One Shell Straight to Hell
- February 9, 2021
- Shotgun with Glitters
Get on SteamOne Shell Straight to Hell is a top-down roguelite shooter with base defense elements starring the unordinary priest and bad-ass demon hunter Padre Alexander.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features a fun blend of twin-stick shooter and tower defense mechanics, providing an engaging gameplay experience.
- The writing and voice acting, particularly for the character El Padre, are enjoyable and add a humorous touch to the game.
- The game has a charming aesthetic with interesting enemy designs and a decent variety of weapons to discover.
- The game suffers from significant control bugs and a broken save system, making it frustrating and unplayable for many players.
- Gameplay can become repetitive and lacks polish, with issues such as poor hitboxes and unbalanced weapons affecting the overall experience.
- The graphics and overall presentation feel cheap and unrefined, leading to a lack of immersion and enjoyment.
- gameplay19 mentions
- 21 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 16 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "One Shell Straight to Hell" combines roguelike dungeon-crawling with tower defense elements, offering a simplistic yet engaging top-down experience. While the mechanics are easy to pick up, some players find the gameplay repetitive and clunky, with suggestions for improvements such as enhancing combat impact and refining enemy interactions. Overall, the game features enjoyable twin-stick shooter mechanics, though visibility issues and a lack of depth in certain areas detract from the overall experience.
“One Shell Straight to Hell lets the player experience the best of two worlds with its well-put-together roguelike dungeon-crawling gameplay mixed with base defense elements.”
“Gameplay is simple but fun; the main character is entertaining, and it's easy to pick up and play for short sessions.”
“Fun twin-stick shooter with great voice acting that made me laugh; it features nice tower defense mechanics and a dash ability for escaping tricky situations.”
“Make no mistake, One Shell Straight to Hell frustrated me in bad ways from the get-go: from repetitive gameplay that not only felt clunky but unrefined to boot, to enemy interactions in presentation that make you wonder if your system is glitching out, or you somehow stumbled into a beta.”
“Certain environment and presentation elements conflict with the gameplay, making it hard to see things and dragging down the overall experience.”
“Being able to see past the doors the moment you open them, and not until you enter the room, would really speed up gameplay, as both the timer on exploring the manor and getting back to help defend your base depend upon moving through the manor quickly.”
- story11 mentions
- 27 % positive mentions
- 45 % neutral mentions
- 27 % negative mentions
The game's story is criticized for being unclear and disjointed, making it difficult for players to grasp the main objectives and narrative. While there are elements that provide insight into the plot, such as the Halliwell family and the demonic presence, the storytelling feels superficial and poorly integrated, with many lines feeling out of place or incomplete. Overall, the narrative lacks coherence and depth, leaving players frustrated rather than engaged.
“The game presents two major tasks for players to piece together: the story of the Halliwell family and the mystery surrounding Hell's Gate, while also defending a young girl against all odds.”
“Storylines are quite handy, providing more insight into the narrative and offering something to seek out while exploring.”
“Players must defeat the demonic presence and piece together the story to uncover the true cause of the outbreak.”
“Subpar story where it exists.”
“It took me a few deaths and a couple of rage quits to figure out the main point of the game and its perma-death feature; as the game doesn’t convey your goals and missions that clearly, it took me a while to figure things out.”
“The story elements feel tacked on with one-liners that feel fished out of the 'reject' lines for a Duke Nukem clone.”
- stability4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant stability issues, with numerous glitches and bugs reported by players, particularly as they progress through the levels. Many reviewers found these problems detracted from the overall experience, leading to frustration and a lack of recommendation, especially given the game's price point.
“After playing it for a while longer, the glitches mounted up.”
“It's just too buggy and there's not enough to it for me to recommend for twenty dollars.”
“Glitchy and buggy game, with a highlight on incomplete or improper design decisions.”
- graphics4 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with some users criticizing the inconsistency in art style and performance issues, such as low frame rates on capable hardware. However, others appreciated the overall aesthetic and color scheme, finding it suitable for the gameplay experience.
“It looked good and played out very well; the art style and color scheme were just fine for the gameplay.”
“At one point, the frame rate on my NVIDIA RTX 3060, 16GB RAM PC hit the single digits for a game that has graphics only slightly better than Minecraft.”
“Graphics and assets are egregious - why would you voxel some parts and not all?”
- music3 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The music and sound effects in the game are generally well-selected and complement the gameplay effectively, though some users feel that the soundtrack could benefit from a bit more variety or enhancement.
“The music and sound effects are well-selected, and the background music suits the game just fine, but it could be spiced up a little.”
“Music and sound effects: well-selected background music suits the game just fine, but could be spiced up a little.”
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious, as the tower defense mechanics lack tactical growth and development. The repetitive cycle of navigating a procedural maze under time pressure, followed by a static defense phase, contributes to a sense of monotony.
“This in of itself isn't a problem, but once you get the tools, the tower defense element becomes vastly tedious with no growth or development in tactics.”
“The play cycle is a little tedious, with hurriedly running a procedural maze while a clock counts down to the next invasion, alternating with a fixed area defense phase where you defend a house with five entrance points from an invasion swarm from several directions.”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is highlighted by the main character's comedic personality and engaging voice acting, which elicits genuine laughter from players. The lighthearted tone complements the simple yet enjoyable gameplay, making it easy to pick up and play, while also entertaining friends during streams. Overall, the game successfully blends fun mechanics with a humorous atmosphere.
“Gameplay is simple but fun; the main character is a funny guy, and it's easy to pick up and play for a little here and there and then be able to dive back in.”
“Fun twin-stick shooter with great voice acting that actually made me laugh quite a few times. I showed the game to my friends on stream, and they seemed to like it as well. It has some nice tower defense mechanics and a dash ability to get out of sticky situations.”
- emotional1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
While the game's emotional impact is noted, some users feel that the environments, particularly the rooms and narrow corridors, detract from the overall experience and could benefit from improvement.
