Hellpoint Review - Awesome But Not Perfect

Hi guys, Welcome back to the channel, my name is Onos and today I’m going to review Hellpoint. Honestly guys I’m surprised. I expected it to be decent - but I honestly didn’t expect it to be THIS good. I'll break the review down into segments. We’ll talk about the combat and weapons, the area’s in-game I’ve experienced already, the gameplay mechanics and some of the bosses I’ve fought without any spoilers.

Then we’ll talk about the graphics, audio and atmosphere and I’ll wrap it up with some critiques and a score - and a recommendation for anyone considering the game. Bear in mind that any comments I’m making here are my own opinion only. OK so the combat.

Combat is very VERY souls like. Slow paced, deliberate and precise. If you get yourself surrounded - there is no amount of button mashing you can do to get you out of trouble. You can’t roll or dodge through enemies, so if you’re trapped - that’s it - you’re most likely going to die.

If you DO die, then you can go back to pick up your Axioms, but you’ll most likely bump into the ghost of yourself along the way - they’re hunting for you and extremely aggressive - they will aggro on to you from quite a distance - and the fight feels more like something from PVP than a regular enemy! I suppose I don't need to spell it out, but the game is pretty challenging.

Souls veterans will probably feel right at home with this game. Your healing ability and one of the energy bars will charge up based on melee damage inflicted to enemies, which makes you want to be aggressive to keep things moving. If you run out of heals - you can still progress if you’re careful, and earn yourself more healing injections along the way.

You have something called an Omni-Cube, which is like a toolbox you can collect extra tools for to help you with your gameplay - things like porting back to the last rift you visited, or a flashlight. One thing I have noticed is that the enemies can damage each other.

If one of the bigger enemies is swinging his weapon around, he can quite easily take out some of the smaller enemies for you - this can lead to a strategic way of fighting - and gives you the opportunity to get yourself out of a scrape if you’re smart.

The weapons are really interesting. Basic movesets are varied on the whole, but you WILL find different weapons which have the same basic moveset. However, some of the weapons you find are able to level up as you use them, and present you with a host of different bonuses or a special attack you can do - this is a fantastic way to differentiate the weapons and really personalise your playstyle and combat preference.

Every weapon has the ability to level up so that it can be augmented with items you find in the world, but only some of the weapons can gain the special moves. There is crafting in the game and you can find the patterns for weapons and shields out in the world.

I assume there will be armor sets too but I have yet to find any of those myself. The crafting is simple enough to understand once you find the area to do it, but complex enough so that you’ll need to go hunting for the materials you want. I have also noticed that you can pick up various weapons and shields - but then craft an upgraded or improved version The real thing that got me about this game was the level of detail in the level design.

You can find the boss really easily in the areas of the game I’ve played, but there is SO much more. Jumping puzzles and mysteries. I’ve found armor sets and unique weapons from my exploration. I’ve found items that can allow me to increase the difficulty, or even reduce it if I wanted to The area design is mind boggling.

The producers said that you could potentially finish the game in 20 hours if you bypass the exploration - but honestly I’ve spent more than that now on the first 4 areas of the game I’ve visited - and I STILL don’t feel like I’ve found everything there is to find.

Added to that is the real time element. At certain points in real time - the enemies will become more difficult to beat, or more numerous. There may also be special challenges to face at certain times of day - again these are optional but if you can beat them, there is always juicy reward waiting for you.

The boss fights are challenging as you might expect. I’ve beaten a few of them but none of them were easy. Having learnt the mechanics of those fights I feel like I’d have an easier time with them on a second playthrough, but it would still definitely be a challenge.

Strangely though I haven’t felt any major frustration with the boss fights. The mechanics seem fair if that makes sense. Any deaths I take are because of me, not because of some ridiculous reason or something that can’t be avoided. The audio is brilliant - atmospheric and perfectly in tune with the game.

You can hear things off in the distance at all times which keep you on edge - this is perfect for the feel of the game. At certain times you'll be able to see the space station you’re on, shake just a little - reminding you that you’re on a station orbiting a black hole - it's a subtle reminder that you’re far from safe at any time.

I do have some criticisms though. Graphics-wise, the game is not perfect. The in-game graphics are good. It doesn’t feel quite as polished as some other, more recent titles - but the graphics are good. The cut-scene graphics do look a little dated though.

The in game menus also look a little old-school, but this doesn’t feel out of place and may in fact be deliberate. There is no character design. The only personalisation you can do is to name your Spawn. There is no height, weight, facial features or anything like that.

That said, the character design is largely unimportant - you’ll be getting armor soon and there seems to be plenty of options and flexibility - the character WILL feel like your own after you’ve spent some time in game. Sometime during a fight, you will take damage and there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of feedback.

I noticed this can happen in boss fights - you'll get hit and you won’t realise because either the animation doesn’t tell you or there is no audio feedback for you taking a hit - I feel like this could be improved, but again, isn’t game breaking by any means.

The only other criticism I’d say is that on occasion, there is the odd frame-rate drop. Now bear in mind I’m using a beat-up old PS4, I don’t have a PS4 Pro, so I suspect the performance will be better for some of you. The frame rate drops don’t ruin the gameplay experience though - I feel that it's important I tell you they exist - but personally I would not let that put you off the game - it certainly hasn’t put me off.

I haven’t experienced co-op or PVP in the game yet, so I really can’t comment on those things. It’s possible there will be some day-one issues with servers etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some issues which need to be resolved - there often are when a game launches and people try to group up.

In terms of a score based on my own experience playing solo, I've given this an 8.6 based on the averages form a simple chart I made. I had to mark Hellpoint down in some places based on the criticisms - but while those things could be improved to give a slightly better experience, I would still say the game is worth some consideration.

The gameplay, the feel of the game, the atmosphere, the ingenious level design, the maddening secrets and originality of weapons and the real time element are all fantastic. The potential I can see for character builds once I’ve learned everything there is to know is enticing - I can’t wait until I’ve uncovered all the options and I can start to make some informed decision about builds.

Personally I’ve loved my time in the game and I will definitely be sinking a LOT of time into this one to uncover all the things I’ve missed - and that's before I move on to the next zone. My final thoughts are that if you enjoy Dark Souls. I genuinely think you’ll love this game despite the slight imperfections.

I have released a no-spoiler starter tips video already - I’ll link that at the end, and I’ll very soon be releasing some early game weapon videos to help you get off to a good start with your playthrough in the early game. Hope you found this useful.