Hellpoint

this is a great game it is a little janky but honestly the jank added to the experience also if you want free items at the start of the game go to the console outside of the start room (it will have a small pile of bones at it's base) and enter the code 100408 and after that enter the code 642017 this will give you great starting gear with relatively low stat requirements I definitely think you should play with a friend.

I originally got this game as a giveaway on GOG. I played through most of it alone or with random online players, trying to convince my friends to join me. Eventually I did convince a friend to join me, but he got the game on Steam, so I also purchased the game on Steam to facilitate playing together.
The fact that I paid money for the game after I got it for free should say enough that I really enjoyed it. But my playtime is another testament to how much I enjoyed this game. Consider also that my actual playtime is even higher if you count the time I spent playing it on GOG. I really enjoy this game!
Yes, there are bugs and glitches and jank. If you can get past those, I think there's a lot to enjoy. And if you can play it co-op, you can play through basically the entire game together, unlike Dark Souls which kicks your co-op partner out every time you defeat a boss, or doesn't allow you to summon co-op partners until certain conditions are met.
I enjoyed the game, and its atmosphere. I also liked thinking about and discovering the fate of Irid Novo, and what the player's role is in all of it.
Admittedly the game isn't for everyone. And there were plenty of times where the jank and glitches became pretty frustrating. And the fully powered up final bosses of the DLC and the main game were not enjoyable experiences overall. (But honestly I don't play Souls-like games for the boss fights. I play them for the exploration and discovery.) Despite all the frustrations and glitches, I played through the game basically 4 or 5 times and all the way to the end I kept discovering new items, secret areas, or new pathways that I didn't know about before.
I really enjoyed it and I'm glad this game exists. I think it's worth checking out if you go into it with proper expectations.

Probably my favorite Soulslike not made by FromSoftware or Team Ninja.
It gets the dungeon crawling aspects of Soulslikes right and does it better than most other games. The architecture and areas are large enough to give hints of a truly massive world, even when those areas are fairly small.
The game even does the FromSoftware vista concept right, at least once. The long elevator down from the Observatory to Arcology is excellent and makes the game seem much larger than it is.
Shortcuts are also done well. The whole side quest following the architect takes quite a while through a series of maintenance tunnels. You feel like you've gone very far away from where you started, only to open a door and find yourself right back in a very familiar location. Very rewarding.
The combat and bosses are the weakest aspect of the game, likely due to the modest budget. No enemy or boss is that dangerous, and the challenge comes from survival and navigation to the next checkpoint, more similar to DS1/DS2 than DS3.
It's only in recent years that "Soulslike" turned into "Sekiro-like" with an expectation of fast-paced combat, combined with more linear levels like DS3. This game fits more with the earlier Soulslikes that were an expansion of the King's Field series of dungeon crawlers with combat that could generously be described as "functional," despite being deliberate, methodical, and strategic in their own way.
Progression is also rewarding, as gaining a few extra levels in the early and mid game don't take too long and are rewarding.
Upgrading weapons is excellent. Instead of upgrading a weapon itself, you upgrade a component that can be transferred to different weapons. This allows you to experiment with different weapons and combat styles, and avoid the Soulslike industry problem of discovering +0 weapons at a time you have a +10 weapon equipped.
The DLC is also worthwhile and adds more areas and connections. The bosses might be a little better in the DLC, but no boss in the game takes hours to kill.
Conclusion
This is an indie Soulslike, so it has some problems, as they all do.
However, this one excels in its limited scope, and its irritations are minor due to combat being balanced to the easier side.
It is well worth playing and I found it more fun than newer Soulslikes that simply poorly combine DS3 linear levels with Sekiro-style parries.
I prefer this approach of the more methodical combat combined with more methodical dungeon crawling.
Similar To
Codex Lost, released in 2024, reminded me of Hellpoint. Both focus on exploration and can have somewhat easy bosses compared to the challenges of traversal through hostile environments and navigation of the interconnected game world.
Both have their imperfections, but are more than the sum of their parts, especially for smaller projects.

souls fans are in for a treat. casual gamer....not so much. Tell you what though, i had an absolute blast roaming around that space station. Great souls combat, great souls lore....just a love letter to fromsoft really. Can't recommend it enough to souls fans.

Pretty interesting souls-like with unique mechanics story and gameplay, but i can see it not being everyones cup of tea. Feel its more for people that already like Souls-like. A controller is strongly recommended to play Hellpoint.

Dark Souls in Space!

Hellpoint is an actual proper Soulslike game in a sci-fi horror setting sporting solid gameplay, gorgeous aesthetics, and some absolutely fascinating lore. The only real drawback - and it is a big one - is the abundance of bugs and glitches. The game is very buggy, from enemy AI that simply stops working, to bosses clipping through the arena boundaries and falling to their deaths, to save files becoming corrupted beyond repair (although this one seems to have been fixed?). There are also some awkward design choices present in the game, such as the Shield Bash ability where you have to sprint towards enemies with your shield raised to break their guard AND it doesn't work most of the time (bug I assume...). Also you can't adjust the graphical settings in-game - not sure if you can do it in steam launcher. To top it off, the developers have not updated the game since August of 2022 so it doesn't look like the remaining bugs in the game are going to be fixed anytime soon if ever. Nevertheless! I quickly found myself hooked and having more fun than what I wanted to admit, and it would be disingenuous to say that I don't recommend it.

8/10

This game came out around the same time as immortal unchained which I bounced off once they introduced teleporting enemies. I'm pretty mad at myself for sleeping on Hellpoint back then just because of the similar aesthetic. Would've been a great a great way to scratch the itch during the great soulslike drought in the years leading up to Elden Ring. Heres hoping they release a sequel even if its just a modest iteration