Luna Abyss is the debut game from Bonsai Collective, developed in partnership with Kwalee Labs and published by Kwalee, and it’s one of 2026’s genuine surprise packages. A first-person bullet hell platformer set inside a decaying biomechanical megastructure beneath a mysterious red moon, it puts you in the role of Fawkes — a prisoner whose soul is deployed into a robotic warden to explore the infinite Abyss in exchange for a reduced sentence. The premise is already more interesting than most games bother to construct, and the game that follows it earns the setup.
The comparison points players reach for — Metroid Prime for the atmospheric megastructure exploration, Doom Eternal for the aggressive combat rhythm, Returnal for the bullet-hell integration — are all accurate and all slightly insufficient. Luna Abyss combines these influences with enough of its own identity, enough of its own visual language, and enough genuinely strong character writing to stand apart from its inspirations rather than simply remixing them. For a debut from a studio that most players hadn’t heard of before this year, that’s a significant achievement.
Luna Abyss — The Combat and What Makes It Click
The bullet hell integration into first-person combat is the game’s core bet, and it pays off. Enemy projectiles glow and pattern in ways that demand spatial awareness rather than just aim, and the grappling hook movement system lets you treat the entire vertical space of each arena as a resource — hanging above projectile patterns, repositioning on the fly, and building the momentum that makes the whole loop feel kinetic. A melee execution move that drains energy from weakened enemies is unmistakably Doom Eternal in DNA but slots into Luna Abyss’s rhythm naturally rather than feeling grafted on.
The weapon set is lean — four weapons total, each performing a specific function against specific enemy types — which could feel restrictive but instead creates a focused, deliberate combat language. Shield-breaker shotgun for blue barriers, sniper for purple, the late-game multi-shot cannon for room clearing. Switching weapons on the fly mid-dodge while reading bullet patterns and managing energy creates a combat loop that players consistently describe as “lock-in,” and the boss fights in particular are highlighted as standout moments where all these elements peak simultaneously.
The World, the Writing, and Why Fawkes Works
Two hundred years before the game’s events, a red moon appeared above Earth. A portion of humanity left to colonise it, hoping for a better life, and found two beings already there that they began to treat as gods. The colony fell to the Scourge plague — brought about by the colonists themselves — mutating the population into the enemies you encounter throughout the game. Fawkes arrives decades later, a prisoner deployed into the Abyss under the watchful eye of the overseer Aylin. This is more worldbuilding infrastructure than most AA FPS games bother to lay down, and the game deploys it through dialogue, environmental storytelling, and collectible lore in ways that reward engagement without demanding it.
The character writing is the game’s most consistent surprise. Players who went in expecting an atmospheric art project came out talking about the characters. Fawkes’s relationship with Aylin, the strange beings encountered in the deeper Abyss, and the philosophical dimensions of what the moon’s colonisation cost everyone who participated — these are handled with more nuance than the genre typically attempts. The voice acting is strong across the board, with performances that match the writing rather than fighting against it.
Where Luna Abyss Falls Short
The early game difficulty is too low. Multiple players flag that the ramp into meaningful challenge is slow enough to feel initially underpowered — the combat only starts delivering on its potential partway through. Play on the hardest difficulty if you’re coming from Doom Eternal or bullet hell backgrounds; the default experience undersells the design. The checkpoint system also has rough edges in places, with some late-game deaths resetting progress to a point that requires replaying longer stretches than the game’s tone warrants.
The platforming sections, while generally fun and increasingly challenging as the game progresses, suffer from inconsistent control precision — it’s easier than it should be to overshoot platforms once you’ve built momentum with the grappling hook. Some of the late-game combat sections are criticised for visual clutter that makes reading bullet patterns harder than the encounter design intends. And as a debut from a smaller studio, there are budget-level rough edges in presentation — occasional visual muddiness up close, animation limitations — that the atmosphere largely compensates for but can’t entirely conceal.
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
| The Good | The Bad | The Ugly |
|---|---|---|
| Bullet Hell FPS CombatThe grapple-and-dodge first-person bullet hell loop hits genuine lock-in — especially the boss fights, where all the game’s systems peak at once. Doom Eternal energy at AA price. | Early Game Too EasyDefault difficulty undersells the combat design for the first hours. Players coming from bullet hell backgrounds should go straight to hardest — the game doesn’t reach its potential until the challenge arrives. | Late-Game Visual ClutterLater combat sections can overwhelm the screen with projectiles to the point where reading patterns becomes unclear — a bullet hell sin that needs tuning. |
| Atmospheric Megastructure WorldEnormous chasms fading to darkness, massive biomechanical pipes, haunting vistas and harsh lighting — the Abyss is one of the year’s most distinctive game environments. | Platforming Precision IssuesMomentum from the grapple hook makes overshooting platforms easy, and some checkpoint spacing in late chapters makes deaths more punishing than intended. | |
| Surprisingly Strong Character WritingPlayers who expected atmosphere over substance found memorable characters and voice performances that match them. Fawkes and Aylin carry the game’s emotional weight effectively. | Only Four WeaponsThe lean loadout is deliberate and mostly works, but players consistently leave wanting more variety in the late game when the current set has been mastered. | |
| Excellent Optimisation300+ FPS reported on high-end hardware, solid Steam Deck performance — the game runs brilliantly for what it’s delivering visually. |
The Verdict
Luna Abyss is one of 2026’s best AA releases and one of the year’s most pleasant surprises. Bonsai Collective and Kwalee Labs have made a debut that punches well above its budget — a first-person bullet hell shooter with a distinctive biomechanical world, character writing that earns genuine investment, and combat that builds into genuine lock-in when the difficulty is set to match your skills. The rough edges are real but minor relative to the quality of the whole. At $29.99 for a focused 8-10 hour experience, this is an easy recommendation for fans of Doom Eternal, Metroid Prime, or anyone who wants an FPS with something genuinely different to say.
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