Hellbound, the “90s FPS, 30 years later” is Saibot Studio’s homage to some of the best-known shooters from the decade that spawned the genre. The game takes most of its influence from Doom and Quake, with a dash of Serious Sam added in for flavour. Everything from the story, movement, weapons and art style draw from Doom while the voice lines and AI are most comparable to Serious Sam.
“Looking for a deep story? You came to the wrong place”
Our protagonist Hellgore opens the game’s teaser trailer with “Looking for a deep story? You came to the wrong place”. And they weren’t joking, Hellgore is a brutish bad-ass resurrected for a journey to hell to take revenge on all the naughty demons for making a mess of your homeworld. You are indeed hell-bound.
(Editor’s note: Interestingly, not since the 1971 film Vampyros Lesbos has a media title condensed so much of its content into its title. [It’s before your time, I wouldn’t worry about it.])
The Sound of Impending Doom (and Quake)
It wouldn’t be a 90s FPS clone without some heavy, industrial metal and Hellbound delivers in style. David Levill did an incredible job providing us with the perfect soundtrack with which to boldly enter hell.
Though plainly born from the grand traditions of Quake and Doom, the OST doesn’t just superficially emulate. The score drives the action, keeping you motivated to move and act with speed and aggression.
Doom-Face Graphics
Graphically, there’s a lot to unpack with Hellbound. As Saibot mixed and matched so many elements from their inspirations that it’s hard to point to just one. The HUD is a clear homage to Doom complete with Doom guy-esque face showing us how much damage we’ve taken. However the level design and AI are a hodgepodge of retro conventions and more modern inspirations.
In the opening chapter we are greeted by the orange glow of lava and burnt rock, in an open-world environment. Only then to be thrown into a cemetery covered in a dark blue filter. With the world getting a lot smaller, we are now clearing narrow hallways in the crypts. Later, we venture into a hellish forest decorated with bare trees and wooden bridges. The developers and designers tried hard to keep the levels fresh, though most feature lava somewhere.
Speed Has Everything to Do with It
As a 90s-style shooter, our Hellgore is artificially agile. Hellbound lets you bound around hell with some old-skool bunny hopping and strafe speed-boosts.
At the end of each level we are shown some stats like kills and items/secrets found. The game wants repeat playthroughs, teasing you with what you missed. And in true indie fashion, there are global leaderboards for fastest runs and completions.
Gunplay
We start the game with a rifle. Throughout the campaign players will pick up a bludgeon bat, triple-barrel shotgun, mini-gun and a rocket launcher. On harder difficulties I was able to find a use for all of the game’s weapons. But given how generous the game is with ammo, it’s very easy to wield the shotgun for 90% of the game, using bunny hops to close the gap and make every kill with one shot. It would have been nice to see a few more situations where using a particular weapon or combination was necessary.
On that note, after playing the survival mode. I was expecting additional weapons and a greater challenge in the campaign. Unfortunately it’s the exact same arsenal and and even less of a test.
Despite the pretensions of multiple playthroughs, as seen in the aforementioned leaderboards and chapter summaries, the game itself doesn’t reward you enough for coming back for more.
The AI are also lacking, most of the our foes act similarly to those seen in Serious Sam. They’ll run at you until they reach striking distance with no coordination between them. The few set-pieces I noticed are forgettable.
Open-arena combat boils down to bunny hopping around the AI. Picking off the annoying ones with the shotgun and finishing up the rest with the mini-gun. This includes the final boss-battle. It’s exactly the same as the other arena fights except with a boss in the middle hurling fireballs at you.
Gloom and Heart-ake
After playing Hellbound Survival back in 2018 I was excited for what was to come. Enamoured by the attention to nostalgic detail and sold on the challenging gameplay, I’m now left disappointed at the implementation.
Hellbound looks and feels the part but there is very little challenge and the campaign is so short it would make you think there’s more to come. Which there is – but if it takes another two years, it may be too little, too late.
Review code provided by PR, reviewed on PC (Steam), €12.49, $14.99, £10.99
