Hell Is Other Demons Review

Hell is Other Demons on Steam

A Demonic Thrillride-A Hell Is Other Demons Review

Other than a completely ridiculous title, Hell Is Other Demons brought a lot of interesting ideas to the table in making yet another meticulously crafted, pixel art, indie game. I've played so many games of this ilk that steam now feeds them to me with everlasting palette of roguelikes, so I was extremely surprised to see that this game has an actual CAMPAIGN. It's quite interesting to see that as the sphere of gaming has shifted and developers have changed their preferences accordingly, that some devs still run the "risk" of not making some procedurally generated bollocks to pad out their primary gameplay loop to death. 

Hell Is Other Demons (I'm calling it HIOD from now on because im tired of a game title also being its own independent clause) is a platform based, wave based combat shooter in which you annihilate all the baddies hell has to offer. It is masterfully drawn, featuring deeply detailed pixel art contrasted with a simple two-color contrasting art style in similar vein to stylized games like Downwell. Because of this drastic color scheme, HIOD features a myriad of unlockable color schemes that add their own little extra flair to the gameplay. Not to mention a killer synthwave soundtrack that features plenty of variety to add to the main story mode. 


The main story mode is quite short, taking anywhere from 3-6 hours to complete, but the ability to replay any level and go for optional goals like not taking damage, using weapons, or unleashing ultimate moves did add for a bit of replayability. The game's 5 main bosses were all brilliantly unique, forcing players to adapt to their room layouts and strike back accordingly. Each world of the main story held its own gimmicks and enemy types, but none were that particularly different. With that said, enemy types transcend worlds later on, and it lead to me wanting to fight a more diverse set of demons as it went on. 

In addition its story mode, HIOD features a fun little score attack arcade mode as well as a much less fleshed out lava jump mode. The arcade mode feels like what this game started out as, and it is almost telling of the entire industry that this could've been its own standalone roguelike game. Thankfully for HIOD, this small side mode remains just that-a side mode-and doesn't overstay its welcome. 



The same cannot be said for the aforementioned lava jump mode, which just comes off as a lazy side edition to a really solid game. For a game which is wholeheartedly focused on combat, it is strange that they would ever make a mode that would strip away that entire concept. While it isn't terrible, it's simply mediocre. 



Verdict

I was so pleasantly surprised with the main game of HIOD, and it held my full interest all the way to the end. With one really fun side mode and a great field of in depth pixel art, HIOD is certainly a hidden gem amongst the hell that is pixel art indie games. 

9/10-Haptic Hellfire and Fury




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