Hellbound is an unapologetic throwback to the FPS heydays of the ’90s, drawing obvious inspiration from the likes of Doom and Quake. Developed by newcomers Saibot Studios, Hellbound is a modest, short, and straight-forward game that’s appropriately priced and doesn’t overstay its welcome. You probably won’t find a lot of replay value here, but for the few hours it lasts, Hellbound is fun.
It shouldn’t be surprising that Hellbound does not have much in the story or characters department, and advertising for the game even suggests that if you came here for a story, you’re in the wrong place. What story there is is told in text on the load in screen (which only lasts a few seconds) in between levels. You play Hellgore, a once-dead resident of Hell that is resurrected by humanity when his skull is cloned. You’re tasked with going back into Hell and fighting off the demons that have invaded Earth and who are also responsible for killing you and your other Hell kindred. Your goal is to get to these ‘pillars’ that are providing the means for Hell’s forces to get onto Earth, but you never actually see these pillars during the course of the game. They are, however, alluded to in the epilogue that teases a sequel.
Hellbound is about as ’90s as you can get as far as level design and weapons. Each level ends when you find the switch to end it, at which time you are presented with a screen showing your total kills, items, and secrets-found percentage (precisely like how Doom used to do). Ridiculous par times for level completion are also given, for those that are interested in nothing other than running as quickly as possible to find the keys and the exit. More traditional play will have you going on a fairly linear path, blasting through eight different demons along the way. Level design does a pretty job of using verticality. There is a lot of symmetry in the design, which can be both good or generic depending on your taste. Though often it appears there are two or more ways to get somewhere, the paths very quickly conjoin again to bring you back to one clear path, which isn’t a dig as much as it is just recognition that this is a ’90s style game.
Combat is pretty cool; there are five weapons, though the most go-to one for me was the triple barrel shotgun. Each weapon has an alternate mode, even if it’s just aiming down the iron sights (in the case of the assault rifle), or doing a charged overhead swing in the case of the spiked bat. Aiming down the sites is helpful as a lot of times there are demons way off at a distance, as well as ones right in your face. Weapons include your fists, a spiked bat, assault rifle that holds 100 rounds, triple-barrel shotgun, “chaingun,” and rocket launcher. I don’t think I ever used the fists or the bat at all, just no need to.
Enemies include shotgun guys, dudes with spiked bats, assault rifles, fireball-tossing demons (usually well off into the distance to make you juggle combat near and far), a rocket launching demon later in the game, and these annoying buggers that jump right into your face and do the most damage. Ammo is typically always in good supply, and are found readily thanks to the ample amount of pickups in the game (including from enemy drops). Gibbing enemies provides small health drops, too. Typical encounters have you entering a medium to large room and dealing with enemies at close, mid, and long range. I kept Auto-run enabled and never crouched (which could be why I missed some secret areas, not sure). After completing the campaign, a Survival Mode with online leaderboards is unlocked that lets you face wave upon wave of these foes in four different arenas.
For those that played through Quake II and its expansions back in the day, you will probably fondly remember the rockin’ soundtrack to compliment the action, full of colored lighting and other ’90s goodness. Hellbound tries to emulate that with a good metal soundtrack, and I liked it, although it can get a bit fatiguing at times. It fits the mood the game is pushing for nicely, which is to say, run ‘n gun, never stop moving. The soundtrack and the effects are good, but I didn’t care for Hellgore’s quips at the start of the levels, where he almost drops the f-word and it’s just cringe-worthy in its cheesiness and in just how unnecessary it is. Graphically, Hellbound is good, nothing remarkable. I did make one note on the third or fourth level and the overuse of orange, there was just a heavy saturation of similarly colored textures there (see screenshot below). It doesn’t take much of a machine to run Hellbound comfortably, but the final boss fight and the amount of effects and enemies and things going on there did bog my frames down significantly.
Bottomline, all things considered, if you’re looking for a fun, fast, short-lived, throwback FPS game, Hellbound is definitely worth considering. Just don’t expect too much out of it and you’ll find your time and money well spent.
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