Hell Clock is what happens when a dev team full of hardcore ARPG fans takes the usual formula of their favorite games (Path of Exile, in particular) and adds a sick roguelike twist to it.
It’s a truly addicting and satisfying entry to a genre that I love, and while I’m not the best at crafting builds in it, I’ve found the game to be really hard to put down. Lets go over my thoughts on the game!
Full disclosure: I received a key from the developers.
All Gas, No Breaks
In classic action roguelike fashion, you’re thrown straight into the deep end and told to jump right into the basement of a nearby building. From here, our only task is to delve deeper and take out all of the bosses along the way.
The simplest way I can describe the gameplay is that it’s like your typical ARPG in which you have a handful of skills bound to a couple of keys, and then you can upgrade them in varying ways throughout your run as if you were picking boons in Hades.
There’s a whole lot more when it comes to build customization, but I’ll get to that a little further below.
Past Nightmares Reborn
There’s a fully voice-acted story here that’s based on a tragic conflict that happened in Brazil over a century ago. The War of Canudos, which was really more of a massacre, is given a dark fantasy twist, with the protagonist taking on horrific and powerful avatars representing those who led the campaigns that led to the deaths of countless innocents.
It’s not really my story to tell, as I know little about it outside of the little research I did to educate myself on the topic when I first got my hands on the game.
Anyway, the story has you searching for the main character’s so-called “mentor”, whose soul is trapped in hell. Who are we anyway? Why are we fighting demons? And why is there a clock that takes you back after you run out of time? All is revealed in due time, for now, we keep pushing deeper…
Builds Galore
The game doesn’t hide the fact that it’s heavily inspired by Path of Exile. In fact, I’m pretty sure the devs have called it an “Exile-like” at least a few times in promotional materials.
If you’re in the market for a roguelike that encourages build crafting and just min-maxing in general, then Hell Clock is going to be right up your alley, cause the game pulls no punches when it comes to showing you what does and doesn’t work.
Now I haven’t reached the endgame yet, but so far, I can tell you that there are a lot of ways to customize your build. In a nutshell, here’s what I’ve been working with so far:
- Relics – They give you bonus stats and varying other special effects that change how your abilities work. These go in relic slots, which you have a limited number of until you upgrade them later.
- The Great Bell – It’s essentially a skill tree and one of the main meta-progression mechanics. Here, you can add flat increases to certain stats, faster gold/exp/soul stone acquisition, unlock relic slots, etc.
- Skills – The abilities themselves are unlocked as you progress through the game’s acts, and you can take up to 5 of them at a time.
Again, I’m not the best at theorycrafting in games like this, but it’s been fun figuring out how to make certain gimmicks work. Hell, within the first couple of hours, I’ve already made a “spin to win” build that rolls through the first act of the campaign. Don’t ask me how it performed in the second, though.
Maybe Pump the Brakes a Bit
While I do admire their commitment to the whole build crafting bit, I can’t deny that this will be a tad bit overwhelming for some, even if it’s a far cry from the ridiculous complexity of PoE.
Without an optimized build, you’re likely going to run into issues against certain bosses. It can get particularly bad to the point where it feels like the boss’ HP bar isn’t moving, even though it shifts ever so slightly as you unleash a barrage of abilities at its face.
Luckily, as of writing this, the devs are completely aware of that and are actually in the middle of working on a major update that addresses a lot of the potential pain points brought up by many. In fact, it’s probably already out depending on when you read this.
Long story short, they’re overhauling the endgame and adding ways to make the entire game more accessible. Even now, the game already features two options that can make your runs easier. I personally don’t use them, but it’s nice that no player is left behind here!
A Promising Path
Look, I don’t have a literal Hell Clock of my own. I can’t just travel back in time and tell you what comes in the future, but the devs do seem very passionate about refining the game and adding new content over time. Heck, I think their latest Steam Community post speaks for itself.
Of course, only time will tell how well these changes will go, but I can definitely recommend the game even in its current launch version. Just be warned that, if it doesn’t click for you off the rip, you might have to grind a bit or have to resort to using their accessibility modes to progress.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna continue trying to make this spin-to-win build work in later levels…