Kill the Brickman Review (Steam)

Do you remember the game Breakout? It was that game where you moved a rectangle and bounced a ball into bricks above to destroy them? What if you replaced the rectangle with a gun, the ball with different types of bullets, and the bricks with square faces? You would get poncle and Doonutsaur’s Kill the Brickman! Does this wild re-imagining of a classic game work? Let’s find out, shall we?

Title: Kill the Brickman
Platform: PC (Steam)
Developer: Doonutsaur
Publisher: poncle
Release Date: August 21, 2025
Price: $4.99

Overall Premise

Kill the Brickman is very simple in nature. You load a gun’s clip with red explosive bullets, blue bullets that clone themselves, or green bullets that corrode, and fire them at trajectories that you control to kill the required number of Brickmen within a level. While it’s simple in concept, there is a lot of depth and challenge to be had here.

Gameplay Mechanics

First off, there are the three types of bullets as highlighted above. These bullets don’t have to be simply fired. In fact, that’s probably the worst idea if you’re aiming to achieve victory. What you will want to do is pay attention to special blocks in the chapters that can enhance your shots or provide additional effects. It’s all about surveying what is available to you to maximize your damage and achieve your objective, especially when there are breakable and non-breakable bricks that stand in the way of getting to some of the Brickmen.

The environment is also your friend, as the walls and even the user interface at the bottom of the screen can serve as a surface to ricochet your shots off of. Once you get the hang of aiming and firing in clever trajectories or using environmental blocks to your advantage, you’ll want to get stronger so that you can deal even more damage, and this game offers a lot of avenues to do just that.

Before you begin any level, you are presented with three random cards. These cards mostly offer a kiss/curse (or risk vs reward, if you prefer) effect, such as get extra money for winning, but there will be an additional Brickman that will attack you, or you can guarantee a rare relic in your next shop, but you can’t take any damage for that level. You can select up to two of those cards, or don’t select any at all.

Once you beat a level, you will earn money and be presented with a shop. Here, you can buy new clips for your gun, all of which have different properties. Some enhance the power of your explosive (red) bullets, some add extra clones or bounces to your blue bullets, etc. Even loading a specific clip in a certain pattern will grant you damage bonuses and effects, so you’ll want to plan and strategize accordingly! You can hold up to five clips at a time, and yes, you can bounce your bullets off of them during a level, hence being able to use the UI to your advantage!

Also in the shop, you will find relics which offer powerful passive bonuses, along with upgraded variations of the different colored bullets. Spend your gold wisely because this will become your “build” as you traverse through the different levels of each chapter.

There are currently four chapters in total, each comprising ten levels. Complete chapters to unlock new weapons with different properties. Each weapon can also be upgraded through earning experience. You earn more experience based on how far you progress in a chapter.

Your runs will end when your health reaches zero. You are given eight hearts in which to survive, but the catch here is that those eight hearts are shared throughout the entirety of the chapter, meaning they do not refill from one chapter to the next. There are ways to replenish your health through special blocks in stages, and cards before a stage, though, so, yes, you can heal yourself. There is also a block mechanic where you can earn a shield to block incoming attacks. This should factor into your strategy by purchasing bullets that can generate block, or hitting blocks that add to your block total, especially if an attacking Brickman is well-protected and cannot be easily killed or stunned immediately.

So, between upgrading/using different weapons, buying clips/relics/bullets, utilizing cards, and making use of special blocks in chapters, you are given plenty of choices and options to customize your run and forge a path to victory.

Game Modes

The menu has quite a few items on it; however, there are mainly two that you will be visiting: New Game and Locations.

New Game is where the meat and potatoes of the action take place. Here, you will progress through four different chapters, with each chapter containing ten levels. You cannot advance to the second chapter without clearing the first. The same is true for the third and fourth chapters. This offers a nice feeling of progression as the difficulty definitely ramps up. Once you clear the first chapter, you may find yourself re-clearing it to get your Revolver leveled up, which will give you a fighting chance to complete the second chapter.

Once you complete the second chapter, you will unlock the Pistol, which has the special property of having bullets pierce through enemies. Likewise, unlocking and beating the third chapter will reward you with the Shotgun.

This is the mode that you will spend your time alternating between levels and the shop while you try and put together the best build possible.

Locations are a single-stage challenge for you to complete. A map will pop up with randomized locations. Once you choose one, you are given $30 to spend in a shop to put together a quick build. Take that build into the level and overcome its challenge. It’s as simple as that.

