Hellpoint

I got this game in a GOG giveaway (in maybe 2020?), and it was the first soulslike game I played. A few months before Elden Ring came out, I decided to give the whole genre a try before deciding if I wanted to play ER, and this was the only game I had. I'm grateful this was my entry into the genre, though. Hellpoint's combat is easier than any Dark Souls/Elden Ring game, but I'm so bad at them anyway that it was a significant challenge. Where Hellpoint excels is in the world design. The Irid Novo space colony has an interconnected world, interesting architecture to look at, and varied locations. It nails this aspect of soulslikes that is really missing from many other games in the genre. I liked the game so much that I bought the Supporter Pack and Blue Sun DLC. The DLC was also good and adds more interconnectivity to the game's levels. I'm glad I played this game, as it gave me at least a few skills that have translated well to other soulslikes. It's not perfect, but I found it to be a more enjoyable experience than games like Lords of the Fallen, The Surge 1/2, and some of the other soulslike games.

This game's atmosphere is just... wow. Beautiful game at every turn. The singularity in the sky at the observatory was a goosebump worthy experience. However, for the aesthetics a heavy price is paid. The gameplay sucks horridly. Here's a sum up: PROS: -Beautiful atmosphere -Fantastic sound design -Really good graphics (i'm playing on 1440p) with unique artistic style CONS: -Level design is maze like -There are countless fall traps in the most random locations (i.e between doorways, just after elevators, even in the middle of a normal ass room). The fall traps between doorways pissed me off the most -The vast majority of deaths don't feel deserved (for the reasons below) -Enemy attacks are horribly telegraphed -Status effects are near instant death -Enemy jumpscares are straight cheesy -Way too many bugs -Bosses are clunky -Controls are clunky, even on controller I wouldn't buy this game, but if you wanna waste some time, play it for free.

Some context, to help potential buyers with a decision: while I'm a big fan of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1, I never truly enjoyed the other FromSoftware games, as I felt they were missing some fundamental aspects of what made the first two Souls games great. Of all the Soulslikes I've played over the years, Hellpoint comes closest to capturing the original lightning-in-a-bottle. It's got a great setting, interesting lore, good combat (not too fast-paced) and big levels with lots of details and secrets. It never gets boring or outstays it's welcome, and there is a whole bunch of stuff to uncover. The levelling system is ok. The levels are fantastically interconnected, unfortunately not as majestic as those from the original Dark Souls, mainly due to the setting and the game taking place in a closed environment. Like with Dark Souls and Demon's Souls, the average gamer should glance at a beginner's guide before the first play-through, just to get a better sense of the game's mechanics and progression and to avoid some common progression pitfalls (like when to use Breach Synchronisers or how to access some more obscure questlines). I've not played this in multiplayer, so I can't attest to the couch or online co-op. I've noticed the game getting quite a bad rep from online critics, which actually put me off from starting the game, but there seems to be some pervading misunderstanding on what this game actually is and how it should be played. So if you're at all interested, try not to look to much into the bad reviews floating around, and give this a shot.

If you're into the exploration part of Dark Souls this is the game for you. It features a deeply interconnected map with tons of optional areas and secrets, and exploring it and discovering all the shortcuts between areas was a joy for me. Some of the early areas look a bit bland but they're all visually distinct and memorable, and the enemies look pretty cool and the designs have a somewhat buddhist inspiration to them. The audio is not exceptional but still pretty serviceable. The combat has a few twists on the Dark Souls formula but it's more or less the same though but fair ordeal. I found it challenging enough, but you can find some items in the world that you can use to make an area harder or easier, and there's a weird system where if the area of the station you're in is currently facing the black hole it's orbiting around, the enemies will be thougher and yield better loot. Overally very solid game and deserves more attention. I got it for free out of curiosity but I really enjoyed my time with it and I'm looking forward to whatever Cradle Games is doing next.

Combat is fun, lots of good weapons to find and use and I like how the weapons level up and get new abilities. Some moves seem more useful than others (the jump attack for heavy weapons for example) but I found uses for everything you can do with the combat system. Exploration is good. Areas are interesting to explore and have lots of hidden small areas to find. Very interconnected too, lots of different ways to get from one area to another. Some areas feel a little underdeveloped, a few rooms are big and have nothing in them, and some corridors just seem to be a way to connect two parts of the level and nothing more. Inventory system kinda sucks and is probably the thing I dislike the most in the game. It works but you can't organise it very well, there is no way to sort or rearrange items in your inventory. You can't get rid of items whenever you want, and when you get to a machine that lets you dismantle the items, it shows the entirety of your inventory in one list, showing three or 4 items at a time in the order that you acquired them (I think). It would be much better if this interface was in a grid like your main inventory, or at least sorted alphabetically. I also have started to get lag when I open the inventory now because of all the items I have I think? Really odd. If I could give 3.5 stars, that would be my actual rating. It's apparently going to get DLC, so I will probably pick that up.