Rising Hell Reviews

as far as a value prospect goes, its not amazing. the game has 3 main playstyles, two of which are fairly similar, all 3 of which will probably end up playing very similar due to a universal mechanic. each has 3 subvariants based on universal collectible items called 'artifact weapons', those being green, blue, and red. these last for maybe a minute or two depending on which character you are playing, but they do make you feel truly strong in that moment. generally each boss guarantees you'll see one, but as far as i can tell, only one, through the course of the fight. each subvariant is unique to each class, and all but maybe one are strictly more useful than having no artifact weapon, that one being the green weapon on rogue, which seems to substantially lower your dps in favor of concentrated damage. Moving on to that universal mechanic i mentioned earlier, its called hellbreak, when used on a normal enemy, it results in an instant kill, you perform it by jumping onto an enemy and having your collision box collide with a part of the enemies, regardless of up or down momentum. doing so will refresh your tiny secondary jump every successful time you perform the action. It's what youll use most of the time. it completely negates everyone's damage variance in favor of a unique universal mechanic, that while fun to use, never made me feel encouraged to master any class specific abilities. you can use this on minibosses and bosses too, and you definitely will, it isnt an instant kill there though. its still fast, safe, and high damage, especially compared to the pea shooters the ranged classes have. another universal mechanic is the perk style upgrades you buy with red souls, which function as your main currency, though you can buy red currency for health at the tricksters store, making health somewhat of a secondary currency, it doesnt automatically regenerate, so its a fairly important one, meaning you may want to purchase artifacts to fix that specific issue. they only really work when killing enemies for the most part though. the most powerful one seems to be the 'kill multiple enemies within 7 seconds to heal' one, the others tend to manifest as bonus drops or bonus drops under circumstances. meaning health is valuable, but only really during bosses if you have the multikill one. other ones tend to manifest as simple damage and range upgrades, with the ability to unlock more with continued play. a few are unique, enemies exploding into more damage on kill is a common theme, so they individually aren't that unique. the main way you seem to differentiate characters is via special artifacts that you can equip prior to a run that trade a pro for a con. i mostly used the jump height and move speed in exchange for taking bonus spike damage, in large part because i felt like it was free. it makes the game more enjoyable, so i consider it the default playstyle now. the characters arent slow, but the artifact makes them fairly swift, which is important when every jump kills. it isn't important that i do anything but dodge and approach, and it helps. I'll say right now that i could not defeat the second boss, i reached its third phase and decided 'i should stop playing this game before it gets tiring'. the first boss is relatively simple, being a beholder thematically, it is stationary and fires eye based beams. it is a good introductory boss that telegraphs well and spawns enemies in to refill your health a bit in the middle of the fight. the second boss is perhaps 10 times tougher. It has random acid it shoots out from its top, they are clearly aimed at the player, but often, they feel like they come from no where, still, this is the only real chance you have to attack during phase one and two. the telegraphed laser is incredibly hard to see, especially as it blends into the bronze parts of the boss in a very poor contrast way. beyond that he has a slash attack he rarely uses, that ones hard to dodge, but i dont see it often, so it doesn't factor in. those are his phase 1-2 attacks, after that he starts walking around as a spider using a flamethrower attack in addition to his former abilities. I was fairly depleted both times i reached the boss and essentially through in the towel after the second time. the game alternates between too easy and too hard and i just don't think that's a style i enjoy, i don't plan to attempt a refund or anything though, there's a lot i like here, its just a very microgame sort of experience currently. with 3 characters, i expect varied playstyles, but instead i have varied jump height and max health, everything else is solved by jumping on enemies like mario. i assume that changes, but i'd rather it didn't if it demotes me to using pea shooters. all in all, i'll recommend the game assuming new content will be added in the future. If that doesn't happen, i wouldn't buy it. if clearing the second boss doubles the amount of unique content in the game, i'd certainly have egg on my face, but hey, i doubt it!

Beat the game on my first run and under an hour. I was flabbergasted if this was all the game had to offer and after examining the achievements, yep. That was it. No other last bosses or anything. Just "challenges" I suppose but there are plenty of other games that are actually fun while doing challenges i.e. Crypt of the Necrodancer. Trash mobs can be just spammed and instant killed the entire game. Every boss felt like a tutorial boss. Roguelikes typically have replay value if they hold enough difficulty or at least some skill. For a roguelite this should be even more apparent that the game is trash. Roguelites typically have you grind a bit before you're strong enough to beat the entire game... I haven't tried other characters because it requires you to replay the game to get currency to unlock them, but with only an attack button, there is not much customization - not that any are needed. Trash mobs instant killed before they can attack and boss patterns are overly simplistic. It would have been cool if there were last boss versions of each character you beat the game with due to the ending.

This is a fun retro arcade action game and definitely worth the price. Calling it a "rogue lite" is a bit of a stretch -- the order of the levels is random but the variations are so small that you won't notice. You do however unlock new artifacts and powers as you play, so there's that. The controls are tight and the "metal" theme is fun and different. Definitely worth your time if you like pixel platforming and demon monster slaying.

