I gotta admit that I’m having trouble figuring out exactly how to start this review. The reason being is simple: the intro will invariably control the trajectory of the remainder of the review. As such, I need to choose a heading, and stick to it.
I could start by explaining Baseless’ very unique movement system – one that feels frustrating, and unintuitive until it clicks. Once it clicks though, holy shit. Every single frame of action will look like something out of a game trailer as you zip around levels, blasting through enemies with reckless abandon.
Alternatively, I could mention how Baseless is a (mostly) solo project by Andrew Armstrong. That feels like it carries more weight now than ever before. We live in a world where companies are increasingly trying to devalue, and commodify creativity. Yet, here’s an individual who’s completely undeterred. Someone who made something that they believed in, and now they’re ready to share the fruits of their labour with the wider world.
Though, maybe it’d make most sense to start with how Baseless routinely frustrated me to the point where I’d put the controller down. However, I’d be playing it again, much to my wife’s chagrin, a few hours later. That’s gotta count for something, right?
Or, I could cheat, and mention all 3 points across an incredibly long-winded introduction. That way the reader will (hopefully) start to understand the roller-coaster I went through while playing Baseless before we dig into the nitty gritty.
Yeah. Let’s go with that.
Developer(s): Fermenter Games
Publisher(s): First Break Labs
Release Date: December 4th, 2025
Released on: PlayStation, Xbox, Windows
Reviewed on: PC (Win)
Copy Provided by Publisher
Thank you if you survived the somewhat pretentious introduction, but I really did need to convey where my mind is at with Baseless. The reason being is that some of what I’m going to say won’t make sense without all of the above context already laid out.
Enough of the meta mambo-jumbo though – we’ve got a game to talk about. So let’s dig into exactly what Baseless is, and why you should consider playing it.
In the simplest terms possible, Baseless is a Shoot ‘Em Up with a dusting of Platforming. It’ll seem like an odd mix until you’re introduced to Baseless’ core mechanic: shooting to move. Any time you want to move, you’ve gotta shoot your blaster in the opposite direction, and ride the wave of momentum to your destination.
To be perfectly honest, the movement in Baseless feels super unintuitive at first. The primary reason for that feeling is that you also need to shoot at baddies to dispatch them. As such, your opening hours playing Baseless might look similar to mine: shooting in the wrong direction to approach enemies, only to fly back where you came from once you open fire on them.
However, Baseless isn’t so cruel that it expects players to mindlessly oscillate while they whittle down the opposition. Instead, you’re provided with a Bubble Shield, which both protects you from incoming fire, and temporarily pauses all momentum. This’ll allow players to easily hold a position while tearing through several targets, and provides a mechanism for braking. In both cases, you’re given a lot more control over how your character moves.
In fact, I’d argue that using the Bubble is the key to really mastering Baseless’ unique movement. It helps to give the player a ton of control that they otherwise wouldn’t have while still allowing them to continue shooting as baddies swarm their location. Plus, blocking all incoming damage is a nice ancillary function, especially when you’ve decided to plant yourself for a counter offensive.
To be clear, I fully stand by what I said at the top of the review. Baseless’ movement doesn’t feel intuitive. However, once players adjust to shooting behind themselves, and learn to use the Bubble then Baseless becomes a completely different game. Instead flopping around the map like a fish out of water, you’ll ping pong between level objectives while easily shredding through baddies. It feels fantastic to pull off, and looks great to boot.
And yes – Baseless was a mostly solo developed project. I believe Andrew Armstrong was responsible for the bulk of the project (at least that’s what the credits indicated), and I think that’s worth celebrating. Even without all the other nonsense (for lack of a better word) that’s going on right now, I still think it’s really impressive when someone decides to put forward a piece of themselves like this. Doubly so because it’s so much harder when you’re working by yourself the overwhelming majority of the time.
However, I do have to dig into my 1 major gripe with Baseless’ difficulty because I don’t want that criticism to be taken without context.
My main issue is that there are certain aspects of the game that feel extraordinarily punitive in a way that isn’t congruent with the rest of the game. For example, the poisonous mist that’s introduced within the game’s fourth level, Breathless Bog. A few different enemy types will attack the player character with this stuff, which does all of the following:
- Completely obscures both the player character, and all enemies within the mist
- Deals minor tick damage for the duration the player is trapped within the mist
- Applies a debuff after ~3 seconds which does an enormous amount of damage-over-time to the player, and causes a psychedelic filter to obscure all of the on-screen action for the duration of the debuff
Now, that probably sounds like a lot. It is. The most dangerous enemy prior to this point in the game can shoot you twice in a row. That’s it. They don’t take away your ability to see where you are, nor do they apply an obnoxious filter over the screen that continues to obscure your ability to read what’s going on in combat.
I realize the solution here is to simply not get hit by the mist, but the point I’m trying to make is that the punishment for failure feels steep relative to the rest of the game. Usually you just lose a bit of your health, and continue fighting. By comparison, poison mist will send you on a 1-way trip to the morgue unless you run away until the debuff wears off. That feels a little too punishing relative to everything else.
And it’s not just poison mist that feels a little over-tuned. Some of the teleporting baddies from Titan’s Tomb are also brutal since they can ceaselessly chase the player while dodging counterattacks. The fireballs in the game’s final level also felt a little overdone. Both because they’re a near omnipresent obstacle, but also you’re flung out-of-orbit whenever you make contact with them. In some cases that’s fine, but in others you’ll be jettisoned directly into another fireball which is a whole situation. One where the player will take massive amounts of damage before they can wrestle back control.
That said, no matter how many times Baseless kicked my teeth in, I kept coming back for more. Maybe I’m just a masochist, but there’s something about its primary gameplay loop that I found immensely compelling. Doubly so once I started to really get my head around it, and could reliably avoid all of those punitive stop-gaps. It was at this point that I feel like I really saw the vision behind Baseless, and was able to experience exactly what Mr. Armstrong intended.
Also, I do feel obligated to mention that there is an Assist option within the game, which has a few different modifiers to help struggling players. Some of the available options include infinite lives, infinite health, unlimited ammo, quad damage, and an unlimited Bubble Shield. I didn’t end up making use of any of these features, but it is nice that they’re present for folks who aren’t as singularly minded, and stubborn as I am.
So, where does that leave us with Baseless?
I’m not going to lie to you – Baseless is a tough game, and, even with the Assist options, I’m not sure I could give it a blanket recommendation. That said, if you give it a chance, and try to wrap your head around its unique movement system then I think there’s a really fun game here. The difference between my first hours, and last hours playing are night and day, and I had a ton of fun zipping around blasting through some of Baseless’ toughest challenges.
Plus, as a project that was developed by a small team (or solo project as it were), I’m inclined to be a little more lenient. Baseless is clearly a labour of love, and I think that shines through once you give it a little time to gestate.
If nothing else, Baseless is another of 2025’s myriad interesting indie offerings, and that should be reason enough to give it a looksie.
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Frostilyte Writes 