Hellpoint

Let's start with the good: the levels. There are quite a few of them, they're big, they all look great and fairly distinct, they have complex layouts with plenty of shortcuts and secrets and intelligent bonfire placements... I've beaten the final boss, explored quite a bit off the main path, and I'm sure I haven't even seen half of what the game has to offer. In this area, I think Hellpoint is superior even to the original Dark Souls. Why isn't this a 5/5, then? Unfortunately, because pretty much everything else isn't very good. The game has a fair amount of platforming, but the controls aren't good, your character will easily get stuck into slopes (let alone more complex geometry), falls go from "zero damage" to "instant death" within a handful of meters, and there's plenty of death pits to fall down into. By comparison, the combat is no threat at all: when fighting the final boss my greatest concern was that my attacks brought me dangerously close to the edge of the arena, that's how easy things are. The combat is stiff, the enemies are too predictable and manageable, the bosses are mostly bigger versions of normal enemies (save for a handful of main story bosses), item management is a massive chore, some weapons don't seem to work properly... There are great ideas here and there (the Black Hole doors, the Underworld, the slight variations in enemy placement as you revisit levels...), but they're usually half baked. Despite all these negatives, I don't regret playing through Hellpoint, and I'm curious to see what the devs will do next.

Dark Souls mechanics in a hellish 'Dead Space x Hellraiser' kind of world. I was very impressed by the overall quality of the game - the aesthetics, the sound design, the controls; everything is polished. Even though I'm not a big fan of the Souls-like genre myself, I enjoyed it a lot. I recommend it 100%.

Hellpoint is a visually interesting (if you're into blood and scifi more than fantasy) soulslike with bad combat. Enemies animate in strange and unpredictable ways, with some of the less human enemies conjuring sudden leaping attacks that have a small chance to get my character stuck in the floor. Not great for a soulslike. From the player hints that freeze my controls for no reason to the strange physics interactions sometimes from attacks, Hellpoint has alot of mess. You can get around some of it by simply out-leveling the basic enemies. Who cares about broken combat if you can dodge-roll forever, swing your weapon as much as you want, or shoot enemies from afar? Well, in my experience, out-leveling the basic enemies doesn't work as well for the bosses unless you really want to grind. I didn't mind so much for a boss named "Ozyormy Goija", as that guy is my favorite fight in the game. Additionally, he happens to live in my favorite zone to explore. However, outside personal favorites, zones suffer from tight corridors removing the possibility of clear landmarks. I've gotten stuck twice, and both times I've lost interest and had to restart. There are keys, hidden keys, doors, and hidden doors all over, and the process of figuring out even where you are after hunting for secrets can become tricky. You see, Hellpoint has fast-travel, but it's gated behind a special soul resource. I believe this limitation is a huge mistake, but I'm sure there's someone out there who loves it for story or gameplay reasons. The story seems silly, something about gods and wannabe Dark Souls, but a world torn in 2 presents opportunities to engage with twisted versions of levels and unearthly foes. Definitely one of my favorite aspects of the game, but it's because of this dual world system that we have to deal with the special fast-travel souls. Hellpoint is too ambitious for what it is. I respect it, but 3 stars is the highest I can go with combat such a janky mess.

too many bugs

I think such a small team did a great job of a dark souls like game. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it quite challenging. Graphically looks great. Plays smooth and is respnsive. interesting areas. BUT It has a lot of problems: The difficulty is GREATLY determined by your level and development meaning that if you grind correctly and only for a short bit you will outclass the bosses. There is a critical lack of enemy variety. Its somewhat empty. So level design is poor. Quite unbalanced in ways. Limited replayability. Lack of variety of equpment. Overall though I would recommend it if you like good old Dark Souls and want a challenging but also frustrating game at times.