Dying Light it is a more unique than rare case in the videogame industry: more than 5 years after its release, the developer Techland continues undaunted to publish extra contents that considerably lengthen the already practically infinite by its nature, videogame experience of the title. And it is precisely with this in mind that today we will analyze the latest “expansionist effort” of the Polish studio, Hellraid: expansion of Dying Light but with an unexpected “plot twist”. In fact, Hellraid was in all respects a title in its own right of Techland: a first-person action role, with elements in single and multiplayer that would have made in every sense, the happiness of both fans of the dungeon crawlers. is one of the most exquisitely fond of a simple but brutal slicing of supernatural bad guys in a continuous cycle.
But even before that Hellraid was called Project Hell and was, in the heads of Techland developers, a “simple” mod for the first and unforgettable chapter of Dead Island.
As a standalone game, Hellraid should have been released in 2015 after the reveal urbi et orbi in 2013: but, in 2014 the project underwent a total makeover, in order to adapt the title to Techland's new in-house graphics engine and then unfortunately, to be abandoned completely. Finally, here is the Hellraid review!
Hellraid is a paid add-on to Dying Light: Like the base game, Hellraid also shares essentially the same gameplay mechanics as the original title, establishing itself as an action game with first-person role-playing elements. As one might expect, the expansion of Dying Light also inherits from the title "mother" all the athletic abilities of the protagonist, thus able to climb high buildings and take considerable leaps into the void, even if in the expansion they are strongly resized in the 'use.
Hellraid, at the same time, will have "unique" characteristics capable of differentiating it, in the formula, from the main experience of the saga.
The expansion allows us to enter a universe parallel to that of videogames, dark and infested with terrible demonic forces that obey the will of the powerful Ba'al. Once you find the 80s cabinet or the posters in the shelters, our athletic protagonist will find himself in spite of himself in a terrifying tower, inhabited by monstrosities of all kinds as well as by our dear and loving undead. The goal, needless to say, will be to make our way up to the lowest level of the tower, gradually gathering different tools of death to mow down the rotten and bloody hostiles (our inventory, at the beginning, will be empty) and have the best of the forces of evil.
Reviewing Hellraid is difficult for many reasons: if we were only to analyze the additional content in a "cathartic" abstracting from mere numerical-mechanical values, Hellraid would deserve a dry 10 for two reasons. The first is to have intelligently brought back to life an intellectual property that, albeit "latent", had already gathered many fans in his wake. The second reason is that Techland is basically showing the world that it is possible, five years later, to revive a title by supporting it in a prolonged way and with generous contents (the second expansion, The Following, offered quantitatively proportional content at an affordable price. to the base game).
But if we opt for a content analysis, free from "ethical" and "ideological" issues, Hellraid is indeed a good content, looking above all at the price and thinking about the support it will surely have in the future. But at the same time it is not too difficult to find significant limits that strongly clash with the potential of the original concept. For example, one of the founding features of Dying Light gameplay is the parkour element, not only scenic but also strategic in the most agitated situations. A feature that in Hellraid has been almost completely eliminated: in fact, the overall level design of the title will be substantially linear and, in the vast majority of cases, it will not put before us obstacles to overcome or situations that lead us to take advantage of the athletic skills of our protagonist.
Even the narrative element is substantially only hinted at and turns out to be nothing more than a brief justification for slashing far and wide. Another element to take into consideration is also the overall accessibility of the game: Hellraid offers an “internal” progression system but which, in essence, will only allow us to unlock special weapons that can be used in the base game. By knocking down the enemies we will have the opportunity to obtain special coins that will gradually increase our rank in the diabolical universe of Hellraid.
The higher our rank, the more the overall level of difficulty of the game will increase with each new "attempt": if we consider that, in essence, at each run (which will end prematurely if we die three times, in full arcade style) we will find ourselves in spite of ourselves "naked" and in need of equipment, the mechanics are certainly intriguing and in a certain way conforms to the classic canons of roguelikes. What Hellraid would like us to do is basically what all roguelikes ask for: to continue, head down, to start all over again. (at this juncture, with the possibility also to face the diabolical adventure through online co-op for four people).
But if usually in the sector, for example, we almost always rely on a procedural construction of the levels, Hellraid instead will have a static conformation of the stages, for the occasion splendidly redesigned in a dark fantasy key that overall will reach the maximum to engage the player for two or three hours of gameplay. A (short) repetition further aggravated by a combat system that does not introduce anything new compared to the past, and which will substantially result in the cyclical use of our tools of death, limited however by the lack of verticality and the related possibilities that had characterized Dying Light in the chaos of action / RPG games in the first person.
To this, add a few new items to collect (making even the more exquisitely loot finding side fade) and enemies that, except in a few cases, will be substantially identical to the past. Also the level of challenge is fluctuating especially for those who have played the previous contents far and wide and if you have characters in "God mode" version it will not be particularly demanding until after (several) ranks obtained. On the contrary, for those starting from scratch, the challenge offered by Hellraid could quickly turn out to be complicated.
Ultimately, Hellraid is a more than enough product when compared to the basic cost: Dying Light lovers will have, at an affordable price, a new "excuse" to beat up zombies, skeletons and other monstrosities. At the same time, Hellraid is also and above all an opportunity that is currently wasted: the expansion has some light roguelike and action RPG elements but which, precisely because of their being only mentioned and far from being at least "equalized" to the standards of the aforementioned sectors, return the flavor of something not completed. And it's a shame given the frightening potential of the typical mechanics of Dying Light especially if we think of the virtually absent verticality in Hellraid: Techland's modus ludendi and the basic concept of the game would have, on paper, had and could have created more.
