Kill the Brickman is a weird game. But after playing for a few hours, it wasn’t the enemies, the music, or the genre-busting — all of which are weird, to be clear — that struck me the most. It was the controls. Something as simple as controls got in the way of what Kill the Brickman was going for. The bizarre presentation here is fun, but it can’t cover up how long it takes to reach the deeper roguelike elements lurking underneath.
Kill the Brickman, out now for Windows PC, is a roguelike puzzle game developed by Doonutsaur and published by Poncle (yes, the creators of 2022 bullet-hell hit Vampire Survivors). You are given a gun and tasked with killing the titular brickmen, but to do so, you must deflect your bullets off of walls, other brickmen, or various brick hazards. The title is a twist on the breakout genre; instead of moving your paddle (in this case, your gun) to deflect a bouncing ball (in this case, bullets), you just line up shots to wreak as much havoc on the brickmen as you can.
I initially tried to play Kill the Brickman with a gamepad but that required the use of both thumbsticks in order to line up shots, which wasn’t comfortable for me. With thumbsticks, finding the perfect shot was a nightmare, since I struggled with maintaining my angles. Switching to mouse and keyboard allowed my aim to be a lot more consistent.
Despite its rocky start, once I got comfortable with the controls, I realized that Kill the Brickman is a fun time-waster. It has that “just one more level” energy, where it’s easy to lose track of time. The moment-to-moment gameplay isn’t revolutionary in any way, but it gets the job done.
Kill the Brickman, in other words, is the perfect commuting game.
The problem, though, is in its pacing. During the four hours I played, I saw hints and flashes of something deeper beneath the surface, but it took me too long to reach it. There are layers of mechanics, such as ways to increase the number of times your bullets bounce or how they interact with blocks upon contact. These are supplemented by upgrades to your revolver cylinder, allowing you to load your bullets in a particular order for bonus effects. Other systems encourage experimentation, such as the variously colored bullets that work well when aligned with certain cylinders.
There are multiple weapons to unlock, but I still had the starting weapon after completing the first chapter of content, and the weapon upgrades were just variations of a pistol, except the shotgun, which I didn’t unlock in my playtime. Each chapter is broken down into 10 levels, and during those levels, I never felt challenged nor felt the urge to experiment with the game’s systems. Playing the game like a standard brick-breaker you could find on a flip phone from the 2000s worked well enough, and by the time I was through with it, I didn’t feel triumphant, more like fatigued.
In fact, the longer I played, the more bored I became. Roguelikes are designed to introduce enough random chance to require you to adapt on the fly. While Kill the Brickman markets itself as a roguelike puzzler, it doesn’t have much to satisfy those labels, outside of offering random upgrades for purchase and requiring adjustments to your shots to maximize value.
I kept asking myself: Is this a skill issue? Or is the game just slow? The answer might be both. On one hand, there was room for me to choose to optimize my playstyle or capitalize on the mechanics offered. The game doesn’t punish nonoptimal play. I didn’t lose everything or face any setbacks at all. Instead, my punishment was time. Everything simply took longer. It’s an interesting design choice for sure, but it’s also frustrating. It certainly keeps the game accessible, as you don’t get harshly punished for mistakes, but it also makes progress feel padded. I didn’t fail at all during my playthrough, but I’m not sure I was “winning” either.
In its current state, Kill the Brickman is a contradiction. It’s clunky, especially on a controller, but it’s a genuinely enjoyable way to kill time once you get into the groove. There may be something brilliant underneath, but I’ll never get there if it takes more than a handful of hours. Do I like the game? Sure, but it felt like the game was dragging its feet. Improvements targeting its pacing and improving controller support would go a long way. (I also wouldn’t say no to a catchier soundtrack.)
Kill the Brickman has a weirdness worth celebrating, but it’s best enjoyed in bursts. You might not binge it for hours like you would for Vampire Survivors, but it is the type of game to keep installed for whenever you want to kill half an hour.
