Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff
Today we are here to review the very interesting "Hell Architect" by Woodland Games, I will say, that wouldn't Hell's Architect be a better name? Just seems more grammatically correct. Oh well.
When I started playing Hell Architect, the first thing I noticed was the similarities to Hammerting, a game I reviewed back in October 2020, same viewpoint, same general gameplay, but luckily as I started playing through the tutorial of Hell Architect, I realised that Hell Architect was an infinitely better game. So, if you had a bad experience with Hammerting, then give Hell Architect a play, as it gets right, almost everything that Hammerting got wrong.
You play as the "Architect of Hell", you play from a 2D vertical side on view point, and like other vertical mining colony sim type games, your job is to dig, craft and build, but with the twist being that you are running hell. Instead of dwarves, you have sinners and lost souls, you need to make these evildoers suffer, you can build prisons and torture devices, all while keeping your hell running smoothly.
You have 9 levels of hell to complete in single player mode, or you can just go to work creating your own perfect hell in sandbox mode. In single player mode you will try to gain the approval of demons and even the devil himself. But running hell is not an easy task, unfortunately there is more to hell than just punishing sinners, you have to build power stations, places for your sinners to eat food, and more and more intricate torture devices. You will need to harvest resources, the usual dirt, stone, coal and so on, but also if you dig far enough you can find ancient artifacts that will give you special powers.
At its core Hell Architect is a vertical 2D management sim, but with such a nice twist, that being you are running hell.
The Good
The graphics are crisp, well animated, and I need to give a special mention to how well this game is optimized, it ran perfectly on an old laptop of mine, as well as perfectly on my fancy desktop. This is so important, since many games are released that are so poorly optimized that unless you have a £2000 setup, you can't play them, but Hell Architect really is so well made, I was pleasantly surprised by the relatively low download size, and just how smooth everything is.
The tutorial is perfect, really helps you learn the basics of the game, everything is easy to find and navigate, you can tell that the game makers have really spent time making sure the basics of the game are perfect, and I really appreciate that, especially considering the frustrations I had with similar games I have played in this genre.
The tutorial is perfect, really helps you learn the basics of the game, everything is easy to find and navigate, you can tell that the game makers have really spent time making sure the basics of the game are perfect, and I really appreciate that, especially considering the frustrations I had with similar games I have played in this genre.
The Bad
If you like Vertical 2D management sim type games, then there is no bad. This game is almost the perfect representation of the genre.
Overall
Can you tell I like this game yet? The true greatness of any game, especially for someone like me who is in general only playing it to review it, is if after I have finished my review, if I will keep playing it, it is that simple, if I never play it again, then the game is perhaps not that great, but with Hell Architect I will definitely keep playing it. It is just so damn good.
I score the game a near perfect 9/10 Absolutely loved it.
Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff.