Next up in my continuing spree of roguelikes comes Hell Clock by Rogue Snail (Relic Hunters Legend). Collect relics, gear, and further your descension with customizable builds in this new hack and slash style roguelite ARPG. With publishing by Mad Mushroom (Conquest Dark), the game releases on Steam this Tuesday, July 22nd.
Don’t Lock Into a Build in Hell Clock
Yes, I know. I should give the roguelites a rest. But hear me out! They always look so quick and fun to pick up! I also seem to enjoy finding the interesting ways that they can differ from one another. Hell Clock is no different and I hope you’ll take the time to see why you should also check out this new roguelite ARPG below!
Gameplay
Hell Clock is a roguelite, hack and slash ARPG that is set in the aftermath of the Canudos War in Brazil. On a quest to free a mentor’s lost soul, fight through floors of undead as you descend. Each death brings with it the benefit of experience, relics, soul shards and loot. Advance and select which skills and perks suit you best to continue your fight.
One of the first things you’ll find different about Hell Clock is abilities. Unlike several of the others I have reviewed recently, in Hell Clock your abilities are chosen only between runs rather than getting different abilities or skills as either a treasure, level up reward during the run or class/weapon ability. Instead, those abilities gain enhancements through blessings of various rarities and types. I enjoy this aspect of the game most because it reduces the stress of hoping luck is on your side to get the base of your build just right. Nothing is worse than failing at a run due to missing that one single skill…
In addition to build flexibility, Hell Clock also provides several layers of difficulty to choose your personal level of stress. Start out in softcore with the clock disabled and the ability to freely pause. Or for the toughest challenge turn the rougelite into a roguelike by switching to hardcore – back to square one each time! Additionally, the game features endgame gameplay that is just in early stages of implementation called Ascensions. These will basically play out similar to how seasons of other ARPG games start you out from scratch with a specific set of challenges to work toward.
A Note on Progression
Another important aspect of Hell Clock I should mention here is how progression as you descend through the floors is noticeably different than in other roguelites. In most of the other roguelites I play progression is mostly one direction and the game difficulty is set up to match that. Basically you start off weak and as time goes on and you advance through levels, your power and difficulty grow at a similar rate. Eventually one outmatches the other and game is over, either as a win or loss. But the press build I was playing seemed more like a roller coaster than a straight path of progression in difficulty. I later went to look through some info on the game and found a Steam post from back in April by one of the game designers explaining their take on progression.
Basically their view on progression for Hell Clock boils down to difficulty means nothing, but rollercoasters mean everything. Rather than having the player stuck in a rut feeling weak or constantly bored from rolling over everything, the game pushes the player back and forth between the opposite ends of the spectrum. For me as a player, this became apparent when I found myself consistently feeling like I was getting stuck at the same point, just after the Merchant (second) boss. Deciding that I had made some poor choices on how I spent points in my Bell tree, I was able to revise them in order to improve what I needed to overcome the point I had stalled out at. Now I’ll be having to do something similar again soon since I’m once again climbing that hill!
Graphics & Audio
I have been playing Hell Clock on both my desktop and my Steam Deck. The game runs incredibly well on both without any adjustments. On the desktop this means a default scale down of resolution by 80% from 4k. Honestly I didn’t even look at what the resolution and scaling is on the Steam Deck but I just know it still looks pretty and smoothly. The drawn art style, similar to that of Hades or Curse of the Dead Gods, is quite eye-catching and brings out a certain amount of depth in the environments.
The music in Hell Clock is absolutely beautiful as well. Rather than being a constantly driving pseudo-electric soundtrack, there is a brightness to it. String instruments playing throughout. It also feels very fitting for the environment and setting of the game. The only thing that was odd to me was not expecting a non-English voiceover. I didn’t mind it after the initial abruptness; it just caught me off guard. On release of the game it will feature full English voiceover though for those like me that have a hard time listening, playing, and reading text all at the same time.
Longevity
Hell Clock likely has a quality lifespan to it for at least the first year or so. It appears there will be plenty of content at launch and the addition of Ascensions at a later date that will be free to owners of the base game coinciding with the release of the game’s first expansion. I’m sure there’s enough potential in the base game alone though for the determined gamer to find their favourite builds and pathways of progression.
Final Thoughts
In summary, Hell Clock is simply a great game. It has all the mechanics that make a roguelite great – beneficial progression between runs, variety of skills and RNG elements. Then it layers in ARPG elements and skill trees for extra touch. It also provides the player with plenty of options for how laid back or difficult they want to play through the game.
With these in mind and for a game that also looks this good, I could give it nothing less than the Thumb Culture Platinum Thumb Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
If you enjoy this review, be sure to check out my other reviews here.
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