I've put seven hours into this game over the past three days and I wanted to put down my tentative thoughts on the game. I'll change this as I play more.

Okay, I hesitated for a long time on this game. I was fairly intrigued by the Kickstarter. A game promising a soulslike experience with influences from Event Horizon, Lovecraft, and Giger sounded right up my alley. However, I've been burned before on that platform. I backed Stonehearth and Chasm, two mistakes that still haunt me to this day. So I didn't back it. What's more, the reviews on Steam didn't seem promising. The good reviews seemed lukewarm and the negative reviews looked downright damning.

I can now say that I regret not backing it or buying it sooner. This game succeeds because of two elements: level design and world-building. I almost wanted to say that, in this game, they're one and the same. You see, the abandoned world of Irid Novo feels like a breathing corpse. The sounds, environments, and characters paint a picture that, true to the Souls formula, could not be told otherwise. The level design allows the world to be an interconnected maze that genuinely feels like a monumental space station.

And speaking of mazes, there are secrets galore thus far. In just seven hours I've stumbled across at least four secret doors. A quick google search showed me that I have missed a fair amount already, so I'm excited to retread or replay in the future. This brings me to my final point for now.

The comparison to Dark Souls will be inescapable. I'm a fan of the genre. Hell, Bloodborne is my favorite game of all time. I firmly believe From Software pushed game design into a different direction for the foreseeable future with their work. In the case of Hellpoint, the comparison to Soulsborne is fair and accurate, but there's a nagging thought I keep having. When Miyazaki made Demon Souls and Dark Souls, he achieved the, up to that point, impossible: he and his team made some good 3D Metroidvanias. And that's why Hellpoint works for me so far. This game reminds me of a Metroidvania in the best way possible. There's a breathtaking world to explore and unravel at your own pace.

Wanna grind into until your character is as powerful and destructive as a black hole? Why not! Wanna poke around in everyone corner? ♥♥♥♥ it, you do you! Wanna speed run the game as fast as humanly possible? Go to town!

So to wrap things up, I have to mention where I started this review-in-progress. This game isn't for everyone and that's totally fine. However, if you want to explore a mysterious haunted space station, take the leap. I didn't regret it and I hope you don't either.

PS: Hellpoint and Sekiro have officially convinced me that more Soulslike games need a dedicated jump button. It allows for whackier combat and better exploration, end of story.

*Edited for typos*