Welcome to the grey hellscape that is Earth—at least, that’s how I understand it. Our dear Earth has been completely ravaged by a group of demon lords, hell-bent on turning our blue little planet to into a pile of ash. But don’t fret—the mystical (good?) demon is here to provide humanity with one final chance (aka you)! HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon is a turn-based dungeon crawler that works as a blobber of one. So no party—it’s solo time, baby!
Force of one
I do love my dungeon-crawler blobbers, but my love usually stipulates that there is a group of adventurers involved. However, as mentioned, in this one you are alone, and while the game is sectioned into classes—it’s much more free-form going by the loot and talents you pick up. Facing evil demons by yourself requires a tad more out of the individual, which the game gladly supplies. You see, respeccing is free, and you can save up to three talent specs that you can easily switch between depending on the challenge.
My adventure started very rough, since all the ankle biters and trolls with clubs inflicted some serious hurt. You have a heal and a mana boost function, but it can only be used during combat. If you survive a fight with a sliver of health, you’ll have to head back to town for a full heal. This reminded me of Darkest Dungeon, where keeping a monster around to wait for the cooldown on your healing spells is a viable and pretty necessary tactic. Yet, this changed quickly when I found a little loot, as there is a ton of equipment and very many places to hang it on your body. After a few hours in the demo, I had loot that made my passive healing amazing, as all damage I dished out stole some life force from my enemy. My woes of healing myself were over! Not only that, I did automatic retaliation damage to anything that hit me, which essentially turned me into the world’s most dangerous punching bag.
Slicing and dicing
The combat is fairly standard for a blobber, except that skills and the weight of your weapon add or reduce seconds on the turn‑based timeline. So, a light weapon might do less damage, but you might be able to use it more often—and it’s not only damage you have to think about there, as most items come with different procs (with perhaps something more useful than pure damage numbers). Overall, HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon seems to have many perks and items, making for interesting skill-building system with a lot of variables.
Questing
When you are not decapitating demons or draining them of their sweet blood, there is a world to explore too, and quests to fulfill—from a top-down perspective. I’m unsure how open it will be, but the demo seems open, letting you avoid combat and explore at your own pace. Lore and quests seem rather good too, making the world feel like a real and haunted place. The presentation also hammers this home with very cool art for the different happenings, especially after completing quests.
I should add that it is a sequel, which the title might indicate (for the most astute!). I have not played the previous game, but from giving the sequel demo a try, it’s certainly a game to keep an eye on even for a solo blobber. Make sure to give the demo a try here!
Thanks for reading.
– Thomas
Tom's Gaming Vault 