This preview is the personal opinion from the writer and is based on an unfinished game.
First Impressions
Let’s first address the elephant in the room; Bounty of One is very similar to Vampire Survivors. It’s hard not to bring this game up when talking about it, as that was the title to popularise the genre. Whereas the latter has a Castlevania-like aesthetic, Bounty of One instead chooses a Wild West theme and uses a cartoon art style over pixel graphics.
Other main differences are the fact that you have to stand still to shoot (which totally changes the way the game is played) and that there are boss battles present, even though the current build only seems to have one big boss encounter and bases its high score system on how many points you can rack up until defeating him. (you can keep playing afterward to see how much more powerful you can get, but it won’t count toward the leaderboard score.)
Extremely addictive
What makes this game and others like it so addictive, is the random element of the upgrades. Just like in other roguelites of this genre, you’ll get random boons upon levelling up, which can range from faster firing or increased health. It’s up to you to pick the best option to fit your current character’s playstyle. To reach the next level, you have to pick up coins that drop when you kill regular enemies.
If you defeat a mini-boss, it will drop a treasure chest that contains upgrades that have a bigger rarity and that are more unique, like lowering your Dash’s recovery rate, but at the same time giving you two extra slots or an area of effect damage effect. It’s really fun to discuss with friends which build got you the furthest, and comparing high scores can quickly become somewhat of an addiction.
Play together
What makes it even more appealing is that you can play Bounty of One with up to 4 players in co-op. The chaos of the battlefield can become a little bit more manageable if you can divide sections of the screen to other players or stand back-to-back to make sure the enemies don’t reach you.
I haven’t had the chance yet to try it out, but it certainly will get booted up the next time a friend comes over to see if we can keep playing for all eternity with the right overpowered builds.
To increase the chances of that happening, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for an Xbox version releasing soon, as that is my preferred couch co-op platform. I can’t wait to revisit Bounty of One again for a full review when that happens.
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Robby lives and breathes video games. When he’s not playing them, he’s talking about them on social media or convincing other people to pick up a controller themselves. He’s online so often, he could practically list the internet as his legal domicile. Belgian games-industry know-it-all.