Hell Architect

About

Hell Architect is a single player strategy game. It was developed by Woodland Games and was released on August 18, 2021. It received neutral reviews from players.

"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.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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60%

Audience ScoreBased on 252 reviews

story8 positive mentions

grinding22 negative mentions

The game has a unique and humorous concept, allowing players to manage a hellish underworld while torturing sinners.
The minimalistic art style is visually pleasing and fits well with the game's theme.
Gameplay can be entertaining and addictive, especially for fans of colony management sims like Oxygen Not Included.

The game feels unfinished and lacks depth, with many players reporting bugs and a lack of updates from the developers.
There is a repetitive gameplay loop with limited content, leading to boredom after a short time.
The AI for managing sinners is poor, often resulting in them getting stuck or failing to perform necessary tasks.

story
80 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
10%
82%
8%
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 in mission objectives frustrating, as skipping dialogue leaves them without necessary information to progress. While some missions offer variety and interesting mechanics, the overall narrative feels repetitive and underdeveloped, leading to a lack of engagement as players progress through the campaign.
- “I like the idea of a story and scenarios, unlike Oxygen Not Included (ONI).”
- “I enjoyed the humor of both the story mode and the visuals of different buildings.”
- “The campaign consists of just 6 scenarios that are story-driven levels, each lasting around 30-60 minutes and not too complicated to complete when you understand the game's mechanics.”
- “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 the actual useful information is buried among pointless dialogue.”
- “Now, in theory, you can quickly skip through all this pointless dialogue, but if you do, you get to the scenario with only the title for context, which is usually something vague like 'prepare for arrival.' Without reading the 20+ dialogue boxes, you have no idea what the game is asking you to do.”
gameplay
74 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
16%
79%
5%
The gameplay of "Hell Architect" has received mixed reviews, with some players enjoying the dark humor and mechanics of managing sinners, while others criticize it for being tedious and lacking depth. Many feel that the game borrows heavily from "Oxygen Not Included" without offering a satisfying core loop or rewarding progression, leading to a sense of boredom. Although the tutorial is effective, the overall experience is marred by performance issues and underutilized mechanics, suggesting that the game needs significant polishing to reach its potential.
- “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 gameplay is simple and isn’t so difficult, but torturing the population is extremely satisfying, especially for colony simulator enthusiasts.”
- “It was promising on paper, but once you hit the gameplay, it's poor, it's boring, it's tedious, and gives no motivation or rewards for progressing further.”
- “Well, the gameplay is as deep as a puddle.”
- “There were some clear flaws in the gameplay, like holes just needing to be filled.”
humor
34 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
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 absurdity. Players appreciate the charming visuals, engaging voice acting, and the overall creativity that enhances the gameplay experience, making it particularly enjoyable for those with a penchant for dark humor. While the humor is well-received, some reviewers express concern about its appropriateness for younger audiences due to its graphic content.
- “Everything is tongue in cheek and cute/funny, while also primarily being a game about torture.”
- “The concept of building and managing hell as a corporation is hilarious.”
- “A humorous, casual dungeon-keeper-esque title, Hell Architect is an enjoyable time for those into management sims and/or those with a dark sense of humor.”
graphics
32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
44%
47%
9%
The graphics of the game are described as minimalistic and cartoonish, with a beautiful art style that complements its dark humor. However, players report significant issues with lag, glitches, and frame drops, detracting from the overall experience. While the visuals are appreciated, many feel that the game lacks necessary updates and optimizations to enhance gameplay.
- “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.”
- “Various quality of life changes that could make the game easier to play, more enjoyable, or less confusing go ignored in lieu of adding more things that aren't currently needed in the form of graphical updates.”
grinding
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and unmotivating, often feeling like a chore rather than an engaging experience. The micromanagement required for tasks, such as adjusting priorities and building, is described as frustratingly slow and repetitive, leading to a lack of satisfaction in progression. While the game has appealing graphics and potential, the overall gameplay is criticized for being boring and lacking meaningful rewards.
- “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.”
- “The reward for farming all that suffering is just more efficient ways of farming said suffering.”
optimization
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
50%
21%
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with players reporting significant performance issues such as stuttering, freezing, and drastically low framerates, particularly in mid to late game scenarios. Despite some improvements noted by a few users, the overall consensus is that the game requires substantial polishing and balancing to enhance its performance and mechanics.
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “Game stuttering and freezing up.”
- “Performance issues in mid to late game (lagging, especially if you excavate the majority of a map).”
- “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.”
stability
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game has been criticized for its significant stability issues, with frequent bugs causing freezes and gameplay interruptions. While some users acknowledge the developers' quick responses to issues, the overall consensus is that the game feels unfinished and tiresome due to its persistent problems.
- “Unfortunately a very buggy game on release.”
- “Once you get out of the buggy but workable tutorial, nothing works at all.”
- “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.”
replayability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
34%
33%
Overall, the game's replayability is considered fair, but it is hindered by limited options, resulting in a lack of depth and length. Many users feel that for its price, the game does not offer sufficient replay value.
- “For a game that costs as much as it does right now, it not only lacks depth but also lacks length and replay value.”
- “The replayability is fair, but the limited options mean it's not endlessly replayable.”
music
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The music in the game is highly praised for enhancing concentration and creating an immersive atmosphere, allowing players to engage for extended periods without losing interest.
- “The soundtrack helps you concentrate and gets you in the mood to play for a long time, allowing you to earn all the rewards without getting bored.”
- “The music enhances the overall experience, making each moment in the game feel more immersive and engaging.”
- “I love how the soundtrack complements the gameplay, creating an atmosphere that keeps me hooked for hours.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Reviews indicate a disconnect between the game's mature art and gameplay and its simplistic, cartoonish dialogue, which many feel undermines the emotional depth intended for an adult audience. This inconsistency leads to a perception that the narrative is more suited for a younger demographic, detracting from the overall emotional impact.
- “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.”