Do your deductions right, and you'll find out the nature and weaknesses of the optional boss that awaits at the end of each level. Gather enough evidence in a mission, and you can cross-reference the body parts and blood splatters you find with those in your beautifully stylised demonic encyclopaedia. You get to do some baby detective work too.
Smaller enemies, meanwhile, can feel too fiddly to fight precisely, making them irritating rather than intimidating.ĭo your deductions right, and you'll find out the nature and weaknesses of the optional boss that awaits at the end of each level. Your perpetual lack of peripheral vision means that many of your perfectly timed dodge-rolls will be right into walls, tree roots or dining chairs that block your path. HellSign doesn't quite have the precision and responsiveness to incorporate these combat elements smoothly, leading to some maddening and frustrating moments. Your defences rely on a mix of dodge-rolling, armour, and making sure you have enough stability lest you get stunlocked to hell.
It's a great feeling to routinely overcome enemies that once felt gravely threatening, and HellSign eventually delivers that. Like in so many games, the scuttling enemies are the worst-tiny (and by that I mean wolf-sized) spiders and nasty centipedes that flank you and chip away at you from the shadows. Ghouls cling to ceilings and trees, so lure them out to open spaces, Shadow Beasts hate UV light and can temporarily pull you into another dimension. Using these tools along with heat-sensing equipment and plenty of corpse-rummaging, you track down 'signs' and get an idea of where the ghoulies lie in wait to ambush you, letting you flip the script back on them by setting up traps and equipping the right ammo.Įach monster presents distinct patterns, and slowly learning them is a big part of the fun. Sure, the evil monotone drone on every level just makes me think of a classic Super Hans moment from Peep Show, but the manic laughter and spooky child chanting picked up by your mic, or the radio device that you manually tune to track demonic whispers and crying are genuinely unsettling (and make good headphones a vital tool for this game). The best tools are the ones that feed into the game's hideously good sound design.
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