Pandering and advertising rather than good design and passion.

Normally I wouldn't hit "Not Recommended" on a free game, but this is a game designed to sell a product later down the line, so I took a good look at that product, downloading the demo, seeing how it compares to this survival mode, watching where the developers are taking this and I have to say it's not looking good. I won't have much play time on this as I spent more time with the demo and only really used the survival mode to see what changed. Everything in this game's presentation screams at you how much it wants to be a 90s FPS. The developers even namedrop DOOM, Duke Nukem, Blood, and Serious Sam in their trailer. Obviously this was supposed to be a true successor to those games. Well, it's not and here is why.

Out of all of its supposed inspirations, Hellbound only really feels slightly similar to Serious Sam which played a lot differently from the other three. The demo does not give a very good impression of the level design. The maps have some verticality and seem to branch out, but end up being just linear progression paths with possible shortcuts back. There is no meticulousy crafted, full of secrets, free to approach as you will nature of the Build Engine classics. However, it can't quite cut it as a Serious Sam successor, because it lacks the giant open spaces and collosal structures that allowed for the epicness of Serious Sam's giant battles with hoards of monsters (which Hellbound also doesn't have). Serious Sam's insane secrets and exploratory nature are nowhere to be found either.

The enemies feel much like Sam's enemies in that they are either mostly stationery or chase you in a straightforward path. You can't use the level design against them like you would in Blood or Shadow Warrior. You just run and shoot, which would have been fine if the amount of enemies, their variety, and their visual design created the same sense of massive scale battles as Sam. It does not. Overall they feel underwhelming and generic, not as obstacles that present unique challenges.

The guns are decent. You have your usual suspects with some of the game's own creativity thrown in which is decent. I do have to say that making the alt fire on two separate guns an aim-down-sights is perhaps the most un-90s thing you could have gone for, but it's not like you have to use it really. The player's movement is a bigger problem. Compared to old FPS, you move slow and since the levels don't really allow you much freedom or interesting ways to use movement, it feels more like a modern FPS with a coat of old paint. A dedicated combination of two buttons for a sprint feels similarly very unnecessary, convoluted, and contrary to the design the game tries to replicate.

Technically it isn't that bad. The visuals are nice. It runs okay. I will absolutely complain about being unable to turn off motion blur in the demo (it just reenables itself after you hit apply) because I hate it to my soul and a limit of 100 FoV is infuriating too, but those problems don't seem to be present in Survival so maybe they're working on it.

You may have noticed that most of this review is comparing Hellbound to old games. The reason why I did that is because Hellbound so heavily markets itself as a true 90s FPS. If you want to carry the names of Duke Nukem, Blood, DOOM, and Serious Sam in your marketing material, be able to stand up to them. And this game doesn't do that as of yet. Maybe the game will be different on release, but for now it can't back its talk up with good design.

Pandering and advertising rather than good design and passion. Normally I wouldn't hit "Not Recommended" on a free game, but this is a game designed to sell a product later down the line, so I took a good look at that product, downloading the demo, seeing how it compares to this survival mode, watching where the developers are taking this and I have to say it's not looking good. I won't have much play time on this as I spent more time with the demo and only really used the survival mode to see what changed. Everything in this game's presentation screams at you how much it wants to be a 90s FPS. The developers even namedrop DOOM, Duke Nukem, Blood, and Serious Sam in their trailer. Obviously this was supposed to be a true successor to those games. Well, it's not and here is why. Out of all of its supposed inspirations, Hellbound only really feels slightly similar to Serious Sam which played a lot differently from the other three. The demo does not give a very good impression of the level design. The maps have some verticality and seem to branch out, but end up being just linear progression paths with possible shortcuts back. There is no meticulousy crafted, full of secrets, free to approach as you will nature of the Build Engine classics. However, it can't quite cut it as a Serious Sam successor, because it lacks the giant open spaces and collosal structures that allowed for the epicness of Serious Sam's giant battles with hoards of monsters (which Hellbound also doesn't have). Serious Sam's insane secrets and exploratory nature are nowhere to be found either. The enemies feel much like Sam's enemies in that they are either mostly stationery or chase you in a straightforward path. You can't use the level design against them like you would in Blood or Shadow Warrior. You just run and shoot, which would have been fine if the amount of enemies, their variety, and their visual design created the same sense of massive scale battles as Sam. It does not. Overall they feel underwhelming and generic, not as obstacles that present unique challenges. The guns are decent. You have your usual suspects with some of the game's own creativity thrown in which is decent. I do have to say that making the alt fire on two separate guns an aim-down-sights is perhaps the most un-90s thing you could have gone for, but it's not like you have to use it really. The player's movement is a bigger problem. Compared to old FPS, you move slow and since the levels don't really allow you much freedom or interesting ways to use movement, it feels more like a modern FPS with a coat of old paint. A dedicated combination of two buttons for a sprint feels similarly very unnecessary, convoluted, and contrary to the design the game tries to replicate. Technically it isn't that bad. The visuals are nice. It runs okay. I will absolutely complain about being unable to turn off motion blur in the demo (it just reenables itself after you hit apply) because I hate it to my soul and a limit of 100 FoV is infuriating too, but those problems don't seem to be present in Survival so maybe they're working on it. You may have noticed that most of this review is comparing Hellbound to old games. The reason why I did that is because Hellbound so heavily markets itself as a true 90s FPS. If you want to carry the names of Duke Nukem, Blood, DOOM, and Serious Sam in your marketing material, be able to stand up to them. And this game doesn't do that as of yet. Maybe the game will be different on release, but for now it can't back its talk up with good design.