I confess that I had never heard of 2020’s pixelated arcade shooter Huntdown, but after playing (and replaying) through the demo for its upcoming prequel, Huntdown: Overtime, I immediately went back and did so. That’s because I was so completely hooked by the hour or so of roguelike action that I was fiending for more. Playing the original was also a lot of fun, but this followup seeks to improve in just about every way, making it a bit hard to go back. The cheeky retro ‘80’s tone appeals to my thirst for nonsense, the run-and-gun sidescrolling action channels the likes of Contra or Metal Slug, and the roguelike system of upgrades and repeated failure against daunting odds made it extremely hard to put down. I went from this not being on my radar at all, to eagerly anticipating when it comes to Steam Early Access later this year, making this an early contender for my most anticipated indie game of 2026.
You can infer almost everything you need to know about Huntdown: Overtime’s absurd 80s pulp action vibe by its title alone. Taking place in the dystopian, crime-ridden city of Detroit in 2084, you play a cybernetic rogue robocop who battles against flamboyant street gangs like something out of every VHS action movie you’ve ever seen. You’ll go toe-to-toe against the likes of a shirtless bouncer who pummels you with his fists and climbs around on the ceiling like a monkey, to a six-fingered rockstar called Sammy Sixfingers who tries to kill you with an electric guitar while performing a guitar solo in front of a live audience. The whole thing is just incredibly over the top in the right kind of way, making it very easy to replay each section as you try and fail to get through levels in typical roguelike fashion.
It certainly helps that even when you’re replaying through the same series of levels, things are always a little different. For one, the bosses and levels you end up with on each run have a bit of randomness to them in terms of which you’ll get and in what order, which is aided by the fact that you’re given two routes to choose from if you’d like to avoid one you’ve seen more of than you’d like. The levels themselves seem to be procedurally generated as well, and kept me on my toes with slightly different layouts and enemies never appearing in the same order. This procedural component isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, and the level layouts and enemies you’ll find are similar enough playthrough-to-playthrough that you’ll figure out the patterns pretty quick and run out of things to be surprised by (at least in the short section I played).
Combat is also not anything new, modeled after the likes of Contra or Mega Man, where you’re running and jumping through 2D levels blasting everytc hing in sight as you avoid incoming bullets and environmental hazards. That said, though it doesn’t have many new tricks, the formula it apes is extremely polished here, even in this pre-release state. While initially I was dying a lot and felt destined to be outmaneuvered by the numerous gangsters coming after me, it took less than an hour before I was sliding around, flying through the air, and shooting my way through entire sections without taking a single hit. That’s the kind of rewarding mastery I look for in games like this. It actually sort of reminded me of Hotline Miami, reimagined from a sidescrolling perspective, because although you can take more than one hit, there’s something very pleasantly familiar about the crisp gunplay and melee combat, especially when you hit someone with a baseball bat and see their pink, pixelated giblets go soaring across the screen.
The highlight of each run is when you come into contact with the larger-than-life bosses that can be found in each level. Some of these appear in regular sidescrolling levels, whe re maybe someone named Frankie Starsimmon Sr. will attack you with a big ol’ shotgun and leave you with the option to damage her before taking her alive, or just killing her for a lesser bounty. The ability to take bounties alive for an added bonus to your reward is a particularly nice touch that I’m glad to see they added after the original. But things get especially crazy during the boss fights where you go up against someone with a dedicated boss health bar. The main fight in the demo was against a rockstar who used his stage’s pyrotechnics to try and burn you alive, and always had his stagehand nearby to hand him a new electric guitar after he lost the last one trying to hurl it through the back of your head. These fights can be really challenging, as roguelikes are wont to do, and nine times out of ten when I failed a run it was the fault of one of these deadly weirdos. But they were also some of my favorite moments, and made gearing up for the next big fight that much more exciting.
The retreaded ground you’ll encounter as part of the roguelike formula feels especially easy to get through because of the steady stream of unlockables, upgrades, and buildcrafting options that come with each new playthrough. In one playthrough, for example, you might decide to forgo guns for a pure melee weapon build, grabbing perks and upgrades that enhance your close-range combat skills, while in another you might get your hands on a new plasma rifle you just unlocked and blast your way through rows of thugs with ease. Like many of its genre peers, the joy is in having a build come together perfectly so you can bring it to bear against the string of challenging bosses that have been sending you back to the beginning again and again.
The impressive thing about Huntdown: Overtime is that, at least in the full region I played during the demo, I never started a new run without a ton of new stuff to level up and try out. Sometimes that meant I’d unlock a new weapon that could then be found and powered up during runs, while other times it meant buying a certain permanent upgrade that made my healing items more potent, made me move faster, or some other useful boon to give me an edge on my next run. The pace of unlocks and progression felt perfectly balanced so I never felt like I’d hit a wall or had nothing interesting and new to bring into battle next time. It was so easy to immediately go from one run to the next, that even though I originally sat down for a 20-minute session, I ended up playing until I beat every boss in the demo in a single sitting, completely unable to tear myself away when I was sure the next playthrough would bring me victory. And even after I had my first successful run, I then was returned to base to find even more stuff had unlocked that I just had to try, and found myself immediately going straight into my next run just to try out some new stuff. I can’t remember the last time I found myself so instantly hooked!
One thing that piqued my interest after I went back to play the original Huntdown is the fact that this prequel only has one playable character versus the numerous agents you could take on the role of in the first game. While it feels weird to go backwards with the number of playable characters, Overtime’s demo was so polished and finely tuned that I honestly didn’t feel like I was missing much. It seems to be their focusing in on one specific playstyle and trying to make that work extremely well vs. the buffet-style protagonists, each with their own bag of tricks, that was in the first Huntdown.
I wasn’t expecting to end up so completely won over by such a short glimpse into Huntdown: Overtime, especially after seeing its dorky story and retro art style, but you can count me among the believers. For any roguelike fans out there, this is absolutely one to watch.
