Review – Hell Clock – Gamerview

The Canudos War was one of the most striking and tragic events in Brazilian history. In Arraial de Canudos, inside the northeastern caatinga, 25,000 people, including men, women, children and the elderly, were killed by republican troops in the late nineteenth century. His only crime went to seek a better life, living than the earth to plant. Take this dark moment from the past as a starting point for an infernal journey.

Brazilian developer Rogue Snail is inspired by titles such as Diablo, Hades and Path of Exile to create his own devilish. Instead of myths and monsters so handy of so many games, we have unique nightmare creatures and northeastern accent characters in a dispute moved to revenge and redemption.

On the ground

The Canudos Arraial was devastated under the fire of cannons. The federal troops that entered their streets entered to kill the survivors, go beyond the fugitives, and set fire to the remaining houses. His legacy was erased and his ruins today lay under the waters of a dam. Revisiting the tragedy of Canudos, albeit in the context of a fantasy game, is one of Hell Clock’s great merits.

And even its fantastic elements are closer to Latin American fantastic realism, with its traditions and beliefs, than from European buzzwords or colonial Catholicism. The first act presents a dive in a dungeon that resembles other corridors already crossed on so many medieval -themed RPGs, to deepen the hell of fire, sulfur and rocks. The Brazilianness of Hell Clock, present in the geography of the backlands, arises from the second act, when we wandered through the landscape of Caatinga, between demonic carcar and mandacuru feet, until we reach a rebuilt version of Arraial de Canudos.

If, at first, perhaps Hell Clock Emule too much ways already treaded before, the cramulhão lives in the details, then take our retinas by assault. The design of creatures (especially bosses) and places always reserves a space for references of our culture. We have statues of Santos, we have relics typical of the inherited faith of the Portuguese, living side by side with pieces of crafts and animals of our fauna.

One of the bosses stands out, the demonic recreation of a troop commander, a degoing, redone with all his monstrosity reflected in his flesh, an amalgam of severed heads, weapons and military uniform of the newly proclaimed republic. It is just one example of a work full of adaptations, a work that makes a “inverted world” straws, a space of pain and condemned suffering in an endless cycle of tragedy and revenge.

All of this is packed with a soundtrack that refers to the first diablo, but touched with typical Brazilian instruments, a kind of anthropophagy culture that would have left the proud tropicalists.

The man

Hell Clock is conducted by Pajeú, one. He was one of the guerrilla leaders who secured the village’s victory against the Republican forces in the first three invested before the last attack. Pajeú had been a soldier or police officer and used his tactical knowledge to train and prepare resistance. In the words of Euclide da Cunha, who narrated the events in his work “Os Sertões”, Pajeú would be a man of “uncoverable bravery and rare ferocity.” After all, Pajeú also succumbed…

… To reborn in Hell Clock’s fiction as a revenge spirit. He is brought back to consciousness with the artifact that names the game, a cursed watch that marks the time he has to fulfill his mission. It is up to Pajeú to defend Canudos once again, now in a trap in the limbo, in a suspended dimension. It is up to Pajeú to rescue the apostle Antonio Counselor from the claws of evil so that the souls of straws can finally rest.

PAJEÚ GATHER OTHER FIGURE FIGURES PRACTICES CREATED Specifically for the game. It is pleasant to hear your voice acting, your accent, your words, which add an extra layer of immersion to such a fierce title. Similarly, many of the heads that Pajeú is defeating on his journey are real characters who participated in some way in the Canudos massacre.

The fight in Hell Clock

We wouldn’t be talking about a straw -inspired game if there was no violence. Pajeú will make way at the base of the bullet, the fishmonger, the knife and the power of his faith. To this end, Hell Clock offers the player a captive range of possibilities to participate in a literally eternal war. There are weapons and skills of all kinds, which can be changed using relics, as well as a complex tree of advantages that can be unlocked throughout the campaign. This allows multiple combinations and strategies to be created according to the style of each player.

Hell Clock brings the type of RogueLike that I enjoy: RogueLike where all sessions help. Each onslaught is a guarantee of accumulation of released souls and new equipment that will allow the play to go further in the next attempt. The fittest players will be able to advance faster, but the less fit players will not have to suffer, just a little patience and brute strength that the sea of enemies opens. Even when it takes a little more grind, each session is so satisfactory and fun that I didn’t care to try one more, another and another, until the fingers hurt.

Not that the game is difficult. In fact, and perhaps this is its main defect, it is unbalanced. As a result of excess mechanics, not all explained properly, there are many possibilities for the player to enjoy. Some will make the advance almost impossible, others will “break” the flow by crossing the legions of monsters like a hot knife in the butter. Experiencing here and there, I discovered a technique that completely changed my way of playing and turned my Pajeú into a devastation cyclone.

It is guaranteed that Rogue Snail adjusts details in the game at launch, increasing the effect of some techniques or reducing others. In the way the game was tested, he is already free of bugs and glaring failures, but curious player can always find creative ways to exterminate his opponents.

Ironically, Hell Clock artifact is the least weight in gameplay. It works like an hourglass: when time runs out, the session ends and Pajeú returns to the straw headquarters. It may seem like a strong limiter, but the fact is that this time is generous and the player is more likely to be killed than to arrive at the end of time. Along the way, it is possible to acquire extensions of this time with defeated enemies, as well as it is also possible to buy permanent dilations of this time limit. If everything else fails, the player can also choose to play in relaxed mode, where Hell Clock is not triggered.

For Pajeú, time becomes another trap. At the end of the three acts of his campaign, the war continues. Rest is a lie. In its place, there is a new infinite mode, which adds even more possibilities, but also more challenges. Pajeú’s struggle does not end, as is the memory of Canudos events.