Haste: Broken Worlds – Story vs Gameplay: What Really Shines in This Speed-Driven Indie?
Haste: Broken Worlds is a momentum-based action roguelite where you dive, glide, and boost through a collapsing world. Gorgeous visuals, speed-driven gameplay, and intense boss battles await!
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Game: Haste
Studio: Landfall
Publisher: Landfall
Platforms: Steam
Completion Time: 8 Hours
Price: $19
Genre: Face-Paced, Action, Roguelite
Steam Deck Playable (not verified)
Hello everyone and welcome to the Good Game Lobby review of Haste: Broken Worlds, a fast-paced action roguelite where the world is being ripped apart and only you can fix it.
World in Ruin
The world is colliding—time and space as we know them are converging—and it’s all at the behest of an evil machinery. Zoe, along with the team she meets along the way, joins you on a journey to bring the world back together.
If I’m perfectly honest, the story didn’t grip me like I had hoped. I don't believe it’s necessary or affected how I perceived Haste: Broken Worlds while playing. The writing is a bit drab, and I found myself skipping over conversations just to get back into the gameplay—which is unfortunate, but the gameplay is the highlight. I don’t want to drag the story entirely; the characters are interesting, and the world they’ve created is intriguing. But the gameplay far outweighs the story. Speaking of which, let’s just get straight into the gameplay.
Momentum in Motion
Zoe, your lead, goes through a tutorial that’s meant to remind us of the days of Tiny Wings, giving us a 2D visual on how to hit the perfect dive. Using your momentum and diving into hills boosts you higher and further into the run. You unlock a board that helps you glide, and later on, you can use anti-crystals to unlock other tools that assist in the game—one of which are wings that help you glide even farther. I used them often to reach over ledges and keep the run smooth. They’re also VERY helpful during the boss battles with snakes.
You’re exploring ruins within a shard—ten of which need to be shattered. Each run ends with you entering a new portal. When you complete the first run of a shard, a map opens where you can plot your course to the next run. You then have the opportunity to select the full path to the final boss. This was a fantastic way to guide your journey, with stops at shops and bonus runs to ensure you’ve picked the best items. Haste is a roguelite, so you unlock certain upgrades after story beats and runs. The crystals you collect along the way serve as currency to purchase upgrades to your health limit, cooldowns, and traversal boosts. It’s a nice addition to have shops on the map.
Your secondary traversal boosts (like gliding) are marked in yellow and fill up with each perfect landing. Depending on your selected items, they can also heal you.
I almost always went with the healing option because you’ll often come up from a hill and get thrown at an object that looks avoidable but isn’t—or some level boosts will throw you straight into a wall. I think this is a downside of the procedural generation, but as long as you choose the right upgrades, it’s manageable.
The characters you meet during the game are found in a hub on the main map, where you use anti-crystals for temporary or permanent upgrades—like the board, for example.
Stylish Speedscapes
Haste looks beautiful. It’s nicely polished and reminds me of something that would have launched on the Dreamcast. The fast-paced movement is clearly defined, with motion blur and a plethora of visual settings to enhance either quality or performance. Each biome is unique, featuring elements like lasers, gigantic fireballs you can fly through, robots with flame beams, or structures meant to distract and catch you off guard.
My personal favorite is the design of the characters—both their 3D models and dialogue portraits. They bring a lot of life to the game, even with the lackluster story. So much so, I’d love to see them in an animated format much like this amazing animated trailer:
I also have to mention the game’s intro—it has all the charisma of a Sonic game: action-packed shots, high energy, and a tight narrative setup.
One more visual highlight: some levels are greytone until your presence brings color back into the world. These timed runs where you must 100% restore color were some of my favorite moments and made me wish the game leaned more into those mechanics than the story.
High-Energy Beats
The soundtrack pushes you to the limit with its fast-paced beats that match the gameplay. The songs vary by biome and remix certain themes in different styles. It’s a standout part of the game. My personal favorite? The chill lo-fi shop track “Temporal Research Station” by Karl Flodin—it’s so satisfying to hear after an intense run or boss fight. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments.
Full soundtrack below!
🎵 Karl Flodin | Bandcamp
Final Lap Thoughts
The easy comparison here is Sonic the Hedgehog. While Haste: Broken Worlds has a Dreamcast-era flair that’s reminiscent of Sonic, it really doesn’t share much with it outside of the fast pace.
The price feels a bit steep. Like I mentioned, the story is there—it’s fleshed out enough to give you a thread from start to finish—but it doesn’t feel like you’re missing much if you skip it. Chasing shards and focusing on the gameplay is where the fun is.
At $20, it may feel a little overpriced. The main draw is the fast-paced running and roguelite-style progression, and the story just slows things down. It took me about 7 hours to beat, which lines up with what you’ll see on HowLongToBeat. All that said, it’s a fun experience with a solid gameplay loop. It might miss on the story beats, but I do recommend checking it out for the intense gameplay fun—maybe on sale.
Thanks for reading my review of Haste: Broken Worlds. If you're looking for more high-energy gameplay, why not check out my review of Parcel Corps, a bike delivery game with action-packed gameplay. And if you want to see more reviews, check out the full list of reviews here. Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe—it really helps the Substack grow and reach more indie game fans. Thanks, and as always, GG!
I could have the OST playing on repeat for my workday! But some of the music (I assume for boss battles) is giving me heart palpitations just listening to it and I haven't even played the game!
Great review!
Temporal Research Station is a jam!