Hellpoint (Nintendo Switch) Review

Have you played Dark Souls, or any of its many "clones?" Then you've played Hellpoint. Fast and slow attacks, dodge rolls and blocks, a stamina gauge, and a "bonfire" of its own, which acts as the respawining spot, as well as the quick travel marker. 'Axioms' are gathered by killing foes, and these Axioms can be spent to increase a couple of basic stats, but they can also get lost the moment you die. Oh, yeah, this is tough, although not as much as its more popular brethren, or for the same reasons, to be honest, as the level design itself, as well as the gameplay mechanics, end up being more challenging than the monsters roaming around this derelict space station; a derelict space station that orbits a black hole, by the way.

Hellpoint has plenty of issues, technical and otherwise. This critic waited and waited, because he wanted to give this a change, but sadly most of the flaws haven't been ironed out. Frequent frame-rate dips, especially in visually intensive scenes; AI that occasionally goes bonkers, running around in circles and killing immersion; a camera that frequently does whatever it wants to do; connectivity issues for those who want to play this along with a friend or invade a stranger's game; lots of graphical glitches, like disappearing… err, everything; and, finally, some of the longest loading waiting times ever recorded on a soulslike.

For the sake of the argument, imagine that there's a patch available that fixes all that. Problems solved? Sadly, no. The biggest issue here is the clunky controls during combat, plus how weird hitboxes can be, with the main character having to many times get very close to manage a hit. The platforming sessions are even worse, though. Okay, so Dark Souls was bad at jumping too, but at least it didn't require as much jumping as this one. It's hard to describe it on text, but the controls are untrustworthy, leading to lots of "hops" instead of long leaps, or moments where sprinting suddenly stops for no reason, leading to another plunge into the concrete underneath.

Is it all bad? No, this is actually far from the worse soulslike out there. In fact, all that negativity comes from how badly yours truly wanted to like this. A Dark Souls taking place in an Event Horizon, meets Hellriser, meets Dead Space kind of setting, with a demonic creatures invading a pitch-black dark space station? Awesome! Sadly, while the core premise, the bleak atmosphere, and the cryptic plot will make most want to spend the many hours needed to reach the end, few will find this enjoyable enough to keep on exploring this mazey world. It is extra pricey too! After all this time and no significant fixes whatsoever, it still has the same price as a Dark Souls title - two for those who have Steam and can wait for the right time to make a purchase.

This is a case of a game that isn't really terrible at anything - just a little bit bad here, and a little bit bad there. Small things that combine into a somewhat irritating, or at least, boring experience. The lock-on system? Untrustworthy. The level design? Unexciting. The class system? Unbalanced. The loot? Nothing special about it. The pacing? Very slow, rarely providing something that will give you the incentive to explore around, whereas Dark Souls was full of alternative paths, items, secrets, and plenty of great battles, even with simple enemies - which leads to the final issue with Hellpoint: it's not really a very demanding soulslike.

No, that's not bragging, and in no way does this article claim that this is a walk in the park. It can be very tough, but only in specific spots, like some of the bosses, or when confronted by some of the higher-tier mobs. Most of the time, though, you are fighting simple zombies that go down in two blows, ruining the, almost horror-like vibe this initially has. Now, there are many little things that haven't been mentioned, like the healing item that replenishes through combat, the "clock" system that adds a nice surprise every now and then, and many more. Why? Because there's no need to. Hellpoint just isn't a big recommendation. Just wait for Elden Ring… and pray it will be available on Switch.