Hell Architect
- August 17, 2021
- Woodland Games
- 4h median play time
Get on Steam"Hell Architect" is a simulation game where you build and manage your own customized hell. Design unique tortures, manage resources, and maintain control over your demon minions to expand your hellish domain. Oversee sinners' eternal punishments and deal with unexpected events, all while striving to meet each level's objectives.
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features a unique and humorous concept of managing a hellish underworld, which is both entertaining and engaging.
- The minimalistic art style and animations are visually appealing, adding charm to the gameplay experience.
- The game offers a decent amount of replayability with its sandbox mode and various scenarios, allowing players to experiment with different strategies.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs and performance issues, making it frustrating to play at times.
- There is a lack of depth and content, leading to repetitive gameplay and a feeling of being unfinished.
- The AI for the sinners is poorly designed, often resulting in them getting stuck or failing to perform necessary tasks, which detracts from the overall experience.
- story40 mentions
- 10 % positive mentions
- 83 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The game's story is criticized for being tedious and poorly written, with excessive and often pointless dialogue that detracts from the overall experience. Players find the lack of context and clarity in mission objectives frustrating, leading to confusion and a sense of repetitiveness. While some missions offer variety and interesting mechanics, the overall narrative fails to engage, leaving many feeling bored and unfulfilled.
“I enjoyed the humor of both the story mode and the visuals of different buildings.”
“The campaign consists of six scenarios that are story-driven levels, each lasting around 30-60 minutes and not too complicated to complete once you understand the game's mechanics.”
“The story missions provide some variety in objectives and gameplay, helping to keep the game fresher as you progress through the campaign.”
“The art, language, and general gameplay all suggest this is a game for adults, but the tedious, cartoonish, and boring story dialogue feels like it was written for pre-teens.”
“Each pop-up has almost no story context, and there are a lot of pop-ups. You are literally reading a short story with every scenario, but if you skip through the pointless dialogue, you end up with a quest that has zero description and no context.”
“The story missions do provide some variety in objectives and gameplay, but following the mission objectives closely results in very little in terms of upgrades and research.”
- gameplay37 mentions
- 16 % positive mentions
- 76 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "Hell Architect" has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating its dark humor and character management mechanics, while others criticize it for being tedious and lacking depth. Many noted that the game feels derivative of titles like "Oxygen Not Included," and while it offers some creative elements, the core gameplay loop is seen as unfulfilling and repetitive. Additionally, the tutorial is effective, but the overall experience suffers from performance issues and a lack of engaging objectives, leading to a sense of boredom during extended play sessions.
“I really enjoy the gameplay, the characters, and the dark humor.”
“Overall, as far as I could see in these first few hours of gameplay, Hell Architect is a well-constructed game; its strong points are the artistic style and the comic dialogue.”
“The basics, the core mechanics, and fundamentals of the game are there and are spot-on.”
“Not only 'Hell Architect' made a copy from 'Oxygen Not Included', but also gave up these creative skins and gameplay.”
“It was promising on paper, but once you hit the gameplay, it's poor, boring, tedious, and gives no motivation or rewards for progressing further.”
“The achievement, especially 'Hell Hole No More', is so stupid to reach and requires a massive grind of 10 hours for 1 achievement, more or less AFK, but not really AFK because you have to constantly watch the game so that everything works, making it so boring because there's nearly no gameplay.”
- humor17 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in "Hell Architect" is characterized by its dark, tongue-in-cheek approach, blending elements of corporate satire with twisted comedic scenarios involving torture and management of hell. Players appreciate the charming visuals, engaging voice acting, and the overall creativity that enhances the gameplay experience, making it a fun choice for those who enjoy a casual yet macabre sense of humor. While the humor is well-received, some reviewers caution that its graphic content may not be suitable for younger audiences.
“Everything is tongue in cheek and cute/funny, while also primarily being a game about torture.”
“I really enjoy the gameplay, the characters, and the dark humor.”
“The concept of building and managing hell as a corporation is hilarious.”
- graphics16 mentions
- 44 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 19 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the beautiful, cartoonish art style and dark humor, while others criticize the minimalistic design and technical issues such as lag, glitches, and frame drops. Despite the aesthetic appeal, many users feel that the graphics alone do not compensate for gameplay shortcomings, leading to a sense of disappointment and tedium. Overall, while the visuals have their charm, they are marred by performance problems and a lack of substantial updates.
