Hellpoint Reviews
The ‘Soulslike’ genre has taken off over the last few years. Ever since Dark Souls brought the notion of challenging and unforgiving gameplay to the masses, more and more titles are attempting to recreate the formula. Hellpoint is the latest to attempt to break into the Soulslike genre. Whilst it’s Xbox One, PC and PlayStation 4 release was in 2020 (check out our review of Hellpoint on the Xbox One), it’s only recently made it’s way to the Nintendo Switch. Developed by Cradle Games, Hellpoint takes the Soulslike genre into the dark depths of space, but can it hear us scream?
Hellpoint has interesting and original ideas while showing a decidedly (perhaps too much) strong inspiration to all its predecessors, but which, due to a too rough workmanship, is often not very pleasant to play. In this regard, in particular, I report the problem of totally wrong hitboxes which, added to the aforementioned absolutely not indifferent technical problems, often lead the player to frustration. The porting on the Switch could have been a way to remedy this, but the persistence of the problems is certainly not the best way to inaugurate it.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The game gets very difficult due to its technical problems and in terms of story, it does very little to impress the player.
Review in Greek | Read full review
While the low Budget is noticeable, the gameplay and art direction keeps you coming for more it even introduces new mechanics to souls like games. The procing for the experience could be bettter.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Hellpoint is far from a bad game. In fact, it more than holds its own in the genre and gripped me a lot better than Demon’s Souls (PS3) did when I started playing that. It does the important parts extremely well and despite not being as pretty or as popular as other games out there, it’s a really solid entry. The platforming required adds unnecessary difficulty but the combat, the co-op, story and bosses are all brilliantly implimented. The story is slowly drip-fed, making it not the easiest to follow, but there’s enough there for you to eventually make sense of it – more so than Bloodborne, in my experience anyway. The addition of the timed features in the game is an interesting addition to the genre and one that I think should be used more in the future.
Dark Souls has become such a popular and influential series in video games that it inspired its own genre aptly named “soulslike.” Nowadays, these types of games are a dime a dozen, and Hellpoint is the latest game to follow the trend. Developed by Cradle Games and published by the cult favorite tinyBuild, Hellpoint garnered a lot of anticipation from gamers, and the day of its release has finally come.
Hellpoint brings some new ideas to the souls-like genre but fall short of delivering. Add to that the fact that the experience is almost unplayable due to its technical problems, and you have a game that is hard to recommend.
Review in Greek | Read full review
Cradle Games’ attempt at keeping the Souls-like genre alive is a commendable, albeit flawed, one. Its intrinsic weapon system and atmospheric design indicate there is potential for Hellpoint to be a truly awesome carrier of the Souls-like torch, but ultimately falls flat in execution. Still, it’s a great way to scratch your Dark Souls itch, and for a really attractive price.
Hellpoint offers us a light and entertaining soulslike with a sci-fi theme and enemies everywhere. The handling of the character is quite pleasant and the different novelties that are included to give it a distinctive touch take effect. On the other hand, the set design and visual style are not up to par with what would be expected from a game of this type.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Hellpoint is a mediocre game with an uninteresting world overshadowed by a slew of superior entries in the genre.
Another Indie-title attempting to leave a mark in the souls-like genre. Hellpoint brings in some interesting ideas and at times offers stunning visual design. Imprecise gameplay and frustrating difficulty spikes however mean that this game is better left in space where nobody can hear the screams of frustration.
Review in German | Read full review
Hellpoint ends up being for Soulslike fans who are just dying for more experiences within the genre, but if that doesn’t describe you, then you’ll be disappointed. The sci-fi nature of the game and its story offering allows it to find its footing right before it ultimately falls apart from its uninspired gameplay. There’s a decent experience to be found during some late-game plot offerings, but that will require you to be invested past the first boss, which is asking a lot.
So overall, Hellpoint has some good ideas and it has a great framework in place. Unfortunately, even with the good ideas and the framework it feels a bit bland as even with the inclusion of being able to jump and it being part of the exploration, the areas held no mystery of threats of death by those that live within them like Bloodborne, Demons or Dark Souls or the The Surge. That said, the devs are still working on this and I’m hopeful that some of these issues get addressed and I would be glad to try it again down the line and also hope for a sequel or new project with the ideas that they’ve put in place here.
Hellpoint does some things right and some things wrong, but possibly its greatest sin is gloating over what it seeks to imitate, rather than aspiring to something else.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Hellpoint makes no bones about it, It’s a Dark Souls game through and through. It is also a very good Dark Souls type game with a really good setting and satisfying combat, it’s hard not to fall in love with it all.
Overall, I like how the character looks like the Hellraiser and the aesthetic changing when you change armor sets. I love the design locations that screams nightmare in space. I don’t appreciate the sound effects, in the long run, there is not much variety in them. It’s just pure ghoul-vomiting-sounds playing every time. Weapon variety and stat upgrades are okay even though the game doesn’t really tell you much which can be a pain in the ass, not just on the guides but the story as well. It just really fell flat where it should’ve shined brightly – combat mode. I wasn’t confident in its reaction time as it was tedious and frustrating.
While it doesn't match up with the best of the sub-genre, due to performance issues and generic designs, it provides enough exploration opportunities, deadly combat scenarios, and mysteries to satisfy hardcore fans.
Cosmic gods, interdimensional entities and space stations orbiting black holes. Sounds like my kinda sci-fi party, if I spent the night with a ‘kick me’ sign on my back as well.
As much as I enjoyed most of my time with Hellpoint — it’s a good Souls-like on the whole — the excitement of unfettered exploration alone can only sustain it for so long.
Hellpoint is not the best game of the souls-like genre, but it makes a fine job trying to accomplish that task.