Official Review Nintendo Switch Updated

Hellpoint (Nintendo Switch)
Official GBAtemp Review

Name: Hellpoint
Item: Hellpoint
Rating: 4.9
Author: MajinCubyan

Product Information:

Release Date (NA): February 25, 2021
Release Date (EU): February 25, 2021
Publisher: TinyBuild Games
Developer: Cradle Games
Genres: Action-RPG
Also For: Computer, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Game Features:

Single player

Local Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Co-operative

Spawn on a derelict space colony in Hellpoint for the Switch and learn the secrets of its past in this Souls-like Action-RPG.

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Hellpoint is an action-RPG developed by Cradle Games, published TinyBuild Games and was initially released on PC, Xbox and PS4 in July 2020. You assume the role of Spawn, a freshly created human, and are tasked with exploring the space colony, discovering the horrors that occurred. Is this port for the Switch on point or is it pure Hell? Let’s get this going.

Around the blackhole

Upon taking your first steps, a voice calls out to you, guiding you and requesting that you find your way to it. Investigating the surroundings and fighting your way past victims of a virus, you encounter a strange ethereal wall. Passing through, a battle ensues against something otherworldly and, upon victory, you come face to face with the voice and discover your creator; the colony's AI, known as The Author. The purpose of your existence is to explore the sprawling complex and discover the truth of what befell it. I personally really enjoy the premise of Hellpoint and as you progress through, you learn more of the history, the true nature of what had occurred there and the Arisen, the religious group/cult of the colony. The story blends sci-fi and horror, doing so in a way reminiscent of Dead Space or Doom. While it is generally presented through logs and notes hidden about, there are a few NPCs, some giving you optional side quests or a bit more lore.

Gameplay, for better or worse, is very Souls-like and has all the staples; dodging, main hand and off-hand attacks, limited healing and unforgiving damage. Instead of a bonfire to heal and level up, you have a breach, a spacial tear in space-time. They can be linked to one another and enable faster travel throughout the colony as well as adjusting game difficulty, should you have the necessary items. Instead of a misty barrier before a boss battle, it looks like energy. Death results in dropping all your Axions, primordial particles you receive from enemy deaths or just scattered about in the world. Movement feels a little clunky, especially out of combat, and the platforming aspects of the game suffer because of it, in particular jumping or running on small platforms. It’s a shame since the game world is quite large, with an emphasis on exploration and discovering secrets, so it's pretty easy to walk off a ledge. Even hours into the game, this was a constant issue and led to a lot of my deaths, though there are bigger issues here that we’ll get to shortly.

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Thankfully the combat as a whole is actually quite pleasant once you get a feel for it and the clunkiness. You have light attacks and heavy attacks with your main hand, while your off-hand is used for shields and range attacks. Actions such as jumping, dashing or attacking drain your stamina and range attacks draw from your energy. While your stamina refills over time, successful melee attacks restore energy and also restores charges for your healing injection. You can link different combos of heavy and light, dodging strikes and running leaps, depending on the weapon you use. The enemy AI is generally smart enough that you can’t just run around slashing without a strategy. They can get a little spammy at times and be baited quite easily, walking off an edge to their deaths. There’s a good variety of enemies and bosses, which were overall pretty challenging. Some later appeared as regular enemies later in the game as well. The black hole itself can cause a Horde during certain rotations. These appear like a boss, with a barrier surrounding all entrances to the area. Instead though, breaches will appear and enemies will spawn endlessly for a time. Victory usually reveals secret items and lore. The Horde was very challenging as if you didn't clear enemies out quickly, it was easy to get overtaken and surrounded by the near constant spawns.

Levelling up in Hellpoint should feel pretty familiar if you have played or just seen Dark Souls. Once you have enough Axions and are at a breach, you can spend them to increase one of the skills you have available to choose from, with the amount needed increasing with your level. Skills like strength and reflex relate to melee weapons and shields while cognition and foresight relate to guns and technology. The higher a stat is, the more damage or defense you gain as well as the proper use of stronger equipment. I say proper since if you don’t meet the requirements for use, you can still equip it but won’t gain the full benefits. For armors, it may be reduced resistance and damage reduction and weapons will not do as much damage. There is quite a bit of room for customization as far as how you play and approach combat, with additional skills being unlocked as you use weapons. These can be passive such as health increases or increased leech damage for melee weapons to changing ammo types, performing a rushing stab or extending the range of a longsword. These are limited to weapons and are active only if you have the weapon in your hand. I was not expecting so much depth in character and equipment options but it was very welcome, adding replay value as well as helping the game itself be an overall good experience.

Welcome to Hell

Hellpoint supports multiplayer online, where you can join or have another join you, albeit through the use of a matchmaking code, making it feel a little dated honestly. While it puts you in more control of who you play with, if you don’t know someone with the game, multiplayer is pretty much dead. A better way would be just to open a breach and randomly send someone. From there, you can tackle bosses and challenges together or just battle it out amongst yourselves. The Switch port, however, lacks the local multiplayer that other versions have, which is really a bummer. I was looking forward to cutting down a god with my girlfriend. Apart from that, you can leave and read handprints, acting as messages and hints, where you place icons and symbols. As you would expect, some are helpful such as showing a hidden door or danger, while other ones might be a trap or in a difficult to reach place, simply to troll you.

