Hellpoint

I'm right on the fence of whether to give this a positive or negative review. The game has a LOT of problems
- Simple and repetitive combat. There's a lack of enemy variety coupled with most weapons and guns feeling the same just with a different model or a different element
- Awful level design. Some maps can be really confusing to navigate through. Sohn District is the prime example of this. There's also bunch of platforming sections, some of them TERRIBLE beyond belief.
- Uneven difficulty. Most of the game is pretty easy, but then there are some enemies that can basically one shot you with a combo attack. A similar thing happens with bosses, most of them easy too, but then all of sudden you get a HUGE difficulty spike. The boss of Sohn District comes to mind. Think Ornstein and Smough in a smaller arena and in literally the second level of the game.
- Obfuscated design. The game is obsessed with making everything a mystery or secret. I know not explaining everything is kind of the deal with souls-likes, but if you don't have a guide you'll probably miss a good third of the content in the game. The eye codes and black hour doors are the worst offenders. You're telling me I have to input two codes (which are hidden in the game) then find the right door (I used a guide so i don't know if the game tells you which code goes for which door) and THEN wait until the clock hits the right time? (if you missed your chance be ready to wait around 2 hours for it to get in the right position again) All for fairly mediocre loot?
There are even more problems that I could mention, believe me. Like how the game can be a little buggy or how magic sucks or the loot you find is so underwhelming, or etc. And you would think that after all of that I would not recommend the game. And in spirit, I really don't lol. But I didn't put 60+ hours into the game for nothing, I can see the passion behind the team.
They really aimed high with this game, but sadly it seems they fell short. Looking them up it seems like they're working on shovelware games for GameMill, it's such a shame. I really hope the team gets another chance to work in another project someday. Because despite its flaws I can see what they were going for with Hellpoint, and they deserve to learn from their mistakes and have a second chance.

It's like a slower, tiny bit clunky, cosmic dark souls.

Absolutely love it.
Can really recommend.
If you've played every souls like under the sun and are looking for something new, this game is definitely gonna make you happy.

I'll give this game a thumbs-up for the sole reason that it fixed the equipment issues any of the mainstream soulslikes never seem to have acknowledged.
You don't upgrade weapons in this game, you upgrade chips that you can freely slot and move between pieces of equipment. Not only does that mean you can transfer upgrade levels freely, you can also apply a chip of any attribute scaling you want to a weapon of your choice, effectively making any weapon viable for any build if you like its moveset.
Weapon variety means nothing if 95% of them are unusable for a given playthrough, so this is a great way to fix that.

I tried playing Dark Souls 1 and 3, but they didn't make any sense, then I got this for free from GOG, and after the Celestial Beast boss it clicked in my brain and I beat it a few times. Then I bought it here on Steam and beat it a few more times. I played offline for a lot, so the playtime isn't accurate, I probably have at least double the amount shown.
Sure, it's not as polished as some other souls-likes, but the atmosphere and aesthetic is beautiful. Running around Irid Novo endlessly and getting lost in areas I've been in dozens of times was so much fun.
Because of this game I've played so many other souls-likes that it's probably an addiction.
In my opinion, this is definitely one of the better non-Fromsoft souls games, and everyone should play it.
*Note
I was visiting my brother for a few weeks and I convinced him to play. The couch co-op was so much fun. Being able to play through the whole game together in the same room is all I'm trying to do with games these days. If I could play any of the Souls games or Elden Ring with my brothers without having to re-summon after a boss or find the right place to set my sign or messing around with mods that may or may not work that would be magical.

Not a big soulslike fan. But this game is dope! Even playing it in multiplayer is awesome. Even though it makes the game significantly easier as teh support can die as often as they want and not have any drawbacks. Which is a cool feature if you want to play with someone not much into soulslike or playing their first soulslike. I played through this game like 5 times by now and I always discover something new. I like that it is open world in a way that you can travel from hub to hub back and forth. It a bit sad this game seems to be not as popular or even known. It truly is a work of passion and you feel it. Is it as obsuce as other souls likes? Yes. Do you understand the story after you played it 3 times? Probably. Which also is an interesting thing. The way you … “progress” in the story so to speak. Once you played the game you’ll understand.

Rating: 6/10
Platinum: Yes. DLC needed. Had to co-op with myself to get all coins due to a bug.
Would I play again? Unlikely
Likes: Interesting concept of a souls like with a spacefaring twist and a link to hell. The lore is brilliant, the environment is well crafted, and be sure to check what secret doors look like because there are a LOT of them in this game. Also like the idea of defeating enemies gradually filling your “healing flask.” I would like more people to play this game solely to get more theory’s on the lore, sadly YouTube was lacking in this department and I love investigating others thoughts and opinions on complex stories.
Dislikes: While I appreciated the combat, I didn’t really enjoy any weapons until I got a big, sparkly sword from the DLC. The weapon abilities were lacklustre and as a strength build I felt there were few choices to personalise my build or make it shine. During my second run I had a lot of stuttering, lag and a few crashes, so I wasn’t impressed by this. My biggest issue with this game was an NPC that was supposed to open a door for me was bugged on both my play throughs even after several reloads and attempts to fix it. This locked me out of an achievement to collect all coins but there was a way to play co op with yourself to get around it. I’d expect a 5 year old game to be more polished than this, but I’ll give them some slack due to it being created by only 11 people.

I wish there was a neutral rating, because that's where this game fits. I guess positive will have to do.

Hellpoint is conceptually very cool, sci-fi with obvious influences from Dark Souls and Hellraiser (though less so in that regard). Sadly, the lack of development time, funding, a really buggy launch, and overall sales seem to have hindered this title. I would say it's worth a buy on sale if you need to scratch a Souls itch and like the sci-fi genre as well.

PROS
+ Story is pretty alright
+ Intriguing lore that left me wanting to know more about the universe
+ Lots of weapons and armors to build around
+ Combat is challenging if you don't min/max
+ Graphics are still decent, and elevated with a ReShade preset on Nexus

CONS
- Still a lot of bugs and seems to have been abandoned
- Can crash sometimes, depending on hardware or odd circumstances in gameplay
- Lots of cut content that would have wrapped things up better story-wise
- Area layouts can be confusing, and downright nonsensical sometimes. Too. Many. Keycard. Doors.
- PVP Arena is absolutely dead because no one plays, you will never get that golden armor set now naturally