Jupiter Hell Review – Old School Mayhem avec une torsion Roguelike

I like the games that choose a path and dominate space, focusing on a basic concept instead of trying to graft a monster of Frankenstein on all kinds or themes currently in fashion. Jupiter Hell is a great example of what I'm talking about. It's a roguelike rower action game from top to bottom, which, I know, looks like a hybrid territory, but it's about as simple as games can be.

Supported on Kickstarter, Jupiter Hell is the next iteration of a design concept that started with DRL (doomrl), tribute to the turn of the developer at the classic shooter game. Although we are on the moons of Jupiter instead of the red planet, Doom is always an influence, narrow and dark corridors, enemies and especially in the wide variety of weapons. If you played DRL, you will recognize a lot of mechanisms, but if it is not the case, Jupiter Hell is an elegantly simple game to take control and play.

Jupiter Hell has a premise, if not a history in its own right. You play one of the three classes of soldiers (navy, scout, technician) each with variable starting forces and levels of agility, exploring the labyrinthine levels of a military / scientific facility. Trying to kill enemy soldiers and creatures resembling extraterrestrials. The three classes also play relatively differently, and each has specific traits and unique improvements to the class. The Navy is a complete and costly soldier with the ability to convert fury to healing. Scout is specialized in stealth and technician can take advantage of the technology of each level and do things like redirecting sentinels.

Unlike some recent games that are trying to soften the experience, Jupiter Hell is an old-fashioned Roguelike, which means that when a race ends, you lose everything. Nothing remains to help you at the next essay, but fortunately, you can save mid-term, if things become too intense. You explore many more and more dangerous levels of the installation, and each execution is properly generated so that the layout of parts, halls, enemies, weapons and booty is random. Of course, as in many of these games, it is also the Achilles heel of Jupiter Hell. A seed will have a range of well-distributed weapons and enemies, while another will have endless areas of empty parts and corridors with far too many enemies in the same place, or maybe the elevator to the level next a few steps from the point of appearance.

There is a lap mechanics under the movement and the fight, but Jupiter Hell allows you to approach both in a very methodical way, or to treat the game almost as an action rpg. Even if each movement or action (shooting, reloading, etc.) is a turn, you can browse them very quickly using the paver D. A word of warning, however, it is the worst way to play Jupiter Hell, because it is a game that is largely built around similar movements to failures involving timing, coverage and proper use of remote weapons. The enemies are very often approaching several directions, it is therefore essential to take advantage of this mechanics in turn to really study the environment, and that's one of the things that makes the game so fun and very addictive despite the frequency of deaths. There are not a lot of types of enemies, particularly in relation to the large number of punching weapons, rifles, machine guns and other weapons, consumables and special upgrade stations to find, But those who are there are pretty aware of their environment and their tactical options.

Although the text of the Hell Jupiter user interface recalls a lot the appearance of the old arcade shooting games of the game, it's not a pixel art game art. Instead, the graphics are clear, net and just quite detailed without adding complication to congested spaces. The design of lighting is exceptional. There are no super complicated effects, but this sensation of dark doom and the fog of war hiding an unknown danger shines through, and the use of shadows and moving light is well done. The music is Heavy Metal to the Doom, but it gets very quickly a sound wallpaper that does not do much to improve or harm the game. On the other hand, the sound effects of weapons are powerful and appropriate .

We could make a long list of things that Jupiter Hell is not, but it would be missing the essential and the price. Jupiter Hell is an easy-to-understand roguelike, but stimulating and addictive, with a turn in turn that never gets bogged down with the minuties of alignment, hexagons, grids or mechanisms that are too complex. Instead, it focuses on the cover, position, tactics and intelligent use of tools at your fingertips. The elements generated procedurally are the substance of chance, the chance of the draw, the end of the race frustration and sometimes of rather sterile levels. Apart from this, Jupiter Hell is a concentrated and fun tribute to an era of shooting game where you never knew what was going on in the next dark corner.