I had previously said that there were other issues to go over and now, here we are, with the beast that is this port. The smallest of them would have to be the load times, so let’s start there. They range from just a little long at a minute, more or less, to unforgiving at over three minutes. The game itself features some very large maps, so slightly longer load times are expected but it really struggles at times, to the point the game just outright crashes. Even loading the splash screens at the beginning can cause Hellpoint to just hang for minutes at a time.

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Hellpoint is set to 720p regardless of if it’s docked or not. I liked that, as it offered a pretty similar experience while I was playing. The frame rate was steady through most of the game but did have drops here and there, usually when there are multiple particle effects from breaches and some of the flashier attacks. This happened both ways but more often when I was playing handheld. The font is also incredibly small and difficult to read, I had to hold it right up to my face just to read in handheld. It’s not the greatest looking game at times, as some textures just look odd, but with that said most other parts of Hellpoint look good, with standouts being enemy and environment designs. From the Fire Daemons and Victims to Cosmic Gods, every enemy is designed well, matching the setting and story that unfolds.

The same applies to the various areas you explore, such as the Arisen Dominion, which serves as the heart of the orders operations. Large golden pyramids and halls populate their quarters. This is in stark contrast to the residential Sono District, which is littered with mounds of the dead and narrow passageways. It’s clear they put a lot of work in to give life to the otherwise lifeless colony. I had mentioned frame rate drops, which are a bit of an annoyance but there is a bigger graphical issue here and is much more random; partial or complete loss of rendering. This happened a number of times and generally at the worst moments. Sometimes it would just display the HUD with a single color and other times would be just nothingness. While I could simply wait it out while exploring, in a boss battle this is the worst thing that can happen.

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Well, I guess that’s the second worst thing that can happen as we now come to the biggest issue present in this port; crashes. As I said above, sometimes when the loading takes a long time, it will crash. Regrettably, it is not confined to just here. There are more crashes than there are secret locations in Hellpoint and while the occasional crash here and there is forgivable, the frequency at which they occur is just the opposite. An example would be during a boss battle with two Arisen. The battle was going well and I certainly had victory in my reach. I pulled the trigger on my offhand rifle to finish one off and the game hung for a moment and then that Switch error message. Annoying, for sure, but it got downright rage inducing after it happened in the same battle an additional three times. In fact I was trapped in a loop that would crash the game when I loaded my save, crashing throughout the day and I was preparing to have to start the game over. And just like that, it stopped. With all the crashes, finishing the game just feels more like a chore and a test of patience, upping the difficulty of play and not in a way the developers intended.

A Hellish Journey

The gameplay in Hellpoint is actually pretty decent and definitely hits that Souls-like nail on the head, with the enjoyable sci-fi/occult setting and story being a nice bonus. There is a lot to find and explore here, taking me roughly 20 or so hours to finish. While the game itself is not perfect, this port is plagued with some large issues. Load times are frustrating but the graphical issues and frequent crashes pulls Hellpoint down stronger than a black hole.

Verdict

What We Liked ...

Interesting story
Decent combat
Enemy and map design
Character customization

What We Didn't Like ...

Crashes and graphical issues
Clunky movement
Font is hard to read

Gameplay

It’s clunky and the platforming is a little rough, but combat is pretty decent and there is a lot to explore in Hellpoint. Character options are plentiful as well but sadly it suffers from frequent crashes and makes things far less enjoyable than it could be.

Presentation

For an indie, it looks good and the story is well written. Hellpoint blends scifi and the occult successfully in all aspects, with enemy design really one of my favorites. It’s not perfect, with loss of rendering and drops in framerate often.

Lasting Appeal

Given the amount of customization as far as stats, skills and equipment, there are multiple ways to go back and play Hellpoint differently. But, given the state of the port, completing it just once is such a task and really makes it hard to want to pick up again.

4.9

out of 10

Overall

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.

Reactions: Deamonia, Mama Looigi, Chary and 3 others

Xzi
Mar 21, 2021

Lol they tried to port this to Switch, did they? Not too surprised the results came out mixed. Game is decent overall, level design is better than Mortal Shell, but still not truly good. It's also a couple notches easier than any of the Soulsborne games.

Reactions: MajinCubyan and Seliph

Reploid
Mar 22, 2021

Kinda reminds me of Rengoku games on PSP. Were mediocre as well

Reactions: MajinCubyan

Reploid said:
Kinda reminds me of Rengoku games on PSP. Were mediocre as well

Oh yeah, I forgot about Rengoku. Def gives those vibes. I enjoyed it but I was also wishing for a bit more. Loved the idea but execution left a lot to be desired. Though I never played the second one soooooo

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Product Information:

Game Features:

Around the blackhole

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A Hellish Journey

Verdict

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