Starts with mouse only without any visible cursor, so you have to move the mouse aimlessly guided by hover effects to click on something. Then you have to restart the whole game after changing resolution just to see anything else than the upper left corner, because changing resolution does not change scale factor for the Cocoa up-sacling. Then the mouse capture fails each time you left click, so that you hit the ground each time you try to hit an enemy. Learn the basics of programming for MacOS.
I can accept a difficult game if it gives me a chance to fight stronger opponents using precise timing (Assassins Creed) and accuracy (Butcher) or lets me slowly level up (TitanQuest), but Hellpoint gives none of that. It's only about equipping the right items because the shield is basically useless by not protecting against stun attacks and moving costs so much stamina that it's never actually useful in combat. All that's left is repeated slashing only to loose all experience points when you get crushed by the first boss. A mobile game is like repeatedly pressing a button to level up with each press. Hellpoint is like repeatedly pressing a button while nothing ever happens.
You die often, but while laughing instead of being frustrated. The constant change of characters force you to learn all abilities and use whatever is randomly selected for you.
Lots of enemies being created around you, but you see where they are going to spawn so just shoot at their locations before they have been created while dodging the traps. Would be more fun with a variation of themes because it gets repetitive after a while. Choose this game if you liked Broforce but got tired of constantly changing between characters.
Nice isometric retro graphics, matching music and high paced dynamic tank action with many ways to complete the mission. Run them over, stomp, shoot while crouching, trigger a chain reaction of explosions... The AI is smart enough to keep a distance from your corner ambush if you run out of ammo and try to stomp them. All buildings can be destroyed with lots of particle effects, unlike many games that only care about looking good on screenshots.
Too many buttons to keep track of (feels like having all weapons active at the same time), yet the actual game-play feels too simplified. A good game should only have a few controls but allow triggering complex events to master gradually over time. Random levels can be a nice thing after running out of designed levels, but not having anything designed at all makes it feel empty and repeated. Good that it runs well on Arch Linux though.
Would've been a perfect five if the controlls and cut-scenes made sense. + Huge cities with lots of small details to explore. You can get inside most of the appartments and gather supplies that are refilled during each new session so that it feels like you haven't been there before. + Missions often have a story with interesting characters who haven't been outside for a while. + Night time gives double XP and harder enemies for those wanting a real challenge. + Leveling up actually makes a difference in perceived strength, it's just faster if you beat harder enemies like in classic roleplay games. + Real skills matters by having a huge damage bonus for targeting the heads, so leveling up isn't everything. - Ziplining often requires to press space to jump to the line, then press space again to use it. If you were already within range and press twice by accident, space also happens to be the key for letting go of the zipline and die in the most stupid way with a slow animation that cannot be aborted. - If you accidentally upgrade with the vault attack, your drop kicks become essentially useless by having ambiguous controlls so you never dare to use the drop kick again. - Looting has an odd way of requiring either a quick click or pressing, but during the press, there's an animation moving to another item that requires a fast click and the player just shakes back and forward which is a problem if the zombie is covered with arrows. - The slow walks mixed with cutscenes are out of touch with the regular gameplay where you're almost invincible. After taking down three giant zombies with his bare hands and shooting down a huge army of soldiers, he just drop his weapon in a cutscene because someone held a tiny gun against him.
You just keep grinding to get to the next level without any theme, story nor goal, just random mushrooms and monsters jumping out from nowhere. Like mobile games, it aims more for addiction than actual content using flashy level up animations. Not being able to continue on a level when dying makes the game feel more inconsistent than a fuzzy dream where nothing makes any sense. Shooting is so slow that it doesn't matter if you try to aim for the head. The only reason for making this type of game is to make more money from ads or pay-to-win systems, so the design decisions doesn't make any sense in a paywalled game, where play time doesn't increase the profit. My review is mostly biased from the fact that I strongly dislike mobile games, and this has the same attributes. The only reason for not giving the lowest score is that it has good language support and some children might be too young for advanced games. I'd give it 3 stars for children and 1 star for adults.
