WARNING: This review is written with 2 important things to keep in mind:
1) I can now consider myself "quite good" at sould-like games. I doWARNING: This review is written with 2 important things to keep in mind:
1) I can now consider myself "quite good" at sould-like games. I do not play those games on NG+X, but have gotten quite good and tend to get through them pretty easily now.
2) I am giving this a relatively higher score than I would if it were made by a larger studio because I wish to reward the sheer effort that has been put into this game! The scope and depth here is astounding, and far surpasses many large AAA titles.
Hellpoint is HARD! In fact, it might be the hardest game I have ever played in its genre. And it is not until I found a relatively OP weapon and armor set that the game slowly stopped being gruelingly difficult.
If you're willing to put up with that, the game is pretty darn amazing! The atmosphere is out of this world (literally); the environment/encounter design is usually great. The way areas are interconnected is nearly as good as Dark Souls 1*, and I am surprised the game isn't better known for that alone.
Combat is fun, abilities are quite well designed, and in general the mechanics are quite good.
Graphics are... well they are technically dated, but the design, well-picked lighting and overall style make it quite enjoyable. It often feels like the best looking PS2 game I've ever played... and that's not a bad thing at all!
The story is... not bad. Not great, but pretty good. It fits well with the rest of the game, so that's enough for me.
* VERY SLIGHT SPOILER: There is a binary decision between two areas to unlock relatively early on; picking the wrong one like I did will lead to a LOT of pain as you face extremely difficult enemies. Unfortunately this is irrevocable, and you must find you way across a multitude of areas before you can get back to the "easier" track. This ended up being quite fun, but I could imagine many people abandoning the game at that point.… Expand
