Posted on: December 4, 2021

Chauncellor

Games: 323 Reviews: 7

A worthwhile experience

This game lacks the finishing polishes needed to really elevate it to a masterpiece. But there's so much it does right that it's worth the time investment. Lots of discovery, delightfully little talking, fun (if a bit clunky) combat. My biggest disappointment is the sound/music. There's a lot of great sound design in this game but it's hampered by a profoundly buggy engine implementation: Sounds will haphazardly not fire, strange directional logic causes bizarre balancing issues. And some sounds are just flat-out missing, causing a truly uncomfortable set of actions that happen in complete silence. The music is almost always ambient, which is nice... but there's often no texture to accompany it. The game jarringly cuts immediately from one track to the next, completely ruins the atmosphere. Boss fights utilize the "generic midi choir" approach which is okay, but not terribly inspiring. These issues contribute to sometimes feeling a sense of flatness in the levels. The game takes place on a derelict space station and the designers have done an admirable job making the sections look pretty distinct but I feel there could have been more done with ambience and color to give the areas more life. The cryptic lore and unique designs kept me wanting to play more and see what was next. I purposefully play my Dark Souls offline because I like the lonely atmosphere - I recommend that here as well. (Played the Linux build with a DualShock 4/Xbox 360 controller. No issues.) Ultimately, I so wish there were the possibility of a big update that irons out the worst glitches and a mod to remove some of the more pointless aspects like the whole code numbering system. But it's a good game and deserves to be played - I'm kind of offended that people liken this to Dead Space; Dead Space is AAA sci-fi blandness without any soul whereas this was a unique vision and unique interpretation of gaming. The two are very different.

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Posted on: July 17, 2024

N0w3gg

Verified owner

Games: 594 Reviews: 26

Budget soulslike I want to like

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.

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Posted on: June 16, 2021

idbeholdME

Verified owner

Games: 734 Reviews: 69

Decent

The game is good but quite repetitive. I completed it and finished the game with the same armor and weapon I found in the tutorial area. Haven't found a single replacement that would be an upgrade in the majority of the game (went with melee strength build). So running around for 15 hours, killing the same enemies over and over got old pretty quickly when absolutely nothing changed. The maps are maze-like in design to the extreme. Expect to get lost regularly. One terrible thing is how the ending and new game plus is handled. Once you reach 100% data collection, you are told to quickly go somewhere. I went there and to my surprise, the game just ended pretty quickly after that. There was almost no indication that you are about to finish the game. Then I got spit out at the beginning of new game plus. Problem is, I still had several areas completely unexplored, side quests unfinished, items and keys unused etc. There is absolutely no warning the game is about to end, so having everything suddenly reset with no way back led to me quitting the game for good. Don't do the same mistake I did. The game also follows the thinking of not explaining game mechanics properly = difficult. Had to look up what most stats and attributes exactly do on the internet. Stuff like this should always be in the game. Story is... there but I already don't remember much. In standard Dark Souls fashion, everything is obscure, indirect and ultimately pointless. There is no voice acting, everyone just uses a generic gibberish language and there are only very few non-aggressive NPCs. Also, ignore the reviews claiming controls are not rebindable. Changed several of them without issues , playing on a keyboard and mouse. To sum it up, if you like souls-clones, you probably will squeeze at least a playthrough out of this. I might have played through twice, but that was before I got kicked into new game plus involuntarily.. Overall, 6.5/10. Leaves a lot to be desired.

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Posted on: June 28, 2021

Stormhaze

Verified owner

Games: 252 Reviews: 9

Looks great and all, but where's the fun

I would love to give this game a better review, I really would . . . but as it stands right now, I'm more than a little disappointed. I'm a fan of bad news before good, so here's my problems (note: based on a single player perspective): 1) Little to no direction: As much as I can appreciate near-open world game, this one is lacking in indicating direction for the player. Now, I understand the need to explore and mentally map things out, but at the same time a little , "Try to find " to help progress the story along would be nice. 2) Forced items: In the early game, there's clearly a bias for melee only combat, but the enemies you need to pass are either too easy, or way too hard. The only way I got through once was by using one of the item codes to get a gun, and that helped a LOT while not taking away much of the difficulty. It felt more balanced and goal oriented instead of, "Here . . . axe, shield, good luck . . . oh, and you're screwed if you get stunned." Doesn't help that with the first boss encounter, if you dont have a ranged weapon, there's really no way to beat it. 3) Saves? What saves?: I'm not entirely sure how the save games work here, but even after beating the boss, and getting to the observatory before calling it a day, I come back a week later, I've lost several levels, and have to go through that all over again? Who comes up with this mess? If I make progress, why am I losing progress when I can't return to the game for a week? And to actually save, I have to obtain an in game item? I'm about to lose my mind . . . $35 is NOT worth the frustration. One word: SLOPPY (well, there's a worse word that's better, but I'm trying to keep it civil). And now the parts I like: Hopefully changes will be made to improve the overall experience as not everyone wants to run a group online, or has the time to. I kinda want to see this game do better, but they need to address some things before I put more time into it.

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Posted on: October 28, 2022

archangel469

Verified owner

Games: 105 Reviews: 1

Deeply enjoyed the game

Had such a great time with the game, finding secretes, learning the lore, and of course fighting the enemies. Pick your preferred play style, develop it, and enjoy the game. I dont think I had any particular bugs others had challenges with. Souls meets Event Horizon (the movie), but with its own character. Died plenty of times, but came back for more and enjoyed the good ending. Cheers to the hard working developers of this title, the love is shown in the game and appreciated by the player!

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