For those who don’t want to jump straight into the game and learn it on the fly, there is a Tutorial mode that will guide you through a level and teach you about things such as loading clips, bullets, stage blocks, etc. The Tutorial is separate and can be played at any time in case you need a refresher. This is nice because a lot of games force you into a tutorial, which can be highly annoying, especially if you’re the type that likes to clear your data and start fresh (much like in poncle’s other game, Vampire Survivors.

Replayability

This is where Kill the Brickman truly shines. With the roguelike nature of the game offering up random bullets, relics, cards, and the such every time you start a new run, you have a seemingly endless array of builds you can achieve. While it may annoy some that you cannot just go after the same build every time, that’s part of the game’s charm. You have to play with the hand that you’re dealt, and make the most of it. I wouldn’t say that the options are so deep that it’s impossible to get the same build twice, as after several playthroughs, I did see multiple repeats, but there is enough variety there to make each run feel unique with its own set of challenges.

Locations are fun as they give you a puzzle to solve. Of course, in both New Game and Locations modes, shops have a Reroll option (for money) to help improve your chances of putting together the perfect build.

While roguelites/roguelikes, in general, will never provide you with infinite replayability, one of the things they do well is that they provide you with enough of it to keep you playing for hours upon hours on end, and Kill the Brickman is no different. Even with the seemingly low number of chapters, the difficulty curve, the slow, but not too slow pace of progression, and its highly addictive nature will keep you entertained.

Some Critiques

No game is perfect, and Kill the Brickman does have some frustration attached to it. I’ve experienced this, and have seen this on numerous forums, that the difficulty curve from Chapter 1 to 2 is a bit too steep, and I concur; however, when you realize that you’re not truly meant to just jump to the next chapter, it becomes a bit clearer that you’re supposed to farm the first chapter and upgrade yourself as much as possible. While this does add to the replayability factor of the game, it’s not an intuitive design, which can be off-putting for those who are used to just progressing through a game normally without having to farm.

Another thing the game could do better is introduce mechanics little by little. Yes, there is a tutorial, but let’s be honest, there is a LOT to take in with Kill the Brickman. So much so that any new player can feel completely overwhelmed. When you have to remember what each bullet does, what each special block does, the different types of Brickmen, what clips do, and figuring out how to load them for their bonuses, all while trying to put together a build, it’s a lot to throw at a player. I feel that easing a player into it gradually would have been better for a game with so many systems. Yes, you do pick it up the more you play, which is true of any game, but causing frustration while learning due to information overload is not the first impression you would want to make.

Lastly, yes, you can play this game with a controller, but it is recommended that you play it with a keyboard and mouse. Dragging the bullets into the clip is better than trying to thumbstick over to them, and aiming is 1000x better with a mouse than it is when trying to do it with an analog stick. The developers did mention that they were looking to bring this to other platforms. If so, I would hope some sensitivity adjustments are made for a better controller experience.

Overall Thoughts

Does this game answer my initial question? Does Kill the Brickman reinvent Breakout in a way that makes it feel fresh and new? The answer is a resounding YES. The deep customizations and potential for different builds keep you coming back and experiencing its addictive gameplay. Taking your time, lining up your shots, and watching the carnage fly on the screen gives you the right amount of dopamine to satisfy you and make you want to keep playing. You will lose hours playing this game.

At only $4.99, Kill the Brickman is worth its price tag and more if you’re looking for something to sink your teeth into, but as I mentioned in my critiques section, the “pick up and play” aspect of the game does need some work. The overwhelming beginning might put some people off this title, but if you stick with it and get accustomed to how it works, that quickly fades, and the game becomes highly enjoyable.

I would have liked to see a little more variety in the game’s soundtrack, but what we have there is enough to provide a nice ambiance. Besides, you’ll be too busy getting taunted by the grunts that the Brickmen make as you’re trying to blast them into the digital graveyard.

I feel that this is a game where the Pros far outweigh the cons. It’s a fun, addictive game that is priced just right to provide more entertainment than the price tag would suggest. It’s the same feeling of value you get when you play poncle’s Vampire Survivors, which tells me that now that poncle has become a publisher for other creators, their goal is to deliver games at an affordable price that provides value beyond the amount paid.

All I can say is that they are 2/2 so far.

Kill the Brickman is recommended to pick up and play!

Review Disclosure Statement: Kill the Brickman was provided to us by poncle for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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