This open-world roguelike looks like just what I need after Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

(Image credit: Heart Machine)

Hyper Light Breaker is easily one of my most-anticipated open-world games of the year, and its new trailer suggests that it might be the perfect palette cleanser for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

If you're nearing the end of your latest trip to Hyrule but you're still looking for a massive open world to explore, Hyper Light Breaker's most recent trailer certainly delivers on that latter point. A flythrough of its world shows off a wide array of biomes and hints at an internal mythology that I'm very keen to check out.

After that, there's a closer look at combat and traversal, both of which look very slick, especially when paired together. And it's that that's got me thinking about Tears of the Kingdom; Hyper Light Breaker looks a lot faster and more arcade-y than the recent Zelda release.

To be clear, Tears of the Kingdom is excellent, but I'm looking for something a little faster-paced as I reach the end of that journey, and Hyper Light Breaker's magic combat system looks like that. Add in the paraglider-driven exploration and the comparison between Tears of the Kingdom's miniboss-style Lynel fights and HLB's actual random encounters with its mid-level bosses, and there's an obvious connection to be drawn towards the two.

The final piece of that puzzle could be in Hyper Light Breaker's roguelike efforts. A perma-death open world system isn't one we've really seen before, and that untested formula could be make or break, but given how good predecessor Hyper Light Drifter was, if there's a studio I trust to deliver on this idea, it's this one.

We could be in line for a new entry on our list of the best open world games.

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.

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Austin WoodSenior writer