“I think the artwork is beautiful and I love the concept of the game.”
“I really appreciated the cartoonish graphic style.”
“I like very much the graphics and even the soundtrack helps you concentrate and get in the mood to play for a long time and get all the rewards without getting bored.”
“I've been playing this and it's very basic, and no update since release. My minions or sinners get stuck and die, it's very unbalanced, and sometimes my sinners get stuck in place and I have to close the whole game and reboot it again. There are also problems with lag and glitching graphics, and my frames go down very fast.”
“Even putting my graphics on the lowest possible setting seems to make no difference.”
“Optimise the game so it does not lose frames, or cause lag or graphic glitches.”
- grinding11 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Reviews highlight that the grinding aspect of the game is excessively tedious and frustrating, with players facing monotonous tasks and cumbersome micromanagement. The lack of meaningful rewards for progress and the slow pace of gameplay contribute to a sense of disappointment, despite the game's appealing graphics and potential. Overall, the grinding experience is seen as a major drawback, overshadowing the game's creative elements.
“It was promising on paper, but once you hit the gameplay, it's poor, boring, tedious, and gives no motivation or rewards for progressing further.”
“Aside from the few scenario goals, you just keep building stuff and farming suffering just so you can build more stuff to farm more suffering.”
“Having to individually click every block up or down in priority is a tedious annoyance, and when I’m demolishing things, the mouse lag and ability to click things through menus means I have to randomly replace things I never intended to demolish.”
- optimization7 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 29 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has received significant criticism, with players reporting severe performance issues such as stuttering, freezing, and drastically low framerates, particularly in mid to late game scenarios. While some users noted improvements over time, the overall consensus is that the game requires substantial polishing and optimization to enhance performance and balance core mechanics.
“The maps are very small, but I’m not sure the game is optimized well enough to tolerate anything bigger at the moment, and it still provides enough room to explore all of the current torture options.”
“One can say my former complaints are pretty much gone; I did not notice any game-breaking or immersion-breaking moments, and the game runs smoothly.”
“But if only it was just as optimized and balanced.”
“Game stuttering and freezing up.”
“Tl;dr: memorable new IP, but at its current state, the game needs serious polishing for performance issues and a review of some core mechanics.”
- stability5 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game has been criticized for its significant stability issues, with frequent bugs causing freezes and gameplay interruptions. While developers are noted for their quick responses, the persistent nature of these bugs detracts from the overall experience, leading to frustration among players.
“I note that there are some bugs within the game, which kind of takes the shine out of playing it whenever it freezes or hangs.”
“Unfortunately a very buggy game on release.”
“So going onto secondly, I'd like to preface that I've played buggy games before, often trying out early access and the like, but these bugs were far too consistent to give the benefit of the doubt; it struck me as lazy.”
- replayability3 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is considered fair, but it suffers from limited options and a lack of depth, making it not particularly enticing for repeated playthroughs. Many reviewers feel that for its price, the game does not offer sufficient length or replay value.
“The replayability is fair, but the limited options mean it's not endlessly replayable.”
“For a game that costs as much as it does right now, it not only lacks depth but also lacks length and replay value.”
- emotional1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game is criticized for its disconnect between mature art and gameplay elements and the simplistic, tedious dialogue that feels more suited for a younger audience, leading to a lack of depth in the storytelling.
“The art, language, and general gameplay all suggest this is a game for adults, but the tedious, cartoonish, and boring story dialogue feels like it was written for pre-teens.”
“The emotional depth of the characters is lacking, making it hard to connect with their struggles and triumphs.”
“Despite the game's attempts at emotional storytelling, it often falls flat, leaving players feeling disconnected and uninvested.”
- music1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The music in the game is highly praised for enhancing the overall experience, helping players concentrate and stay engaged for extended periods. It effectively sets the mood, contributing to a rewarding gameplay atmosphere.
“I really enjoy the graphics, and the soundtrack helps me concentrate and get into the mood to play for a long time, allowing me to earn all the rewards without getting bored.”
