Hellpoint is certainly cut from the all-too-familiar Souls cloth when it comes to character progression and combat, but it's the sense of exploration that makes this one Soulslike that shouldn't be missed.

There were many times in my playthrough of Hellpoint where I had the same delicious salad of feelings that I get with Dark Souls — frustration at my own carelessness, need to try again or satisfaction at besting a challenging encounter — but these highs were balanced by some disappointments with the design that seemed to intentionally frustrate. Even more than Nioh, The Surge, or Remnant, Hellpoint goes all in with the Dark Souls model. When it’s good, it’s great; when it’s not, it just reminds you why Dark Souls is and will be a classic.

With the hope that the development team will be able to intervene with post-launch corrective patches, Hellpoint is undoubtedly a dignified soulslike, unfortunately unable to fully express its potential.

The truth of Hellpoint is that even with all the jank and annoyance, it’s working with a well-known and beloved formula in an interesting setting, with enough tweaks to feel like its own thing. All of the satisfaction from near-deaths against big bosses and slow mastery of enemies and mechanics is here, it’s just dressed differently. The technical issues and world progression hold Hellpoint back, but for fans of the Soulsborne or sci-fi horror genre it’s worth checking out.

It’s great to see new takes on the Souls formula, but they need to have something special if they want to find their place in a market that’s becoming more and more saturated. Hellpoint has a solid foundation and good ideas, but that’s about it.

Hellpoint might have been a decent Souls clone if it didn’t suffer from so many technical problems. A few more months in the oven would have done it wonders, but it is an easy skip in its current state.

Hellpoint does have its moments where a few fist pumps will be elicited after killing some of the bosses. The moments in between, however, were crushing. Sections that needed repeating without knowing where to go, what to do, or even why hurt Hellpoint's gameplay a lot. It was a confusing, frustrating experience, but Dark Souls players might feel its right up their alley and get a ton of enjoyment out of the title, and that really does seem to be the target audience for Hellpoint.