Hellpoint Reviews
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
Hellpoint is another one of those games that wears its Dark Souls inspirations proudly but doesn’t understand what exactly makes Dark Souls so beloved. It struggles to forge an identity for itself, while also not doing any of the main Souls mechanics as well as other games. It does, however, have a certain rough charm hiding within its bleak sci-fi corridors and behind its many, many hidden doors. If you’re a glutton for smacking evil stuff around and getting lost then Hellpoint might be worth buying after a price drop.
On the surface, Hellpoint should have been a worthy contender. But too many technical issues suck any real enjoyment out of it.
Missed opportunities wrapped up in a vaguely scary hellraiser-esque skin. Avoid it, unless you like frustration.
While I admire the ambition of Cradle Games, with Hellpoint they've shot for the stars but well missed the mark.
Hellpoint is a reasonably decent sci-fi/Soulslike effort that sticks closely to FromSoftware's well-worn formula whilst introducing a few neat new tricks and twists of its own. The combat here is solid, the space station setting often spectacular and the narrative as enticingly cryptic as you'd expect from the genre. However, the whole thing suffers massively due to myriad technical issues on Switch. Constant crashes to the console's homescreen, a seriously flaky framerate, long loading times and a pretty huge graphical downgrade result in an experience that's infuriating for all the wrong reasons and one that it's almost impossible to recommend in its current form. Here's hoping Cradle Games has some big patches incoming.
When Dark Souls meets sci-fi, Hellpoint is born.
Hellpoint tries to incorporate familiar concepts you've seen from more popular action titles such as the Souls series. Unfortunately, it also adds various ideas that turn it into a jumbled mess. Combined with cryptic presentation of information, confusing level layouts, clunky combat, and abysmally bad platforming mechanics, it's one game that you'll say "Oh, hell no" to.
I've never hidden my general disdain for the rise of the "Souls-like" sub-genre and for me Hellpoint is a terrific illustration of the types of games that have taken on that moniker...
Hellpoint is a decent game with some issues of its own and if I had to give the game itself a score, it would be a 7.5 or so. Unfortunately, this port is rife with bugs and I can't really say I recommend it. If you're interested in playing this title, I'd say check it out on a different system. If you got to play on the Switch, wait for a bugfix. Or not and prepare for Hell.
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?
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.
Dark sci-fi Hellpoint sits smack-dab in the centre of soulslikes quality-wise. It's not terrible, but it's far from a good one too. Should you wait for a price drop, and a couple of fixes for its technical issues? Frankly, no. The strong atmosphere and cryptic plot have the capacity to provide the incentive to endure the many flaws and keep on playing, but aggravation and plain 'ol boredom will soon ruin everything. IF still willing to try it out, stay away from the Switch port, as it is the worse one yet.
Souls-like game without satisfaction, which can not resist and can not persuade players.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Another ineffectual attempt to transpose the Dark Souls gameplay and atmosphere into a sci-fi setting, although the split-screen mode is an interesting novelty.
All in all, Hellpoint is a mediocre action adventure that could have been a lot better if it hadn't tried to copy the Souls series this much.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Hellpoint might have been a decent Souls clone if it didn't suffer from so many technical problems. A few more months in the oven would have done it wonders, but it is an easy skip in its current state.
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 had the potential to be something more than it is. Every prerequisite for a good Dark Souls clone was there and the basic gameplay or combat system feels good enough. Alas, the game doesn't excel at anything and isn't capable to rise from the shadow of its stronger opponents.
Review in Czech | Read full review
Hellpoint is a mediocre game with an uninteresting world overshadowed by a slew of superior entries in the genre.