Developer: Woodland Games
Publisher: Leonardo Interactive
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Hell Architect – Review
Hell Architect is a game in which you’ll play a newbie demon who builds and manages their own corner of hell. Sinners will arrive every now and then, and you’ll put them to work: digging chambers, gathering resources, and even having them build the very same devices you’ll use to torture them. Hell Architect has been developed by Woodland Games and is published by Leonardo Interactive.
Story
You start out as an interim demon, learning to manage your own corner of hell. Gradually you’ll take on more and more difficult challenges, earning respect from the higher-up demons, but Frank, the demon who’s directly in charge of you from the start, will grow very jealous over time.
The demons will get introduced to you during conversations. At first, you’ll get your assignments from one demon, but shortly after, other demons will be checking in as well. Some will check up on your work, while others have messed things up and want you to help them out. The conversations are quite funny and each demon has a distinct personality.
The game features different scenarios, each with its own story. A scenario generally presents you with a problem some other demon has created, which grows into something you should try to fix. Often you’ll unknowingly create an even bigger problem, introducing a new challenge halfway through the scenario. Generally, the challenges are presented in a humorous way and serve well to introduce you to the game’s mechanics.
Graphics
The graphical style is very cartoonish and rather cute and colorful, even though the game is all about hell. The characters look really cute with simple but adequate animations, and the structures you’ll build have lots of cool details and often funny animations when they’re in use.
The game is 2D with a view from the side, providing a good overview of all the structures you’ll build on multiple levels. The UI is easy to navigate and well-designed and provides handy functionality to quickly gain insight in the wellbeing of your sinners. You’ll also get an overview of things like lighting or decorations; which are things sinners enjoy having near them.
The combination of the cutesy cartoonish visuals with the theme of hell and gratuitous amounts of blood and suffering is a nice contrast, and fits the whole style of the game very well! The graphics are quite simple but it works great for this kind of game.
Sound
Just like the graphics, the sound effects are a quirky combination of hellish screams and groans, with a lot of cuteness added to the mix. The characters make cute sounds when they move around, and even when they are tortured. Most of the conversations are narrated, and the demons you’ll talk to each have a unique voice that suits the character perfectly. The voice acting is well done, and often very funny.
The soundtrack is very simple. The music is cartoonish and bombastic, and not too grim; just like the game. However, it consists of a looping track that isn’t that long, so you’ll quickly notice that it loops. It’s not obtrusive or annoying though, but after a while, you’ll grow a bit tired of the same music over and over again. The music does fit the game, which is certainly a plus.
Gameplay
Hell Architect is a resource management game, set in hell. You’ll manage your own corner of hell, where sinners will arrive to do your bidding. Sinners will build their own hell as you command them to, but in order to use your sinners efficiently, you’ll also need to tend to the needs of the sinners.
First off, you’ll dig for dirt, metal and stone. With these resources, you’ll be able to craft some basic items like ladders, and start to map out the rooms you’ll use to house your sinners. After some digging, you’ll finally be able to start what you’re here for: torturing! Building basic torture devices will only use the base materials, and using these devices to torture your sinners, will generate another essential resource: suffering.
Suffering is an important resource to build any advanced structure, and you’ll need a lot of it as you progress. To achieve this, you’ll need lots of torture devices and upgrade them, but in order to be efficient, you’ll need to keep an eye on the stats and traits of your sinners. Each torture device will generate a base amount of suffering, but some sinners are more sensitive to certain types of torture, generating more suffering.
However, if you torture your sinners without tending to their needs, they’ll eventually break down and ‘die’. This means they’ll end up in ‘limbo’ and you’ll need to revive them, using your hard-earned suffering as a fee. You can keep your sinners in good condition if you feed them, quell their thirst, give them a place to rest and a place to poop. Also, you’ll need to provide light for the sinners. It’s important to build these amenities early on; because if your sinners’ stats get reduced, they’ll need to replenish them quickly or they’ll expire. Losing a few sinners early on in a scenario can be quite daunting, because then you won’t have enough workers to run your corner of hell efficiently.
When you get to a point where you’ll have a nice amount of sinners working for you, and everyone is assigned and working on an essential resource generating task, then the game will basically run itself. Sinners will tend to their needs automatically, so if every resource is being generated continuously and efficiently, you can just speed up time and wait a bit until you’ve accumulated enough suffering to build the advanced buildings you’ll need to complete the objectives of the scenario.
The most advanced buildings require ‘essence’, which is being generated when you kill off a few sinners. However, when you are at a point where you need essence, you generally have a surplus of sinners. This means that killing a few sinners won’t matter too much and you’ll be able to buy them back from limbo immediately with your endless amount of suffering. At this point, the game is not at all challenging anymore.
When starting the game, you’ll first play through the tutorial, introducing the game’s base mechanics. After that, you’ll be able to choose between different scenarios, each presenting a unique challenge, and featuring a nice story to guide you through the challenges. This way of leading you through the game is fun and engaging and it’s always nice to see what challenge the next scenario will provide.
Sometimes it’s a bit annoying to get the sinners to do what you want them to do. You’ll be able to assign tasks to them, but they tend to prioritize tasks in a strange way, even when you’ve used the task-prioritizing tool that the game features. Especially when digging out rooms, this can be quite annoying, but if you assign multiple sinners to that task, you’ll generally get it done quickly.
Conclusion
Hell Architect is an amusing resource management game with quirky characters and a fun style, but it’s not very challenging, and some mechanics (like sinners ‘dying’) feel a bit out of place for a game which is supposed to be in hell. However, it’s a fun game to play when you want to play something casual, and finishing a scenario while having created a nice and efficient corner of hell does give a feeling of satisfaction.
Hell Architect - Review,
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