I requested a refund. The concept sounded so cool but the execution is terrible. All the environments looks the same and there are no interesting weapons.

posting so more people get to play this game simple gameplay but fun nice price im not into roguelike but gameplay and hellbreak mechanic hooked me

I've been eyeing this game for a while, waiting for it to enter full 1.0 release. I bought it immediately, and so far, I am so, so impressed. The core controls are simple: you have your attack, you have your jump (which doubles as a cool aerial finisher), and you have your i-frame dash. It's simple, but it works; movement and attacking is buttery smooth, and opens up the real core of the game: the platforming and movement. The platforming and environmental design is simply wonderful. You'll be double-jumping and wall-clinging around as you endlessly climb upwards, using enemies to bolster your height as you dodge saw blades, spikes, and burrowing thorns. As a huge platforming fan, I'm very pleased to see it have such a strong place in the core game design, especially on special zones like the Slaughter Spire, which has you rushing upwards using enemies as platforms while a row of saws rises quickly beneath you. It's challenging, it's frenetic, and, most importantly, it's a ton of fun. It's also worth mentioning the aesthetic is great, too - backgrounds, enemies, and traps are very detailed without becoming cluttered or unclear. All that about the platforming is not to say the combat isn't good, too! Your attacks, while simple, feel good to use, and you'll find fun temporary upgrades, like an artifact that temporarily turns your claw slashes into sword strikes on the melee character, or a triple shot attack on the ranged demon character. A combo meter and pulsing music keeps the pace fast with a fun arcade feel, too. Since it's a roguelite, there's also a ton of passive buffs and upgrades to find and buy during your run, as well as permanent unlockable relics which alter your gameplay that you can turn on/off before starting a run. There also appears to be a Heat/Ascension-type difficulty climb, too, which is something I always appreciate in a roguelite. The enemy and boss design also marries the combat and platforming together well, as you'll be jumping around to dodge laser beams, projectiles, and demonic slashes of your foes. Attacks from enemies/bosses are fairly telegraphed, and bosses seem balanced - they have enough HP to demand sustained focus without being damage sponges. Overall, I'm having a ton of fun so far and look forward to spending much more time with Rising Hell. If you're a roguelite or platformer fan, you'll like this; fans of Scourgebringer and Black Future '88 will also particularly enjoy it. For $10, this is an absolute steal, and totally worth your time! Edit: Just wanted to edit this review and say that, at a bit under 6 hours in, I've won my first run, and I've adored every moment spent playing! There's still so, so much content I haven't touched, and there's a Slay the Spire Ascension-like difficulty climb present here (called Agony), so I have plenty to keep my busy. Once again reiterating this is worth your time and money!

A fun little game who's fun derives from mercilessly slaughtering demons for your freedom, the mechanics aren't clunky, some demons have special traits like having to use a specific attack in order to even hit them or being able to block certain attacks. The talents allow for many different play styles whether it be artefacts, healing, currency or just more damage it's fun to play with and experiment as you unlock new talents. the bosses are also very fun, they all have different focal point whether it's being a tank or damage based even in-between whereas the final boss is all of the aforementioned points with extra powerful minions and an array of chaotic attacks that makes for a very fun fight, if you're going to get this game then look forward to it. Thank you for reading, i hope it helped :)

This is just a genuine surprise, really. I came in it not expecting anything, but seriously from the moment I started it I was in love. I love the soundtrack and the animations. Just a great time overall. I just died on my first playthrough but I had to come in here and say GET THIS GAME FFS. It's literally a dungeon crawler with a spicy hellish meatball on top. Totally worth it

One could jokingly call this game Down-hell as a joke, given it's theme and obvious Downwell inspiration. But there's a tad more to this game than you'd think. Not to mention, just like that game this is a rogue-lite/endless runner hybrid. But while the similarities don't end there, THANKFULLY Rising Hell has enough differences and its own "flair" and tricks of its own to stand up as its own game with a similar feel rather than a ripoff with just a different coat of paint. The ways it does it are as follows At it's heart, Rising Hell takes the concept of Downwell and puts it into a Doom esque situation. You are a character who literally got lost and ended up in hell and wants to fight his way out, but obviously, rather than descending down, you are literally fighting your way up, the game literally and figruatively goes in the opposite direction if you will But that isn't what makes this game an enjoyable one and what makes it different from Downwell, what does is that the games combat almost makes it feel like it has some light brawler/beat em up elements and feels like it has more emphasis on feeling arcade-like given that it has the likes of different floors/routes you can pick as you go as well as a bigger emphasis on getting high combo chains in order to get not only a good score and better unlocks, but also as a way to get currency for items in the shop rooms. It may not sound like much, but when you also consider that this is all done while having a bigger emhpasis on combat and learning enemy patterns (via using two attack types one melee and one ranged) and Rising Hell also takes elements of a hack n slash into its formula To put it simply, think DMC or Bayonetta or Dante's Inferno, but if they were arcade games Last but not least is the bigger emphasis on boss fights, this almost feels like it takes notes from Castlevania or diablo, you'll fight many different evil demons and original monsters as you eagerly claw, shoot, and slash your way to freedom Does this make this the best game ever? No, but what this game does nicely is that it takes (in my opinion) some unexpected elements from genres that wouldn't otherwise be present in this kind of game and the overall "mishmash" so to speak ends up being a fun game with likeable character design/art choices and quite a banger of a soundtrack as icing on the cake The game has fast combat, heavy metal, and what feels like a more grotesque appraoch to Castlevania's art mixed with the color pallete and vibes of Doom. This, is what makes Rising Hell an unexpected but interesting and enjoyable romp, and while no award winner, I can easily recommend it as a fun time killer with a an approach to design that goes shockingly nice

This game's greatest strength is its simplicity. Jump, kill, dodge, kill, jump. It may not sound too exciting, but the devs have made sure that this formula is ceaselessly fun. Gameplay feels fantastic. It's not the most in-depth game you'll play this year, but that's alright. It's fun as hell.