Nightmare Reaper

Nightmare Reaper sits at the intersection of three genres: classic 2.5D first-person shooter in the lineage of Doom and Blood, modern looter shooter with randomized weapon enchantments, and rogue-lite with persistent character progression. The campaign sends you through open-ended levels packed with enemies, secrets, and the geysers of blood and loot that come from clearing them.

Eighty unique weapons drop as loot, each potentially carrying any of over 30 enchantment types — explosive rounds, lifesteal, chain lightning, the full looter-shooter alphabet. Gold spent in minigames between levels purchases character upgrades and new abilities, which carry across runs. Loadout choice between expeditions affects everything from your starting gear to which level archetypes you can access.

Andrew Hulshult — composer for Quake Champions, Dusk, and AMID EVIL — wrote the soundtrack, which sets the audio register for the whole game. Bizarre Studio's design folds in a non-intrusive but mysterious story alongside multiple game modes and a mix of hand-built and randomly generated levels, plus enough events and secrets to reward heavy exploration.