Developer: Shortbreak Studios
Publisher: Shortbreak Studios
Platforms: Android, iOS
Tested on: LG Nexus 5, Wiko Highway
Hellraid: The Escape – Review
With smartphones becoming more and more popular, a lot of people are looking to entertain themselves with some simple games from the app stores. Most games are free but aren’t a lot of fun to play. However, there are also great games that are a one time purchase. Hellraid: The Escape is one of those games, it’s a beautiful and diverse puzzle game available for iOS and Android devices.
Story
The story is provided to you on various letters around the levels. You wake up in a coffin in some kind of dungeon. A long time ago, a mage called Crell was consumed by black magic and then made a series of torture chambers and he now feeds on the essence of the souls who try to escape his labyrinth. The notes are written by Vestril, he was once like Crell, clever and greedy for unknown powers. Dark powers offered themselves to Crell and Vestril and they couldn’t resist such power. Vestril immediately regretted the decision and Crell, who was much more powerful than him, sensed it and sent him to the same prison you are in now. You have a clouded memory and can’t remember a thing, trying to remember only makes you weaker, so you have to escape without remembering who you are or you’ll be down there forever. However, when you finally get to Vestril the game takes a very unexpected turn!
Whoever reads, know two things: I am dead. And I have failed. We are all dead here, and we have all failed!
This place! This maze. This twisted collection of torture chambers, treasure vaults, and deadly pitfalls – all of it sprang from the perverted mind of a powerful mage named Crell. Long ago, this once sapient wizard was consumed by black magic. Now he feeds off the essence of those pitful souls who try to escape his labyrinth.
Play his game for now, and together we might outsmart him. We are both dead… but together perhaps we can change our circumstances.
Graphics
The graphics are one of the best I’ve ever seen for a mobile game. It’s played in first person and every detail of the environment has been thought of. Because of this, the game obviously requires a high-end phone or a good tablet to play it. The game would appeal to more people if it had some sort of quality slider to make it available for mid-to-high range phones instead of just high-end ones but this is currently not a feature.
Sound
Hellraid: The Escape has some amazing music and sound effects, however, some sound effects aren’t repeated fast enough when performing some actions quickly (e.g. breaking a wall by tapping quickly). The background music isn’t your typical puzzle game music, it’s more like action/adventure/horror music which fits perfectly as you’re stuck in a dungeon with undead monsters and corpses. The sound effects from the monsters and various actions are also pretty good and provide some extra depth to the game and its atmosphere.
Gameplay
Gameplay wise the game gets an A+. There are a total of 7 chambers which you have to navigate through and each chamber will introduce new puzzles. Almost all puzzles are unique and have to be solved in a different way. Some of them also use the tilt sensors, adding some functions which aren’t available in your typical game. They’re kinda straight forward but that’s to be expected from a mobile game because you can’t use too much of the phone’s resources.
The puzzles themselves are very diverse and require intelligence, precision or dexterity to solve them. One puzzle for example is where you have a chess board with only 3 pieces (you have a tower and a king, the AI only has a king) and you have to checkmate the AI. Other puzzles require you to weigh out gems, boil them to make a speed potion and then outrun a charging enemy and let it break a wall by charging right at it. There are various other hard and simple puzzles hidden around the chambers, the rest is up to you to find out!
Moving and looking around is very nicely done and will not pose a lot of problems. The left half of the screen is reserved for movement, the right side for looking around. You can tap and hold anywhere on the left half of the screen and the movement circle will appear, this is really helpful because most games have a set position in the lower left corner, making the movement less dynamic. Looking around is also very smooth and you even have a sensitivity slider in the options, giving you some extra control over movement and looking around.
The game uses a health system but most things in the game one shot you anyway. The only thing that kills you over time (but still very fast) is standing too close to fire. There are also various traps hidden around the chambers, usually triggered by pressure. Sometimes you can disable them but you can also run around them most of the time. Monsters also kill you in one hit and you can’t hurt them directly. You usually have to outsmart them or solve some sort of puzzle in order to get rid of them.
Conclusion
Hellraid: The Escape is one of the better puzzle games out there for mobile platforms. It has a vast diversity of puzzles, amazing graphics and fun gameplay. There are some little features that could be better or could be added to make the game even better and reach a bigger audience, but even if it stays like this it’s amazing. However, before buying it, make sure that you have a high end device or you could end up losing some money! Hellraid: The Escape is available now on the AppStore and Google Play.
Hellraid: The Escape - Review,
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