Game review: Hellpoint

When developer From Software made Demon's Souls back in 2009 for the PS3, the game pretty much spawned a new video game genre. Fans have dubbed it the "Soulsborne" genre and many games like Demon's Souls have been released over the years and they've tested gamers to their limits.

I have to be very honest with you and say that I'm not very good at the likes of Dark Soulsand Bloodborne video games in general. Even though I have played both games, I didn't manage to finish them because of their steep learning curves.

The only "Soulsborne" style games I have been good at include the likes of Sekiro and the two Nioh games. That being said, I feel those games are a little bit different because they use both samurai and ninja skills.

Anyway, I had the chance to review another game of this genre called Hellpoint. From what I have played from the game, it pretty much borrows a lot of elements from the Dark Souls genre of games. Unlike Nioh or Sekiro, I don't think Hellpoint manages to carve an identity of its own to really stand out from the rest.

It's hard to really pinpoint what this game is about because Hellpointdoes not give any obvious clues to the player. All I got from the game is that you play as a human-like creature that is stuck on an evil space station called the 'Irid Novo'.

Since the player is stuck on this space station, you're forced to fight for your life because there are many evil beings out there trying to kill you. As you play the game, you will find more clues to what happens, although everything in this game is very vague that you will have to make your own interpretation.

While Hellpoint might lack in a cohesive storyline, it doesn't lack in general combat which is the majority of what you will be doing. Much like Dark Souls games, you start off finding a weapon to wield and more armour and weapons become available to you when you progress and kill more enemies.

What I do admire in Hellpoint is that I didn't notice that the game had any weapon degradation like in Breath of the Wild. This means you can use weapons as long as you want without it breaking or losing its strength.

You will, however, want to find newer weapons the further you progress because the many enemies that you face will get tougher and tougher. What I don't like about the game though is that you cannot pick up weapons from any fallen bad guy you see like in the Halo video games.

The only way you can get more weapons and armour is if you beat the right type of enemy. The longer you play the game, the more weapons you'll be able to wield. While you only start off with a basic sword and shield, you'll eventually gain access to cooler weapons as well as ranged weapons as well.

Aside from weapons, shields and armour, another important factor of the game is Axions. Axions are needed for you to upgrade your character's stats at certain save points. You need to kill as many enemies as you can as Axions are the only thing you need in order to level up and make your character stronger.

If you die at a certain point, all of your Axions will be gone. In order to retrieve them back, you need to go back to the exact location of your last death. If you die before you get there on time, you will lose all of the Axions you earned and will have to start back from zero!

If you're not good at Dark Souls, I suggest you should avoid playing Hellpoint. This is because EVERY enemy in the game has a chance to kill you if you're careless. I found this game to be much harder to play compared to the recently released Ghost of Tsushima on PS4.

Aside from standard enemies, there are also tons of bosses for you to face. Bosses vary in difficulty and can give you a tough time if you don't study their attack patterns. I suggest you also level up and spend your Axion points because you cannot defeat enemies with minuscule stats.

Graphically, there's nothing to really be impressed with the visuals in Hellpoint. I played this game on the Xbox One X, and even in 4K the graphics still looked pretty average to me. A part of the problem is the game's setting as it mostly set in dark and boring looking locations.

Another thing I didn't like about the game is that there is no map to navigate you through the areas. You pretty much have to explore on your own and hope for the best that you are actually going in the right direction.

Hellpoint is also a game that doesn't really bring any new ideas to the table. It's pretty much just a Dark Souls clone, but this time it's set up in space. Fans of Dark Souls games might still like this game, but others may also feel it's too unoriginal to stand out on its own.

Anyway, I found Hellpoint to be an average game overall. "Soulsborne" fans may find some enjoyment in the game, but the game fails to add its own ideas to the genre. If you want an action game, it's probably best to stick with the much superior Ghosts of Tsushima instead.

Verdict: 6.5/10