Hellpoint is almost exactly what you'd expect out of a Souls style game. You don't need to play it long to figure it out, the story fades quickly into the background as pointless white noise and, although beautifully crafted, the monsters are repedative to a fault. A fantastic time waster, but has little to offer for those who saw "RPG" in its details. Pick up weapon, kill monsters, die often, repeat. What keeps this from being 4 stars is less the generic and cookie-cutter nature of the game, but the constant buggieness. Hitboxes don't always recognize, the controls are janky as sin, and the framerate needs work. Overall a solid 3/5.
I remember Blood from my youth. Hours of sitting at a bright screen in a small house in the middle of nowhere, lights off, scared out of my wits, running and gunning my way though hoards of sick, disturbing, backwards enemies that wanted nothing more than to have my heart on a pike and my guts as their boot leather... and I'm still not disappointed. Over ten years sense I played this- well long past that and here I am, giggling impishly at witty dark humor and swearing at a truly challenging game- I thought I'd never see again- while it hands me my butt on a platter. A dominating masterpiece that proves that spiced-up 3D animation systems can still get roffle-stomped by a 2D blood splatter in all its pixilated glory, Blood does not disappoint delivering intense, fast paced game play on par with any modern shooter. A full arsenal of creative and original weapons await anyone who buys this. Napalm launchers, Pitchforks and and Voodoo Dolls (my personal favorite) as well as everyone's favorite classic Tommy gun help break up a never ending dump of cookie-cutter assault rifles, sniper rifles and shotguns... even if you get a nice, well-rounded sawed-off double barrel. Humor in a first person shooter most days anymore is unheard of in a lot of ways, even more so when the main character is complex and full of personality. I admit, I didn't get a lot of the jokes when I was little (I was mostly interested in the blood-spray), but I'd never noticed that he would snicker or whip out an occasional "son of a b***h must pay!" when you're pitch-forking someone's intestines out into a tree. No, on the other hand, I laugh with twisted delight as at times this is generally how I feel when unloading round after organ-shredding round of ammo into masses of creative enemies who are more than often ripping my health to nothing. Yes, folks. He's just as frustrated as you are, and it's great. Worth every penny...
