Hellslinger demo playthrough (announced at Realms Deep 2022)
0NOTE: if you want to see a version of this in probably sharper quality, watch the twitch highlight: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1650154157 - I can't control YouTube butchering uploads by needlessly re-encoding them at the exact same resolution and framerate but half the bitrate.
When I saw the Hellslinger trailer at Realms Deep this year, it was definitely one that I was on the fence about as I was dubious about its visual accessibility. Given that the game now has a free demo (originally planned to release on Halloween, but actually released November 11), I wanted to at least see what they've managed to put together.
It's undeniable that a lot of effort has been put into Hellslinger, especially in terms of artwork and gunplay. All of the artwork is hand-drawn, and the game overall has a unique aesthetic not typically seen in GZDoom-based games. The game features multiple playable characters (2 in the demo, 4 total planned) with unique weapons, skills, and playstyles. The weapons seem pretty cool, though I wouldn't say I've necessarily fully gotten a feel for the ammo balance yet.
There are also a fair number of accessibility options in the menu, and the difficulty settings seem to span a wide range to appeal to as many players as possible. If I'd known what I was getting into, I probably would've chosen a lower difficulty than the 3rd (out of 5). That being said, there is still room for improvement on the accessibility front; more on that below.
The game is very arena-centric in terms of enemy encounters; it feels almost Doom-2016-esque in how you'll frequently bounce between the two extremes of fighting a whole bunch of enemies in one are and then running across an awkwardly uninhabited expanse. There's also a fair bit of platforming involved (including secret-hunting).
The number one problem I ran into is enemy visibility and contrast, as they far too easily blend into the background. This gets even worse in instances involving arenas with fog. Some enemies also don't have particularly audible start-up sounds (while the biggest enemies very clearly do), which can end up surprising you when you get hit by something you didn't even know existed.
There are also some areas where the terrain itself is extremely low-contrast, with lots of grays and browns and not much variation in light to lend more definition and depth to what you're looking at.
While there are accessibility options around screen shake (which I very much appreciated and turned down), one thing I didn't see is any options around controlling intensity of screen flashes (item pickups, dash, etc.). Given the current difficulty in distinguishing enemies from background, it can be all the more disruptive when you use your melee or special and end up picking up a bunch of health/armor/ammo drops and suddenly the screen blinds you when you're busy squinting just trying to see what the hell you're shooting at (or what's damaging you).
One of the most egregious accessibility issues, unfortunately, is the title screen itself. For some reason, the title background animation loop includes a full screen flash, which is hugely aggravating, maybe even harmful to some people, and makes it unnecessarily difficult to read menu text. That was certainly not a good first impression for the game to make.
Another thing that would be great to see fixed is the fact that none of the alternative map color schemes work, and the custom one has contrast issues - much like GZDoom's default and the Heretic style, it's incredibly hard for maps to pick colors that sufficiently contrast on a tan background, whereas the Doom color scheme has much higher-contrast colors on a black background, so I pretty much always use it when possible.
The game is very early in development, so hopefully most of these pain points can be improved (shout-outs to Korzodin who tuned in and took notes to pass on to the devs). It probably sounds like I'm poking a lot of holes in the demo right now, and well, I am, but I do think there's a lot to like - it'll just be that much better with less getting in the way of the enjoyment.
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