Hell Clock Review

Hell Clock is a roguelite action RPG developed by Rogue Snail and published by Mad Mushroom. You might be familiar with Rogue Snail, as they made Relic Hunters Legend, which I did a preview for quite a while back. They even noted the similarities and differences between the two titles. This is… a vastly different game, though.

Set in 1903 Brazil, eight years after the very real Canudos massacre, which left 25,000 dead, you play as Pajeú, a clockmaker and gunslinger, as he travels down into the depths of Hell to save the soul of his mentor, The Counselor. It deals with religious themes and includes actual historical figures of the time, which I found really interesting. Most of it did fly over my head (I wasn’t exactly the best history student), but post-game research did enlighten me about an event that doesn’t really get a lot of mainstream coverage in media, which makes for a narrative that goes into some serious places.

Do take note that the default audio language is Brazilian Portuguese, but that can be changed in the settings to English if you dislike reading. However, I did really enjoy playing through the game with the Portuguese audio; It’s more authentic to the setting, and I didn’t mind missing dialogue because I was too busy shooting the damned back into the ground.

Down in the depths...

The art style really drew me in before I even touched the game; It's dark and dreary, like an animated comic book that you can control. If you want a comparison, it’s like Darkest Dungeon in its visuals, and it’s nice there are plenty of indicators and highlights that ensure that you never lose sight of Pajeú as he’s mowing down the undead. It's kind of cool that the 2D art matches with the 3D models; I especially appreciate the clothes and equipment you gain on Pajeú. I really liked that little touch, seeing the clockmaker go from plain clothes to proper attire fitting for a gunslinging warrior.

But enough about that, let’s get into the gameplay, and let me preface this by saying it is freaking awesome. You’ll be rushing through rooms filled with enemies and loot, trying to make it to the exit as fast as possible while also collecting enough buffs and level-ups to beat the bosses that guard each layer of Hell.

...Every second counts.

At your most basic, you can move, interact… and that’s it. Everything else is based on the skills you have chosen before your run. Even your basic dash and attack can be removed and replaced with something else, like slowing down time or summoning a bell to smash enemies to paste. You’ll unlock more skills as you beat each act.

You can't stay in Hell for long, though. The titular Hellclock is constantly counting down, and once it hits zero, your run ends regardless of any ability you have. The timer does freeze during important encounters or just by hitting pause, but if you would like to add more stress to your playthrough, you can disable that little crutch in the main menu. You can add more time via the skill tree, through random drops, or by defeating bosses, but your attempt will end somehow, either by death or by time. It’s a very interesting mechanic that doesn't feel oppressive, at least to me. I tend to explore and take my time, but here I found myself rushing and shifting my priorities, playing riskier than I’d usually like to do. 

This is helped by all the meta-upgrades you can obtain between your attempts. Throughout your run, you’ll collect Soulstones, and the total number you obtain will contribute to your Memory Level, which will provide a skill point when you increase it. From there, you can spend those points to make Pajeú stronger, like stat increases, adding red portals to skip floors, and so much more. You can instantly feel the differences with each upgrade, and given the frequency of Soulstones, you’ll always have something to spend every time you come back to base. If you don’t like your build, you can reset all your skill points in exchange for Soulstones, which is nice.

There's just so much to upgrade.

As you challenge Hell time and time again, you’ll unlock relics that you can equip that provide randomised bonuses and, with the rarer relics, change how your skills function. You don’t lose them when a run ends, which is pretty unique, but you’re only limited by the grid-based inventory and you don’t start with too many slots.

Overall, I really loved how Hell Clock goes about its progression system. There is a real sense of improvement as you get through areas faster, skip floors that only serve to waste your time, and melt bosses just so you can get that little bit further with each cycle of the clock. You will eventually hit walls (that timer is really strict even on a good run), but have the patience to keep pushing through it.

I really appreciated the amount of replayability featured in Hell Clock. After you’ve beaten the game, you can enter Ascension Mode (which is currently in Beta at the time of writing). It resets your acquired levels, relics, gear, and Soulstones, but you can now modify your difficulty to turn it into a harsh lesson in futility via the Penance tree. While you can purchase upgrades like in the main campaign, trips into Hell are limited, so you need to make the most of each run. Your only advantage is that all skills are unlocked from the start. Essentially, Ascension shifts the game’s genre from a roguelite to a roguelike. And if that’s not enough of a pain, you can always try out Hardcore, a difficulty you can select before you start your new game, where running out the clock is preferable to death, as if you lose all your HP, your save is deleted. Have fun.

My preferred strat: Spin To Win!

Onto performance now, and it’s great! With my graphics settings on High, it ran perfectly with no frame drops. 60 FPS all the way, baby! That’s how I like it. I also didn’t find any bugs in-game, not even visual glitches. I have seen one or two reviews noting an issue with the lighting, but I didn’t see it. If anything, the only real worry I experienced was my screen going black when I changed windows, the game loads, or just out of nowhere for seemingly no reason at all. Hell Clock has been getting patched on a frequent basis, so I don’t expect that little issue to last for long. I do think the bosses can be a little bit of a bore to fight, though. The first boss became a roadbump after my first encounter, because once you increase your base damage (which was required to access the rest of the skill tree), he dies in 10 seconds of repeater fire. That feels wrong.

Time comes for all.

I really enjoyed my time with Hell Clock. It balances all its aspects just right: narrative, gameplay, progression, and difficulty. Although my initial impression was leaning towards Hades, it turns out to be more like roguelike Diablo or Path of Exile than anything else. Hordes of enemies charging straight at you, gold and trinkets dropping like rain, and skills assigned to every button. The repetition might wear you down, but that comes with the territory of roguelikes. Just watch the clock, you might lose yourself down in Hell.