There is a fascination in the titles we have grown up with that can hardly be overcome. Doom's weapons, Duke Nukem's jokes, Hexen's labyrinthine levels, are all surrounded by a subtle but omnipresent layer of nostalgia. Hellbound tries to evoke those sensations with which many players grew up, in a short but intense campaign signed by the Argentine studio Saibot Studios.
Clearly inspired (you saw the cover, right?) By the shooters of the 90s, Hellbound introduces us to the classic excuse to shoot here and there without worrying about collateral damage. The demons destroyed our home planet and attacked the Earth which, in response, resurrected us in order to face the invasion directly on enemy territory. Juggling seven levels, we will make our way through hordes of monsters in the best videogame tradition of "shoot no questions". Our protagonist, Hellgore, will not waste much time in comments or jokes, giving space exclusively to the action and naked and raw fights. A formula therefore well established since the birth of the first shooters and which, thirty years later, finds its following both in the triple A and in the indie scene.
A lot of smoke and ... little roast
Action is, therefore, the real star of Hellbound. As we progress through the campaign, we will encounter new enemies and gain additional weapons with which to face them. The variety, however, is not one of the strengths of the production: with five weapons and only four types of opponents (one of which is the final boss and another is the classic minion with variants based on the different weapons) we are in front of a gameplay rather repetitive and somewhat lackluster. Given the brevity of the title, this does not translate into such a serious defect, but it significantly dampens its longevity.. If we add to this that the maps have little (or no) interactivity and a fluctuating complexity, here is that the myth of past glories quickly deflates.
In fact, the arenas in which to face monsters do not always work at their best, actually creating (especially in the immense ones) scenarios that are visually inspired but too simple from the point of view of the challenge. An example is the final battle of the City of Fury map (and its arena version, Fury Road), set near a sandstorm: it is a flat, large and empty arena, in full Serious Sam style, but which translates from the point of view of playability in running in circles, with the enemies trying in vain to chase us while we eliminate them with tranquility. In other situations, however, the right mix of blind spots and strategic spawns creates lethal traps, which will test your reflexes and your alertness. Watch out for doors and crossroads!
Not really a challenge
Anyone who has cut their teeth on "old-fashioned" games knows how difficult they could be, either because of the absence of checkpoints or the balance between resources and enemies. A fight that started with maximum health and armor could quickly turn into a game over or leave you in poor condition to face the next monsters. The same type of balance can be found here: just take a fight lightly to be quickly surrounded or riddled, being very close to the game over. The action is frenetic and requires you to constantly move in order not to be surrounded or hit, finding yourself in the best structured maps having to manage many enemies on multiple fronts and / or on multiple levels. The problem, however, is that with such a low variety it becomes quite easy to understand its behavior (if we want to call it following the protagonist in a compact and orderly way) and predict it effectively. Once in possession of the fourth weapon, more or less halfway through the adventure, the difficulty level drops enormously and managing the increasingly numerous groups of demons becomes rather simple, thanks above all to a somewhat minimal and decidedly uninspired AI. Although, it must be said, once the game is finished, a new level of difficulty is unlocked with which it is possible to test yourself again.
One of the merits of Hellbound it is undoubtedly the soundtrack, which will accompany you at every turn. If you enjoyed the sound of the last two Dooms, you will also find bread for your teeth with the metal of the title of Saibot Studios. While remaining exclusively instrumental, it manages in fact to recreate the gore atmosphere of the battles and the frenetic pace of the game battles through their guitars, rigorously distorted, and a rhythm faithful to the genre of belonging. From this point of view, the objective is perfectly hit and helps to give the right atmosphere to both the exploration and combat phases.
A bug to get them and in compulsive bailout chaining them
We come to one of the most critical aspects of a game, those that in some cases they can turn a good experience into something frustrating, even to be avoided in some cases, while in others they only create grotesque and funny situations, which we laugh at and remedy with a load. Unfortunately Hellbound belongs more to the first category than to the second, given the appearance at more or less random moments throughout the campaign of a single extremely annoying bug: the inability to shoot. In a title where everything moves quickly and it is essential to have a high reactivity, it is embarrassing to die surrounded by enemies because your shotgun, charged and perky, does not want to shoot. To compensate for these sudden deaths, you find yourself compulsively saving the game, almost after every fight, in the event that you “miss” even in a trivial fight. Definitely not the kind of difficulty to look for, but one that becomes the main obstacle to solving the levels. Fortunately, the developers have already announced that they will be monitoring the game in the post-launch phase, so the arrival of patches is highly likely.
