One year after surprise launching viral hit Content Warning, Landfall does it again with lightspeed running roguelike Haste

To the masses, April 1 is April Fools’ Day. To the studio behind Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, Clustertruck, and last year’s viral hit Content Warning, today is Landfall Day. Every Landfall Day, Landfall Games does something big, like put out a new DLC pack for TABS or surprise drop a totally new game. Last year’s surprise was Content Warning, a neat little spin on Lethal Company about becoming horror influencers in the post-post-apocalypse.

This year, Landfall has outdone itself by surprise dropping the full version of Haste, its ‘lightspeed running’ roguelike whose demo caught fire during February’s Steam Next Fest. That vertical slice has grown into an entire entree of gnarly jumps, high-speed obstacle avoidance, and a kickin’ soundtrack. Haste is the sort of game that you’ll know you’re going to play after watching a single clip, so here is that clip:

Assuming you’re still here, this is the gist of Haste: Run fast, don’t hit stuff, and try to land smoothly into slopes like you’re playing Tribes. Haste is like if Sonic games still had the juice, or if someone made a 3D sequel to Tiny Wings.

You’re Zoe, a quick gal with the unexplained power to open portals to other worlds. Zoe can’t control her power, so one day, she decides to make the most of it by delivering people’s letters. Now all the worlds are falling apart, and she’s trying to figure out why without getting swallowed up by black holes.

Gameplay-wise, it’s a roguelike with procedural levels divvied up into collections of courses called Shards. To complete a Shard, you gotta make it through the whole thing without wiping out, and there are ten Shards total. I did a couple runs of the first Shard this morning and wiped near the boss battle both times, so I’m no longer worried that my 20-plus hours of Clustertruck are giving me an edge in Landfall’s latest frantic platformer.

There’s already a lot more chatting, characters with names, and storytelling in Haste than I’ve come to expect from Landfall. The studio known for goofy ragdolls, raw thrills, and gag games is branching out, which might explain why—unlike Content Warning, which was made with a small team over a few months—Haste has been in the works since 2021. It’s out now on Steam with an introductory price of $16.