I Hate Running Backwards

I Hate Running Backwards

Binx Games · 2018 · Action Roguelike, Action, Indie, Roguelite, Local Co-Op

PC
Mostly Positive72% · 18871Metacritic
Best price 75 All-time low
$0.91-80%
lowest tracked $0.90
Eneba Buy at Eneba

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Steam
Steam
Standard Edition · Steam
-80%
$2.99
$14.99
Buy
Humble Store
Humble Store
Standard Edition · Steam
$14.99
Buy

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Eneba
Eneba
Standard Edition · Steam
$0.91
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Gameseal
Gameseal
Standard Edition · Steam
$1.04
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Screenshots

About I Hate Running Backwards

I Hate Running Backwards is a hardcore adrenaline packed shoot'em down that puts the emphasis on destruction and fighting never-ending waves of enemies!
Pick your character and blast away enemies with a high powered arsenal of shotguns, lasers, rocket launchers, singularity cannons and all the weapons you can get your hand's on! Get stronger by earning perks to decimate challenging bosses and climb the leaderboards to show who's the best runner out there!

Sam and friends get stuck in the mixed space-time continuum and have to battle their way through different time periods to rid them of Mental's minions! Intense never-ending action will have you destroying wave after wave of enemies on your way to the final boss. You think you're done when you do? Think again! The game loops and sends even tougher enemies at you. Lucky for you that the arsenal of weapons you pick up along the way is more than enough to help you deal with the threat.

KEY FEATURES

  • Are you Serious? - Chose from a roster of characters like Serious Sam, The Bullet, Lo Wang, Rambro, and Richard among others and bring their unique arsenal to the battlefield!
  • Swing it like you mean it! - Use your mighty melee weapons to lay waste to enemies and destroy the environment!
  • Guns blazing! - Chose from and an arsenal of close to a 100 weapons ranging from assault rifles, shotguns and rocket launchers to orbital lasers, guided missiles, and disintegrations beams!
  • Shoot ‘em down! - Turn the shoot ‘em up genre upside down with Sam doing what he hates the most - running backwards!
  • Come at me bro! - Fight your way to the top of the leaderboards in standard and daily modes. Show you're friends and the world that you're the best runner among them all!
  • Who’s with me? - Fight side by side with a friend in the couch co-op multiplayer mode for 2 players and remember to leave some ammo for your buddy.
  • Destructible environment - Watch as you and your foes destroy everything in your path while battling each other.
  • Expand your arsenal! - Complete achievements to unlock rewards ranging from new weapons, characters and difficulty modifiers!
Are you a Twitch streamer? Good news! I Hate Running Backwards has a unique twist for you!
Activate Kill the Streamer mode and let your Twitch chat spawn enemies to try and kill you!

KEY TWITCH FEATURES
  • Spawn hordes of enemies! - Your Twitch chat can spam numbers to spawn enemies that rush to kill you!
  • Shoot The Drone - Use the Twitch drone to shoot at the Streamer!
  • Spawn Werebulls! - Spawn mighty werebulls to rush the Streamer and kill him even faster!
  • Custom Twitch Chat Leaderboard! - A leaderboard for the best Streamer killers out there!

What Steam players say

Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.

Recommended Mar 12, 2025
[h1] Game set in Serious Sam universe obviously so expect "aaaaa" and some dope one liners. You run and shoot. As simple as it gets you have to worry about ammo and use special attacks reasonably. I was on the edge with this one... at one side it's a good arcade like shooter where you dodge enemies and environmental hazards. From the second side it's a bit tedious and requires a lot of repeating. There's some serious challenge here and I guarantee you will not get through the whole game on one go. Music is your typical well known SS soundtrack. I would consider this one as one of those good Serious Sam spin off games. [/h1]
18 found this helpful
Not recommended Aug 22, 2025
It's very repetitive and feels more like a minigame than a full-fledged game like any of the other titles it references.
4 found this helpful
Not recommended Nov 28, 2025
Fun for the first 30 minutes, than a nightmare. Impossible unlock lady death character, after 50 hours in the game the chest that you need to pick up to unlock the character never spawned.
2 found this helpful
Recommended Jul 6, 2026
It is really fun to run backwards. hehe. Anyway, it is a flipped bullet hell game, so kinda unique AFAIK
1 found this helpful
Recommended Mar 18, 2026
I Hate Running Backwards is a deliberately chaotic arcade shooter that builds its entire identity around a simple but clever inversion: instead of pushing forward through levels, you are constantly retreating while enemies flood toward you. Developed by Binx Games in collaboration with Croteam and released under Devolver Digital, the game feels like a collision between classic twin-stick shooters and modern roguelike design, wrapped in a fast, noisy, and often overwhelming gameplay loop. It immediately stands out because of how it reframes movement, turning what would normally be a forward-driving power fantasy into a constant fight for space and survival. The core mechanic—automatically moving upward while shooting downward—creates a persistent sense of pressure that rarely lets up. You are always giving ground, always reacting, and always trying to maintain control of the shrinking space between you and the incoming swarm. This simple twist has a surprisingly strong impact on how the game feels. It forces players to think differently about positioning, as holding your ground can be just as important as retreating. The destructible environments add another layer to this dynamic, …
Not recommended Oct 21, 2025
Very lazy console port. Tutorial refers to a key board layout that make zero sense (expecting you to use the WASD keys *and* the arrow keys???), and does not tell you about mouse-only options (like using the mousewheel to change weapons, rather than the left arrow key). There is also no key binding or control menu, so god help you if you come back to this game in a few months and can't remember which arrow key does what, or want to customize your layout. It's 2025 and I expect more from experienced devs working with a major publisher. Gameplay was... alright, but I have a of games competing for my attention and this one didn't do anything special that made me want to play it over all of the other options.

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