HAAK

I went into HAAK expecting a competent genre exercise and came out genuinely charmed. Blingame is a small Chinese indie studio with no prior Steam history, and HAAK reads like a team that studied the Metroidvania greats, absorbed them, then quietly built something with its own accent. The setting leans into a distinctly Chinese post-apocalyptic aesthetic, with location names rendered in pinyin, architecture that feels rooted in a specific cultural geography, and a pixel palette that favors dark tones and rusted neon rather than the usual European fantasy grunge. It does not look like anything else in its genre niche right now. The core loop clicks faster than the opening lets on. Haak starts nearly helpless, running from enemies through the Sanhe Ruins with no combat ability whatsoever. Some players bounce off that prologue. Stick with it. Once he acquires the Power Glove and its electric hook, the toolkit opens up in satisfying stages: a dash earned by defeating a boss, a charged slash, a deflect, the ability to hang from ledges and slide. The hook is the star mechanic and it earns that billing. You fire it with the right stick or mouse to tag enemies at range, to activate distant contraptions mid-platform sequence, and to chain movement in ways the tutorial barely hints at. Puzzle rooms are built around this multitool logic, asking you to be quick and precise rather than just clever. Life Shards scattered across the map build out your health pool in the classic three-per-upgrade rhythm, and revisiting old zones with new abilities produces that reliable Metroidvania dopamine that the genre has traded on for thirty years. The full run, with side missions included, reportedly clocks closer to forty hours for completionists. The weaknesses are real and worth naming. The story carries heavier dialogue weight than the writing can support, and the narrative beats are earnest but not particularly surprising. Players who came for tight mechanical focus may find the cutscene-to-action ratio frustrating in the mid-game. Level design is functional rather than inspired in places, and some backtracking sections push the density of re-combing past the point of discovery into routine busywork. The difficulty scaling system is flexible, which is a genuine kindness for players who want to experience the story without wall-bashing, but it can deflate the tension in boss encounters for anyone who wants genuine friction. What keeps HAAK in the conversation is the craft underneath the familiar structure. The hand-drawn pixel animation is fluid in a way that costs real labor, the boss character designs carry personality, and the soundscape keeps the wasteland feeling alive without ever tipping into exhausting ambient drone. Multiple endings give the story meaningful replay hooks for the lore-curious. The fact that a first-time Steam studio landed a Very Positive rating across thousands of reviews, and later sold out a physical Switch cartridge run in forty minutes, speaks to something real. This is not a game that punches above its weight on hype. It earns the goodwill.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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