Hellpoint

I can't get around giving these type of "games" a chance every other month. Dark Souls II SOTFS, Remnant: From The Ashes, The Surge, Lords Of The Fallen, some more, and now Hellpoint - every signle game shows the same mediocre design, lacks decency towards players and in some cases like this one forced multiplayer. Hellpoint in particular suffers additionally from poor controls, which makes basic interaction with it already a chore. This is another reason why I stopped caring about continuing to play earlier than later. Luckily, I got this one in a giveaway, however I still feel robbed of the minutes I gave this game. I sincerely hope this software will be removed soon to make space and be replaced with an actual and enjoyable game.

...but i can't. To be honest, I am glad i didn't buy it. This is my experience in first 5 and half hours. I am at point when I'm forcing my self to play the game. Game does have big potential, but for me, it falls as flat, repetitive and buggy due to terrible combat and map-maze-like design. This game by look gave me fantastic feel and atmosphere that mesh Dark Souls and Dead Space. Definitely a good vibe at beginning, but unfortunately, it loose it's charm after first hour due it's own repetitiveness. The biggest problem i have with this game (so far) is combat (witch should be soul of the game): - Attack often don't register hit or simply go trough enemy. Lets say about 1 in 4 attack. They also feels very clunky and impreciseness. - Enemies or Boss sometime attack straight out without any moment to react. - I found some attack weren't possible to dodge (ex. Ozyormy Goija have leap attack from across the room that will hit me 100%. Even if I'm in dodge animation sequence). Some regular enemy do similar stuff (ex. Melee Thespian sometimes just show finished attack animation and you already taken damage just by getting close to him). - Enemies can sometime hit you even when clearly there was no hit or when you are just out of their range. - Other times they move/attack extremely quick, witch makes super-hard or maybe impossible to react. I'm not sure if this is by design, but it can mess up the camera when lock-on is active. - Some enemy will stuck you to the wall just by getting close to you. This is especially problematic when there is big enemies in tight spots or small corridors that will stuck you onto wall as soon as they get close. - All weapons so feels weak or useless. Some weapons don't get stronger even if i raise stats for them. Bug? - Hardest enemy so far ? Camera combined with level design. - Poorly explained everything beside controls. And so on. I tried to describe at best i can.

I got the game for free on GOG at one point, and thought I would give it a try. The big positives for me are the visuals, aesthetics and atmosphere, it´s like Event Horizon meets Hellraiser, and that´s a very cool thing. I liked the music too, with its sci-fi sounds. Controlling the character was not an issue for me, it was smooth enough for a game like this. The problem for me is the combat. There are things happening on the screen that is not explained, so I felt I was missing crucial gameplay elements or mechanics. Even in a Souls-like, I still expect the game to explain the mechanics to me, what the symbols or indicators on the screen or HUD means. Instead you have to turn to videos or forums to explain essential things. For me, the combat did not feel unique enough to keep me playing the game, it felt like basic or rudimentary melee Demon´s Souls or Bloodborne. But hey, that might be what you the reader is after. I contrast this with The Surge games and Remnant: From the Ashes, which are sci-fi Souls-likes that I felt were more uniue and thus more enjoyable. They felt more like their own thing. whereas Hellpoint is not really there yet. I think it clings too much to its inspirational roots rather than exploring unique ways and novel ideas. Maybe in a sequel they can make the combat a bit more interesting.

If you like the exploration of Dark Souls but don't care for the boss fights, this game may be for you. Hellpoint is a bit casual, but I don't think that's entirely a bad thing. First, it does away with one of my biggest issues with Dark Souls, which is scattering a ridiculous amount of annoying mobs throughout the world, impeding you from the joy of exploring. Generally, enemies in Hellpoint are more of a nuisance than a threat once you've leveled up a little. They deal very low damage and, for the most part, rarely stagger. You'll even go through a few areas of the game where there will be absolutely no threats, allowing you to focus on pathfinding, soaking in lore, or admiring the environments. In my opinion, this does absolute wonders for the game, and it's great to be given the chance to breathe and take in the world. That said, while the world isn't nearly as detailed as DS, there's a lot of variety to the environments, the art direction is fantastic (reminds me a lot of EYE Divine Cybermancy) and the ability to actually jump opens up a little vertical navigation you simply won't find in DS. Sadly, outside of exploration and art direction, Hellpoint doesn't do much to impress. There's pitiful enemy variety, with the devs going so far as to copy-paste early game bosses, including their full movesets, as weaker mobs. Weapon variety is also poor, consisting of: high-damage slow attack 1H, medium damage fast attack 1H, or low damage faster attack 1H. There's no 2H for whatever reason, meaning shields are basically a given. Meanwhile, the bosses are a bit of a joke. I've killed one of the endgame bosses by continuously stun-locking him while not even wearing endgame gear. Arguably worse, at least one of the bosses I faced was incredibly buggy and would continuously hit me through walls with projectiles and land hits on me even when facing in the opposite direction. For a game that's a year old, this really should have been fixed by now.

A lot of secrets, fun and madnes agains the camara jaajaj