Hellpoint

The game is good. People compplaining about lack of key binding need to git gud. Sifi Souls-like game. If you hate Dsrk Souls then dont download this. You'll hate your life. If you do like DS then download it not expecting it to be DS. I haven't seen any game breaking bugs since I've started playing. Not saying there arent any but I haven't seen any bugs myself. I got this game for free, and would pay for this on sale. The game good but not great. Playable and fun.

Let’s get this one out of the way right at the start of this review. This game is a Souls-like, so if you don’t like difficult, unforgiving combat and game mechanics then this game will probably frustrate you. If you are unwilling to change up your approaches to combat based on which enemy you are facing, learn their combos, adapt, etc then you will have a bad time. I actually read a lot of these reviews and I can honestly say that the majority of the negatives were left in the throes of nerd rage. This game has the tendency of not only being brutal, but also kicking you while you are down repeatedly. Most of these negative reviews sound like they came from millennial gamers who like being spoon-fed. The game itself is so immersive and captivating. The moment that my character awoke in the brine-filled spawning pool all disoriented in a setting that only a Tool song could properly act as a soundtrack; I knew I was in for a good time. Space is awesome and creepy. Throw in a holocaust, people and creatures stirring in undeath, and a demon infestation and you have a downright amazing atmosphere. The combat is done very well. Visceral and deadly like Dark Souls, where a couple of lowly dreg-demons can easily rake half of your life away if you are careless. Combat where you can literally use a concrete pylon ripped from its rebar to smash in the frail, lithe bodies of extra terrestrials. Take the time to learn the flow and it exhilarating. Try to brute force your way by spamming attacks and you will be back here leaving a negative review like the other nerd ragers.

The "soulslike" genre is my bread and butter and I was more than excited for Hellpoint. Cradle Games is a small studio with limited resources and despite that Hellpoint looks fairly good in the graphics department. The art direction is something people will either love or hate. The real problem here is the level design. Levels look very samey (long, dark and winding hallways) which tend to confuse and lose the player more often than not. Hellpoints wears its inspiration on its sleeve, unfortunately it seems to run into a lot of the same issues Lords of the Fallen did by Deck13. I'll elaborate. Combat feels very stiff and slow. Weapon hitboxes dont seem to be accurate leading to whiffed attacks that go through the opponent opening the player up to being punished. Enemy tracking is also commical where enemies can start an attack and spin 180 in a flash to hit the player rendering circle strafing a non option. Player knockdown and guard break seem to also be a little too long. (I'd reccommend just ditching the shield early on because of this) Dodging also falls into this problem where the dodge has a short pause at the end that can get you killed even if you perfectly dodge the first atttack in a long combo. (Bloodborne dodging this is not) Then there are the technical issues... A short list of issues I've run into: -Missing audio when sprinting -Missing water splashing when running through water -Desynced audio for weapon attacks -Losing control of player character (character will just walk in a direction non stop) -Jump button will stop working -Menu will be stuck open blocking screen -world not rendering -falling through the ground Hellpoint has the pontential to be good, great even. Hopefully post launch support will fix the technical issues. Game balance could use a pass or 2 but the technical issues really bring the experience down.

Goes beyond the average Souls-like and plays almost exactly like the more well known series (with minor mechanical improvements). It's scaled down because of the smaller studio, but nothing that you can't forgive it for. The goals of the game are a little foggy, and I'm not sure how you could progress smoothly without without looking up next steps on the internet. Aside from that, it plays like "Dark Souls in space" as advertised. I didn't run into any major bugs like some early reviews talk about, so they might be fixed.

If I had to describe Hellpoint I'd say it reminds me of Dark Souls with a 'Hell in space' aesthetic. If that doesn't make sense I understand. In Hellpoint you play a "Spawn" created by what seems to be a combination of a religious cult and a galaxy spanning corporation. Think if the Davos collective spanned the entire Milky Way. You're cut loose to test your mettle in what seems to be a massive dilapidated cathedral with science labs in it floating in space. The enemies are an eclectic mix of zombies, experiments gone wrong, giant cyborg knights, spectral apparitions, and cultists with a cyber-meets-dungeon aesthetic. Combat it rather hack & slash, with quick attacks and hard slow attacks. There's a bit of a fatigue meter that replenishes between attacks, requiring timing and strategy. Weapon and armor pickups are slightly randomized. Once killed, and you'll get killed often, you keep your weapons and armor but must recollect you upgrade points and even fight a ghost of yourself to reclaim them! I haven't tried the online multiplayer yet, but will get around to it after finishing the single player campaign. Played on Windows 10 and Linux Mint 20.1 with a GTX 1050, runs great on both.