Addictive gameplay is addictive.
HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon, from developer Ars Goetia, is a turn-based role-playing dungeon-crawler game (say that five times) that packs quite the punch. The game excels at bringing a fun world to the player, packed with creative creatures and an endless landscape, while also adding a deep skill tree and a hefty dose of motivation to keep going. While it does have its flaws, especially with monetary overload and a lack of a traditional RPG weapon/defense upgrade system, it shines most of the time in its hellish world.
One of the strongest aspects of HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon is its story, which is fascinatingly deep and fun to unfold. The narrative follows a worn-out world that has seen its fair share of demonic warfare. Thousands of years of blood, brutality, and constant upheaval have brought the world to its knees. Frustrated about what the world has become, the Heavens send a Judgment of Archon to clean up the demonic mess. The player’s main character is given the choice of helping to dispose of six demons plaguing the world, which would breathe new life into everything, or dying with the world. Tough choice.
This sequel continues a fascinating story from its predecessor and makes it more than just a one-dimensional push quest. HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon builds on the original game’s narrative, adding more characters, stakes, and motivation to unfold the full adventure. I really enjoyed that; leading up to the Archon’s introduction, there is a fair amount of story to tell. The game does a great job of drip-feeding bits of information, allowing the player to absorb much more of the worn-down world and get a good sense of how damaged it is, and then laying the real plot their main character is involved in on top of it. HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon does a great job of following a proper multi-act narrative blueprint, as it develops characters well and clearly defines enemies and factions, all of which will help keep players engaged throughout its story. By creating this engagement through good storytelling, the game is easy to get hooked on, and it makes the gameplay far more meaningful.
Now, on the gameplay side of the tracks, it’s a pretty easy construct to get into. HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon is a turn-based combat game at its core. A player’s main character wanders around a large land filled with demons and baddies, chooses when to fight by colliding with moving characters on the map, and then begins a back-and-forth dance of fighting that ends when one side perishes. Nothing too dramatically difficult to comprehend.
Anyway, the actual gameplay is nicely complicated by a supporting skill tree that gives players plenty of agency when approaching battles. As the player progresses in the game, they will unlock a few aspects of their main character. The first two skill tree-based items of interest are powers and talents. Both offer a lot to the character, while at the same time complementing each other as they’re unlocked.
The power unlocks are what you might think they literally are – powers. These are useful spells and powers that allow the player to unlock things like a storm of blades (yep, what you think) or bring down a large boot to smash enemies. These powers are driven by a mana meter, so they are finite in use, but worth going through with a fine-tooth comb to find the best unlocks, as this particular category will be heavily used. I was mightily impressed with the depth of these powers, not only in their number but also with how they can be strategically used, as there are several ways the player can go to create a combination of powers. Finding the right powers and mix-matching them to create perfect tactics against enemies is breathtakingly fun.
On the talents side of the tracks, these are glorified buffs. Talents mainly help to bring more damage, defense, or relief to the main character. While certainly not as interesting or as fun as powers, they play a significant role in achieving success in battle. For example, picking up the Anatomical Knowledge talent increases the chance that an enemy will bleed after getting hit while decreasing the chance of the main character bleeding. Stacking the talents means buffing out the main character in certain directions and, at times, making them unstoppable. Again, not as sexy as powers, but talents complement the other category quite well. They help make combat much more balanced and far deeper.
Another interesting backend addition in HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon is called the Power of Hell. This is an additional power, separate from the other powers category, as it features a slower upgrade path but delivers a more powerful and significant choice during fights. It’s like having a special weapon that deserves praise for its power. The only caveat to this fun option is that it may make slicing and dicing powerful enemies a bit too easy. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for a good time in games, as obliterating enemies makes for a good time, but sometimes too good a time means unnecessarily fast gameplay. While it fits the narrative nicely, the addition of this power makes the main character a bit overpowered and at times unstoppable. I get why upgrading this power is a bit of an uphill climb, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a one-sided affair in battle.
Outside of those backend beauties, the game features a Diablo-like weapon and defense system, including the ability to add stones to both categories to buff them. It also features a very traditional character upgrade system that allows players to apply earned XP with each level upgrade to categories like strength, health, magic, and everything an RPG veteran of the D&D world might be familiar with by now.
Frankly, the way the Ars Goetia put together the backend system for this game is impressive. It’s deep, mostly balanced, and it gives the player so many different directions they can go to build out a character. In other words, it’s very well thought through. Most AAA developers with massive budgets don’t put this type of love and care into their backend character creation. I’m highly impressed by the planning and execution of the backend, which only makes this a more immersive and player-driven experience.
That said, there are a few minor downers in the game’s design. The biggest one, and this is probably going to sound ridiculous, is earning too much money in the game and the lack of a weapon/defense upgrade system. The latter doesn’t mean players won’t find plenty of creative weapons and defensive items along their journey to constantly replace weaker pieces, because they will find a plethora of those, but it does mean that when someone visits a blacksmith, that character is nothing more than a retail store and not actually a blacksmith. I wish this game had a more Diablo-like element that let favorite weapons be upgraded and buffed more permanently. It is a missing element in the overall package that directly causes a surplus of money you can’t spend. And no, it’s not a huge problem. In fact, it’s a minor complaint about not having more added to an already fun gameplay system. It’s just a glaring omission for me.
Anyhoo, overall, HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon is an amazing game that offers a deep backend system, a fun narrative, and plenty of reasons to keep playing. Its additional side quests along the main quest path help deepen and enrich the overall experience, as well as make it more than just linear gameplay. There’s a lot here for a game not built with millions of dollars in budget or a staff of 500 developers to rely on. The body of work for HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon is as impressive as it is fun.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon, from developer Ars Goetia, is a fun turn-based RPG with a strong narrative, solid world-building, a deep backend system, and plenty of adventures throughout. It’s fun, impressive, and a lot more than I expected.
