This is just a “going fast” kind of week. I like going fast. There is just something about running through a level in the blink of an eye, picking up whatever currency it is to buy stuff that will make you run faster. Add flair to that formula, and you have a game that I most certainly would love to spend money on.

This week is my Haste review.

Haste: Broken Worlds is a third-person running action, roguelite game from Landfall. The game was released on PC on April 1, 2025, and retails for $20.

Although I did not pay attention to most of the story, Haste is a game that revolves around a young woman named Zoe, an interdimensional mailperson. As it stands, the world is currently ending at the hands of The Agency, a corporation, I guess, trying to force time and space to come together. It is apparently, exclusively up to Zoe to find out who specifically is trying to end the world and stop it.

The characters that Zoe meets along the way have colorful personalities that emphasize how terrible it would be to have the end of the world come about. Niada, the obvious warrior type with an occasional soft side, who wants to save the world, who needs help but refuses Zoe’s aid. You have the brazen, grandmother-like character, Daro, who is wise and speaks a lot about Niada’s hardheadedness. The incredibly charismatic Captain, who tries, more often than not, to play the role of optimist, and the scientist, vendor guy (whose name escapes me), who is studying the convergence and attempting to formulate a working theory on how to fix it.

All very colorful and likable characters, whose story I did not really care too much for.

Running is the name, and outrunning the end of the world is the game. The first level is essentially an introduction to the seed. A randomly generated environment with loads of obstacles, hills, boost rings, and crystal currency is littered about. The way that Zoe lands determines the boost of speed and energy that she gets. After hitting a jump, pressing (or holding) the space bar allows Zoe to drop out of the sky. Depending on how Zoe lands, a Perfect! Good or Okay is granted along with a speed boost. Rinse and repeat, collecting currency along the way, and at the end, the player is rewarded with a letter grade that translates into extra currency or, in the case of more difficult levels, a random item that Zoe gets to keep. Energy is reserved for special abilities like a grappling hook, a cape, or a spear to cover ground and avoid obstacles.

The running is great. Running at 100 km/h is exhilarating, and hitting a jump and flying through the air to then land super clean on the decline of a hill to get a boost is by far the most fun aspect of the game.

The player can choose a path that can contain vendors, random events, more difficult sections, and, at the end, a boss fight. Vendors have items to buy that range from health/energy upgrades to more focused upgrades like invulnerability and crystal pick-up range. Random events are to drive the narrative. Things like escaping a lava area, catching animals/Niada, and even jumping through rings to reward the player with more permanent items. Harder areas and boss sections require the most attention as the difficulty slider has been turned up. More obstacles and a faster-moving zone behind you require the player to be borderline perfect at all times to squeak out an extra item.

Haste could be a terrible-looking game, I wouldn’t know because, the majority of it, I am passing it at around 90-130km/h. The environments are colorful, and the hills have enough shade on them to signal to the player where to land properly. There are barely any cutscenes, and interactions between characters are portraits shaking with emojis that signify how they are feeling.

Whoever did the soundtrack to Haste should be given an award (Karl Flodin & Erik Lyding). The only music that I have been listening to has been the music that I am running to, and it gets me hyped every time. There is a smooth, jazzy electronic song that plays when you enter the vendor spot, and I love it every time I enter it.

Haste: Broken Worlds is a highly addictive game, and it is also very challenging. There were times when I was restarting almost immediately because I was losing a life on the first section. The random generation is cool and all, but sometimes the levels were beyond difficult, borderline impossible to complete. The story is fine, though it did not grip me the way that I wanted it to. The second-to-second gameplay, though, is phenomenal; it tickles my brain the right way. The roguelite stuff makes the game even more fun if done correctly, but it never really gives off the “power fantasy” that I wanted.

Regardless, Haste: Broken Worlds is a great game, but some wonky random level generation and item pickups can cause some bad feelings in the early game.

7/10