Hellion

Last year I just started playing Neverwinter Nights 2 and the MOTB expansion - which was also the first time in my life I finally understand what D&D rules are about (previously I was cursing at the game because I keep missing a hit "what the hell" I thought). In the end, I got pretty addicted to it, especially the skill system. That is why when I saw the OOBS feature I was instantly hooked with Hellion. Few hours back, I just finished the game, so I am going to write what I think about this game.

Graphics : 3/5

If you are a huge fan of graphics, you might be a bit turned off by Hellion. Personally, I wasn't very fond of the NES look of the game at first, but It grew on me (after hours of gaming + I enjoy old school games (although SNES era mostly)).

I think it's a pretty good move that Kentona focused more on other aspects of the game instead of the graphics so that the game is more polished in the end/take less time to make (Everyone only have 3 battle animation : Move, Defend, Death!). It would be nice if he make more battle actions, but with his choice of 8-bit graphics, I think it is not really necessary (1. Too complex ruin the graphics; 2. Simplicity has its own charm in my opinion).

Storyline : 3.5/5

It starts off simple enough - You are a Myssssterious Wanderer from faraway land who is drawn towards Salidar, a simple town which is built directly above...uh... Hell. Needless to say, there is something definitely evil going on down there and you have decided to test your mettle in the dungeons below.

However, as you progress deeper and learn more about the pit's secret, you may found out that your hero may be more than just a simple wanderer... I dunno, the story kinda caught me by surprise and actually made me want to continue playing to see what happens in the end.

Oh yeah, there are also 3 endings. Good/Neutral/Bad. Morality scale in this game is pretty left out though. for most of the time, my point stay neutral until the end area where there are some point changes, but never major. Feels like the point is just there but not being fully utilized. Also, It's a good thing Kentona allows you to change alignment with a little fee, I sure wish he could make it like what he did with the stat increase (i.e. Choose how much you want to change). Cause reducing it one by one takes some time especially if the guy blabbers about quests I can't finish EVERYTIME I talked with him before offering me the option Yes I can't Find the Damn Sign, Stop Talkingg.

One good thing I like about this is that by working with just one city, Kentona focused more on the NPC's dialogue and personality. This in my opinion, made the city livelier for the player.


Meet Salidar, populated by badasses who aren't afraid of living above the damned pit


Gameplay : 4/5

I will admit that I like battle in RPG. And being a dungeon crawler, you can expect battle 99.9% of the time. Almost everything in this game will involve killing a monster, looting their remains, and hope that this time you get a good equipment that will make your life easier.

That being said, if you don't like RM Battle, I guess you shouldn't try this one out.

Balance
Every hero has their own special set of abilities and skill growth (and you get to choose what to develop first). For example, a Kensai is a very strong tank/fighter. His skills allows him to dish out huge damage to the enemies in battle and pretty much invincible with end game equipments. Compared to him, Rogue is faster (which is good) but lacks finisher moves to bosses - because he is an OOBS specialist. Does this make Kensai a better class? In certain areas yes, but overall, the whole thing evens out (also depends on your playing style).


Now I just look like a show-off - why do I post this

For example, my rogue character with high hide and picpocket is able to gain Twice as much loot in the game (extra chest with pickpocket) and able to gain initiative in battle 90% of the time (hide = sneak attack/initiative). Also, high Skill growth (+7) per level, rogue is able to max out the OOBS skills, making him effective in persuasion and other aspect of the game. Of course the damage dealing ability is still lacking, but this is where the hirelings come to play. Thus, with a good party, Rogue can become an excellent support character that saves the party most of the time (Remeditty, Heroic). Of course, this is mostly because I enjoy playing in this style, there are a lot of other combinations which adds a lot of replay value...

To be honest though, I think Mage characters/mp based class would suffer a lot here. For me, Mana Potion is pretty damn rare, but there are methods so you won't need them (read next section).

Hirelings
You can only have one skill set (when I read CROSS CLASS Skill, I thought I can gain both Kensai and Rogue's skill sets, but apparently not. This made me pretty sad :( but I guess that'd be pretty game breaking if that's possible)


I did it anyway, for the 2nd play

You will want to get these hirelings to join your party to cover your weak areas. Each of them have their own personality and skillsets. Some of them will even leave if they don't like you (or just being assholic). Having a good party is a must (you can use summoned creatures, but I never tried them).

