Thumper

Developer: Drool | Publisher: Drool | Release Date: 2016 | Genre: Action / Indie | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Mention the rhythm-action genre, and most players will picture bright, colorful visuals mixed with upbeat, energetic tunes. For a while, gimmicky plastic controllers were even involved. Thumper, on the other hand, wants nothing to do with any of this. Instead, it’s the type of rhythm-action game that would feel more at home hanging out with the survival horror crowd than the rest of the musical genre. From the get-go, players are handed control of a metallic beetle-like character speeding down an undulating road stretching into a void. Every now and then, a lit tile appears on the horizon, indicating that players must hit the “thump” button to activate it as their beetle moves over it. Holding down the “thump” button and steering off banked curves prevents your beetle from being smashed to bits. It’s all very simple and straightforward, but instead of the typical euphoria of rhythm-action games, Thumper comes with a healthy dose of growing dread that builds as you play.

It might be the slightly surreal visuals that make Thumper so unsettling or the music that is mostly loud and aggressive drum beats fueled by the thumping of your beetle. Those with strong stomachs and nerves of steel can even make use of the optional VR support to truly immerse themselves in the game. Unfortunately, screenshots can’t actually convey what it feels like to play Thumper. It all looks so clean and clinical, whereas, in reality, you are traveling through levels at such speeds that taking your eyes off the immediate track in front of you spells almost certain doom. Thumper in screenshots looks like a pretty musical visualizer. Thumper in action feels like someone injected cocaine straight into your eyeballs, and your brain is going to explode if your concentration wavers for even a second.

Thumper is split into nine levels, each with numerous sub-levels. The sub-levels tend to be intense but short, and players can continue from the start of each one if they fail. Speaking of failure, the beetle can survive one collision, which strips it of its wings, but getting hit again means instant death and a trip back to the start of the sub-level. It’s a fair system, but our only criticism is that getting hit can be so disorienting and jarring that recovering from it in time is sometimes impossible. Completing a sub-level rewards players with a score and rating that ranges from C to S+. These are for bragging rights and achievements only, though, as even the lowest ranking is enough to get you to the next level. This also means players can often ignore the notes they must hit and instead focus on bracing for corners or avoiding obstacles. There are a few exceptions to this, though. The first is the laser barriers that pop up sometimes and instantly punish players for missing a single note. Then there are the sub-bosses and end-of-level bosses that also require perfect precision to beat.

Boss fights require players to hit every note in a sequence, activating a special “attack” note that can be thumped to damage the boss. If you do it successfully, a new section of the track appears where the process has to be repeated, often with trickier corners and obstacles. If you fail, the section will continue to loop until perfected, or the player crashes, whichever comes first. It makes for a tough but fair game that can be very frustrating if you fail yet immensely rewarding if you succeed.

Nine levels might not sound like much, but thanks to the number of sub-levels and challenging difficulty, it took us more than 8 hours to complete everything. This still left the option to go back and aim for an “S” rank on each level, which is not easy. The truly dedicated can even give the “Play+” option a whirl, which removes the ability to restart from the last sub-level reached and instead requires players to complete each level in one go. It is even more anxiety-inducing than the normal mode and not recommended for the faint of heart.

We’ve already mentioned the visuals that somehow manage to be both beautiful and unnerving. The same can be said for the audio, which sounds unlike any other rhythm game out there. The soundtrack is extremely tense and aggressive, so don’t expect to be humming any of the “tunes” after playing the game. Yet, somehow, the audio matches up perfectly with the speed and intensity of the game itself. The overall experience is highly visceral, and we rarely walked away from a playing session with dry palms. Playing Thumper with a controller is strongly recommended, even though the game only makes use of one button. Steering the beetle off banked curves feels more intuitive with analog sticks, and feeling the rumble shake your pad adds to the immersion. Most of the game is played on “tracks” with single lanes, but occasionally these open up into multi-lane sections. You can be sure that when this happens, there will be obstacles as well as notes scattered across multiple lanes, which will require you to switch between them quickly. There were a few times when it felt like the analog stick was just not quick enough to accomplish this, but switching to the D-pad briefly for these sections saw us through. Some sections of the game are also so fast and unpredictable that memorization helped us more than quick reflexes.

All in all, Thumper is an incredible game that has to be experienced to be believed. The one-button controls are deceptively simple, although the game does a good job of introducing new ways to dodge obstacles or perform thumps that can increase your score. There were moments when we had to put down the controller and walk away after repeatedly struggling with the same sections, but we always came back for more and always persevered. Having said that, there was an undeniable sense of relief after completing Thumper and knowing that we didn’t have to venture back into its dark and twisted depths.