I’ve never hidden my general disdain for the rise of the “Souls-like” sub-genre and for me Hellpoint is a terrific illustration of the types of games that have taken on that moniker. It’s one of those experiences that somehow feels both familiar and weird in how it is set up. You can see the influences around in the designs of the stages but then it’s prone to veering wildly towards its own ideas and implementation in places, and unfortunately I’d consider few of those new directions to be a success. It’s upgrade and inventory system menus are odd and unnecessarily complicated since areas like the effects of updating some of your stats are completely unexplained. Unusual animations and game behaviors are also regularly on display and quickly undermine confidence in this being a fully tested and finished product at times. Throw in the fact that a game such as this tends to be very combat-centric and the clunky and generally loose feel of the fighting system ends up generally being the straw that broke the camel’s back. It obviously was made with some aspirations but feels like it has come up short.