I played
Hellpoint for the first time today and I have to say that I really like it
a lot so far.
In fact, of all the games called "Soulslike" or "Dark Souls inspired" by players or the press, I feel like this one easily lives up to that the most. At least from my personal perspective regarding what I enjoy most from Dark Souls games, Hellpoint captures most of that really well, and covers all the standout aspects, unlike the other similar games.
- It has very intricate level design with tons of interconnecting passages, secret doors, and meaningful shortcuts.
- It has combat that rewards being careful and can punish you for taking even easy opponents too lightly.
- It (appears to) support several different playstyles with different character builds and equipment.
- It fully supports co-op.
- Some of its lore mysteries seem to relate directly to gameplay mechanics which are not spelt out for you the moment you encounter them, the specifics of which you need to uncover for yourself during your playthrough. (E..g. the black hole and accretion storms)
- Trying to get back your resources after dying invokes the same thrill that you get in DS, especially early in the game and in areas you haven't yet fully explored.
Unless the quality completely falls off a cliff later on I think this one is extremely underrated. Or at least not as popular as it deserves to be.