Welcome to Hell. Sorta. You are a spawn. A spawn of what is left to be discovered but nonetheless, you are thrown into a strange world with little knowledge of what is transpiring around you. Once you awaken from your pod, you are thrust into a beautifully desolate world and things only get worse from there.
If you’ve ever played a Souls-Type game before, the mechanics of the gameplay will be extremely familiar. Even if you aren’t familiar, the controls are very easy to pick up and get right into the action. The graphics are about what you’d expect from a game of this caliber and that isn’t a bad thing at all. I personally found the destitute and strange world inviting and horrifying at the same time.
The world has a very unique feel. It felt a bit like Doom (2016) in terms of scale and futuristic environments filled with demons or demon-like creatures. The combat is another thing that feels very similar but, again, that definitely isn’t a bad thing. The movements, combat, graphics all feel and look very smooth. It simply works well and follows a formula that clearly is not broken.
Starting off, you are equipped with a pipe. A pipe/axe is probably more accurate. A simple, yet effective weapon against the other spawn like creatures you are first pitted against. Once you get into the swing of things, you traverse along rather quickly. There is plenty to explore off of the beaten path in order to find hidden items and such.
Let’s talk Axions. Axions are the experience items you obtain from killing enemies and/or finding cube like objects scattered around the world that can sometimes contain axions in various amounts. You use Axions in order to strengthen and level up your character or add conduits to your weapons to increase their abilities. When you die, your character drops the Axions at the point of death. You are free to pick them back up if you make it to that same area but use caution. Whatever killed you initially might still be lurking.
Enemy design and AI works well in consistently keeping you on your toes. As most games, enemies have patterns they follow and learning those patterns doesn’t take long but they can still surprise you with a well placed hit that drains your health drastically. Mini bosses and regular bosses definitely pose the biggest challenges as they are more likely to switch things up on you. When that happens, one wrong move can quickly send you back to the last breach you encountered and forcing you to face all the enemies between that breach and your death once again.
All in all, the game is challenging, beautiful, horrifying, exciting, and exhilarating in all the ways players want from a game of this genre. Once again, everything just works. Down to the mechanics of the game, up to the satisfaction you get from finally getting past that one enemy or boss that has killed you multiple times before. This is the most frustrating but fun time I’ve had playing a game in a while and I can’t wait to keep coming back for more.
4.5 out of 5
