Some of my all-time favorite games are Wave Defense arcade-type titles. Give me nothing more than some fun weapons, maybe something like a castle or other objective to defend, and endless hordes of enemies to defend against, and I’m sold–no story mode, microtransactions or battlepass needed. I’ve sunk endless hours into Call of Duty: Zombies, Mordhau’s survival mode, Killing Floor 1 & 2, and other such titles over the years, and despite the arguably aging simplicity of these types of games, I never manage to get tired of it.
Hellbreach: Vegas is another such wave survival game, taking obvious inspiration from some of the titles I’ve dumped hundreds of hours of my life into. Hellbreach: Vegas sees you facing off against the endless hordes of hell’s dead legions in lively Las Vegas. The title is full of glamor, high energy, and clearly has some passionate developers, but while the game certainly shines in some places, its got a bit of tarnish to be polished out before it leaves early access.
When I say that Hellbreach: Vegas is a wave survival game, I mean that it’s something similar to, say, Killing Floor or Call of Duty: Zombies. You and your friends load in, you take out hordes of demons, earn money, and buy weapons and perks to survive the waves better. That’s all the game is, and all it tries to be; it won’t waste your time with an unnecessary story mode, or even a tutorial if you don’t go out of your way to find it. It rightly assumes you know what you’re getting into and lets you get right to it, and I respect if for that. Splitting the game’s focus to anything besides the main wave survival loop could seriously damage the experience.
Because of the game’s focus on, you know, the gameplay, you’re really playing just to experience it. Where there are some unlockables that can be earned through playing matches, these mostly come in the way of starting weapons and perks, with just a few cosmetic pieces being available to unlock. The game is far more interested in giving you a multitude of maps to play on rather than a bunch of unlockables to grind for, and I appreciate that.
That being said, with the current state of Hellbreach: Vegas, there are plenty of things not to love in the gameplay. Nothing that can’t be fixed, and being that the game is in Early Access, it’s only natural that there would be a need for some fixing.
To start with what I like about the game, its got some great presentation. The game looks good, with some interesting levels designed around the city of sin itself. Visual effects, such as when you upgrade your weapons or special attacks from foes, generally look pretty good, with maybe the fart cloud of poison gas some leave behind being the exception. The hordes of hell are fairly interesting to look at, and I enjoy their death animations as I blast them back across a neon-lit casino and watch them fade into sparkly essence.
The whole title has a pretty quirky vibe, making things feel light-hearted and funny despite the undeniably horrible situation you find yourself in. To give you a good example of the vibe I’m talking about here, I found myself facing down a boss demon that wanted to thoroughly exsanguinate me in the middle of a theater playing Steamboat Willy.
For the most part, the game has a good grasp on the wave defense mechanics. Enemies spawn in increasingly difficult waves each round, with some being themed around a certain enemy type. Maps are pretty well designed, open up well as you progress, and don’t feel claustrophobic. I didn’t get caught up backing into walls too many times and when I did it felt more to my fault than anything.
That being said, there are definitely some number adjustments that need to happen. I found that at all stages of the game, on normal, which is to be presumed to be the default difficulty, death was way too difficult to achieve.
Specifically, the game strangely seems to have a regeneration value that activates only after you get hit. This means when you got hit, you would start regenerating health basically immediately. What this meant was that at many stages of a match, enemies would not do enough damage to undercut your self-healing. I eventually figured out I could just stand there and tank three to four demons without worrying about my health going down, which is… a bit ridiculous, if you ask me. This problem sort of becomes less present in later waves unless, of course, you buy the upgrade that increases the healing you receive when hit by enemies.
On the opposite end of things, demons receive so much health with each wave that killing them starts to feel like a chore. By wave six, the game feels like two rocks trying to be a hard place; the demons can’t really kill you, and you’re mag-dumping just to get one or two of them down.
What is arguably the biggest change that needs to come to Hellbreach: Vegas, in my opinion, are adjustments to how the guns function.
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it a thousand times: in a FPS game, one of the most important things you can have are guns that feel good to use. Unfortunately, many of the guns in Hellbreach: Vegas simply don’t. They have recoil that doesn’t feel punchy or strong, and audio that loops obviously and simply doesn’t sound very good. Audio design, in general, is not great in this game, with some sounds being way too loud or looping way too often, like the crows. There were a few times when the audio outright broke for a few seconds.
Most tragically, the guns feel weak. This is due in large part to how the zombies increase in health, but also how they don’t stagger from bullets, and how you can’t blow limbs off or cripple them. Generally, the guns are just a big thumbs down for me, which is very disappointing, because they could easily have made the game much better on their own.
All in all, Hellbreach: Vegas has an interesting and genre-faithful foundation that needs a bit of work before it leaves Early Access.
Pros:
- Fun visuals, with lots of neon and contrast-heavy colors
- Good map design
- A fun, quirky vibe that feels great for the genre
Cons:
- Poor gun feel
- Poor damage and health scaling on enemies, making both players and demons feel too hard to kill way too early into a match
- Audio design that needs work
- Demons need more feedback from players–such as staggering from bullets, losing limbs, etc.
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