REVIEW : Hellpoint (PC)

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REVIEW : Hellpoint (PC)

REVIEW : Hellpoint (PC)

Hellpoint, from Cradle Games and tinyBuild, is very much a Soulslike. The opponents are tough, checkpoints are further apart than the magnetic poles, and everything you face wants to rip your synthetic warrior into little bits, just because. You play as a “Spawn of the Author”, an unreal lifeform created for reasons that Cradle Games almost bullheadedly declines to directly explain. For some reason, you exist. And for further reasons, you’re born at the opening and are instantly happy with strapping on armour and smacking the ever-loving snot out of anything you come across.


REVIEW : Hellpoint (PC)

Hellpoint is set on a space station called Irid Novo, situated close to a black hole. As it revolves in its orbit, the cycle causes “Accretion Storms” to wrack the shadowed halls and spew hordes of zombie-like beasts and powerful demons into our universe. These storms are Hellpoints primary unique feature, but like everything else, there’s little explanation as to why they occur or what their purpose is. And it’s only at certain points and in certain areas that they really make a difference. The rest of the time you’re facing off against the usual assortment of trash mobs and occasional big shielded animals, magic-hurling demons, or savage creatures. Combat is pretty conventional, featuring light and heavy attacks, a shield parry, ranged and magic options and a lot of walking forward gradually with your shield lifted.

REVIEW : Hellpoint (PC)

Hellpoint is fun to play; the action seems immediate and responsive, and mappable weapon skills give you a few cool offensive options. There’s a sense of familiarity to it all that can feel a little rote, which is jarringly juxtaposed with the game’s unwillingness to just open up and let you into its narrative. Even the bosses follow no real pattern and appear to just exist for you to fight. They don’t talk or drop significant loot beyond passports or keys to the next area, and killing them doesn’t have the pleasing sense of gratification that it should.

You save and rest at Breaches, some of which can be synchronised to allow high-speed travel. Here you spend Axioms to level up your stats or can polarise or regress the world with several items, which makes the game harder or easier respectively. Using a Breach to level up does not respawn opponents, but dying or fast travelling to the Breach does. Also, you can’t renew your curatives unless you die, and can only refill health and energy by landing hits on enemies.

REVIEW : Hellpoint (PC)

As with many games in the genre, exploration plays a massive part in Hellpoint. Upgrade stations and tech stations can be found to improve your gear and craft new weapons, but these are rare. Thoroughly exploring areas will yield armour sets, weapons, Axioms or items like upgrade modules or programs for your Omnicube. This little device can do things like teleport you to the last Breach you connected with or activate a light to cut through the gloom. It’s an excellent idea, even though the Omnicube has no real presence and a simple menu could do what it does.

Green handprints scattered around will reveal hints, while yellow handprints are player-left messages that are mostly written in a bizarre code and are therefore utterly unhelpful. Blue handprints signify that another player wants help.

Death leaves behind your Axioms, and you’ll need to collect them again. During this period they can create a ghost, which is a green-tinged copy of you that will hound you aggressively until you kill it. It’s a super annoying mechanic that just gets in the way and costs you health and time when you just want to get back to the boss for another try. The player character controls well enough, although at times the target lock joins forces with the camera to kill you faster than the bosses can. Weapon and damage feedback is good though, and there’s a definite weight to attacks that makes combat satisfying and punchy. However, you’re easily stun-locked, and facing more than one or two enemies at a time will usually result in you being overwhelmed or dying due to the camera.

REVIEW : Hellpoint (PC)

Visually, while Hellpoint’s world is an interesting perspective, it doesn’t do a great deal that we haven’t seen before. The “Hell in Space” aesthetic is something we’ve experienced in titles like Doom many a time, and while there are occasional vistas that will arrest your attention for a moment, there’s nothing in Hellpoint to challenge spectacles like Anor Londo or Cainhurst Castle. For the most part, it’s technically smooth, although the framerate drops in certain areas and enemies can get lodged on the terrain or glitch around a little in the distance.

Perhaps I’m being unfair on Hellpoint; perhaps it’s simply come at a time where I’m feeling personally fatigued with the genre. But having been blown away by Nioh 2 this year and super impressed by the Mortal Shell beta, Hellpoint just feels a little too safe and familiar to stand out. It’s a perfectly serviceable adventure with loads to explore and discover, some decent combat, a cool setting and plenty of bosses to test your mettle against. The problem is that it doesn’t do anything that feels new or daring, and it utterly forgets to add any real context or weight to all its apocalyptic posturing.

REVIEW : Monster Train (PC)

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review-hellpoint-pcAs with titles like Immortal: Unchained and Lords of the Fallen, Hellpoint feels like a game living in the shadow of its genre rather than thriving in its light, and as such fails to take risks or explore any genuinely new territory. But although it may not ultimately stick in the memory for long after you're done, for a lower budget title it's a solid enough challenge that will keep fans of the genre busy for a while.

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