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PRE VIE W
Boomerang X
Take on waves of monsters
with your magical boomerang.
NEED TO KNOW
RELEASE DEVELOPER PUBLISHER LINK
2020 BANG! In-house boomerang-x.com
BOOMER ANG X
Fling yourself through the air in combat. You can also right-click to make Nevertheless, it’s helpful to thin out the
this unique first-person thrower the boomerang immediately return to herd, and not just to charge your energy
your hand, or hold left-click to charge your bar. It’s easy to be overrun, and you die in
throw – letting you snipe enemies from a single hit – at least until you unlock a
further out. If you do this in mid-air, time shield a few arenas in. Standing still is
es, there is a boomerang. And yes, it’s in
will slow, giving you the space to line up an rarely a viable tactic. In the last few arenas
Y the shape of an X. In that sense aerial attack with relative ease. Doing so that I reached in the demo, I found myself
Boomerang X satisfies the promise of its
drains an energy bar that can only be filled flying around the map purely as a way to
name. But having a weapon that comes by killing the various gribbly shadow outrun the monsters – some of whom can
back to you isn’t the most interesting part of this monsters that you fight. In the most fly – buying myself a little more time to
first-person arena… er, shooter? Thrower? Flinger? challenging combat rooms, it leads to a plan out my next attack.
very specific pace of battle – desperate
The key to Boomerang X isn’t that the and opportunistic, but with moments of X MARKS THE SPOT
PL AYED
IT weapon comes back to you. It’s that you precision and grace. I’m not sure there’s much more to
can go to the weapon. Throw out the Each of the arenas that I’ve Boomerang X than its procession of
boomerang and left-click before it returns encountered so far is comprised of three arenas and increasingly challenging fights,
and you’ll be hurled towards it, gaining a waves full of monsters, but you only ever but I don’t think there really needs to be.
huge burst of speed and propelling need to kill a specific handful – marked by Even just based on the small progress I’ve
yourself off the ground. Do it twice in the yellow dots above their heads. made, it’s a game that feels built around
air and you can extend your burst jump to getting the most out of its magical
cross vast chasms. Do it continuously – weapon and how its powers combine. So
turning as needed to change the direction DESPERATE AND far, each arena has offered a new gimmick
of your next throw, thus shifting your that makes for a more interesting fight. It’s
direction of travel – and you can OPPORTUNISTIC, BUT an in-depth exploration of the possibility
indefinitely fly above arenas. WITH MOMENTS OF space offered by a single tool, and with a
This is just one of a handful of traversal system that makes combat feel
interactions designed to turn your PRECISION AND GRACE fast and distinct.
boomerang into an agent of frenetic Phil Savage
22 FEBRUARY 2020
