[Review] To Hell with Hell

[[MC]Ronin[MC]]

To Hell with Hell

Premiere Date: July 19, 2018
Developer: Lazurite Games
Platform: Microsoft Windows
Publishers: Deck13, WhisperGames

 

 

DESCRIPTION OF ADULT CONTENT
The developers describe the content as follows:

This game may include content that is not appropriate for all ages or may be inappropriate for job browsing: Frequent violence or bloodshed, General adult content

 

 

Apocalypse has arrived. And you are going to hell. Not because Natasia has been a bad girl, which she has been for sure. But because Asmodius, ruler of hell himself is calling. And he needs your help, as he got locked away by his enemies. There’s only one credo now: To hell with hell and the gruesome creatures it spit out! To Hell with Hell throws you, the last loyal child of Asmodius into a fight you can hardly win. In a classic Bullet Hell rogue-like crawler with unicorns and bananas you’ll survive deadly traps and fight dozens and dozens of mad demonic enemies.

It’s Showtime: Are you going to despair, because you are just a mortal weakling, a common human being? Well, that ain’t a Problem! Take a mask and become whomever you want to be. You can transform into a Knight, a Demon or even a Clown - the choice shall be yours. In “To Hell with Hell” masks define your skills and you can combine them as you want.

Chose. Your. Weapon: To shovel or to mortar, that's the question here. End the lives of your enemies your way. Take your Sword or your Pumpgun - it is up to you. How will you defeat the demonic mobs? Slice them, blast them - make it their worst day in hell!

Hell is not the end of the road: Wait until hell has frozen over? That’s indeed a possibility here, cause there are more places than the heated home of the demons. And once you’ve reached the frosty caves, your journey will be far from over!

 

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows 7
Processor: Intel i3 Processor or higher
Memory: 2 GB memory
Graphics Card: GTX 760 or higher
DirectX: Version 10
Storage space: 2000 MB available space
RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 10
Processor: Intel i5 Processor or higher
Memory: 4 GB memory
Graphics Card: GTX 760 or higher
DirectX: Version 10
Storage space: 2000 MB available space

 

 

Hell has been portrayed in countless ways throughout history from the lofty classic like The Divine Comedy, to slightly grubbier and comedic takes like in the Disgaea games. To Hell With Hell certainly fits more into the latter's take rather than a dark place full of fitting punishments.

Here you play a character tasked with helping the overthrown lord of hell get back on its feet. Your only instructions are to kill all of the demons, then jump through any portal that appears as a result of this. Nice and simple.

In order to accomplish this you have various types of tools at your disposal which serve different roles. Weapons are the more classic grouping and have an entertaining range of styles. You can pick up pistols and shotguns of course, but you can also find police batons and broadswords. Melee weapons make you more vulnerable but also allow you to deflect certain attacks which can make them invaluable if you learn how to use them. The more ranged weapons have different strengths and weaknesses, but all have the advantage of helping you keep away from the denizens of hell that don't want you to succeed.

The other group, and frankly the more interesting one are the masks that you find. When you start off you can have two equipped at one time and you can switch between them. Each mask grants its own special abilities and properties. Some even completely change your attacks, whether by adding an element to all of your attacks, or just by changing your weapon entirely. Each mask also has a health pool, if the mask runs out of health it gets destroyed and you will be worse off as a result. It is an interesting idea that helps To Hell With Hell standout from the other twin stick roguelikes that are around these days.

There are multiple difficulties which are unlocked as you succeed and allow you to increase the game's challenge providing you have earned it. The easiest difficulty allows you to save six times during a run which helps more than can be imagined, it is another great idea that will make the game more accessible to anyone new to the genre or just anyone who doesn't want the frustration of losing everything.

This is less a mask and more of a riot helmet

 

To Hell With Hell has some genuinely interesting features and ideas that help to make this more than just another roguelike. The gameplay feels good but is also incredibly punishing which will put some people off, of course this is true of any game in the genre but it is certainly worth mentioning just in case. The story is pretty cliche and the main character is just a bit drab really, it feels as though more could have been done there. Ultimately. that doesn't really impact the way the game plays but it still would have been nice to see some more innovation here as well. Overall it is a solid twin stick roguelike that certainly takes inspiration from some of the greats in the indie pantheon and tweaks some of the ideas to make it feel new.