If you are a mage hero for example, you might need aldanon. He's not too strong, but have a vinelike skill which recover MP over turn. I combined that with Rogue's Remana skill and voila, unlimited Mp in dungeon. If you do this while having a cleric around, healing is never an issue. So choose your party wisely.

It would be more interesting if Kentona develop them more though. No, I don't mind them never speaking inside dungeons or during events, but I sure would love to see their fate after the ending. Even a few brief scenes would be nice.

Dungeon Puzzle
Hahaha, I really have a bone to pick with this one. Now, if you are a HARDCORE puzzle guy, I am pretty sure you would love this aspect. For me, I can't stand some of the puzzle. One particular puzzle for me is like having a nightmare about navigating the HAPPY FUN LABYRINTH in Hero's Realm.

Keeentoooonaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (Thank you CTRL key)

Of course, this doesn't mean that this is a bad design. In fact, some of you might enjoy it. It just happens that I dislike complicated puzzles (I only skip a few though, especially the labyrinths) and is more interested in battling/enjoying the story of the mysterious wanderer.

Items and Skills
This game has a very wide variety of prefixes and suffixes. Equipment store is useless - it only sell basic weapons which are really really weak (not for the beginning). Thus, looting is a very important part of the game (have you invested in Forage or Pickpocket? Or lockpick, decipher, or even bash?). There are many ways to obtain items but all of them mostly require a skill mastery. This is where OOBS truly shine and my favourite part of the game.

So you are a fighter and not a rogue? Just bash the damn door. Can't read ancient runes? BASH THE DAMN DOOR. Oh wait, there is a hidden path here! For me, this all adds value to exploration. There is even a boss fight that can be bypassed if you find a hidden path. Not a very good thing to do, but pretty interesting. That being said, if you can't bash, pick lock, or detect, you might ended up with little items and that's bad. So don't think OOBS is useless. (don't worry, there is a place where you can fight for items endlessly)

However, since the loot is random, even if you accumulate tons of it (like I do) sometimes it might turn out to be bad. Even if you have reached the best loot (it gets better the further down the dungeon you have set foot on) there are still chances of bad loot. In my opinion, the range is too high for weapons. I think Kentona is trying to be fair by including every variety for EVERY weapon type, but that ended up making the range too huge. For example, one of the skill of thief requires a dagger. Never did get a good one, and by that time I don't really use that anyway (it isn't a good skill anyway). Luckily, there are fixed equipments at the latter part of the game.


Thank you Narrator!

Here's the reason (I think). Each time you open a chest there is a common event that check what kind of item you get. For the equipments, you can get either an armor, weapon, helm, acc, etc etc. That is why the message "you get an armor" is rather important. Thus, the messages are unavoidable due to the programming (unless you don't want to know what you got??) - and in my understanding, the coding is already pretty simplified. So it's basically a limitation of the RM. It's a cool feature but tedious (I still think this method of random loot pretty cool innovation though! So I decide not to reduce points because of this).

Audio : 2.5/5

Again, not too fond of it, but it doesn't really bother me that much (fyi, I got the battle song stuck in my head sometimes, guess I really got used to it).

Oh wait, I forgot. I hate the Teleporter sound. Really, I do. Meeting a teleporter is always a chore for me because of that.

Some Things to nitpick
1. The game is pretty tough at the beginning and gets easier at the end.

2. Stamina system is pretty cool, but I think the regen (1 per 0.1 Sec) is pretty poor. If you have mental detachment (+200 Stamina) it takes quite a long time to regen! So basically having a huge stamina is the same with having a small stamina (in case of running only - hide is adjusted depending on skill level).

3. It would be very nice if there is a scroll of town portal that teleports you RIGHT back to the dungeon where you left off (like in Demon's Gate). Otherwise, the player have to waste time back into the city/dungeon, where the enemies and items doesn't respawn (just run in and out etc). Of course there are teleporters/shortcuts around, but having this kind of magic/scroll would be nice.

4. Stores are rather useless and some items are just really hard to find. Not even once I found the elusive spirit skean, nor other master tools with infinite use (Kentona: you put them in right? Or are those from Hero's realm database?). Not to mention there is no place to buy these tools nor things like specific scrolls (I was looking for town portal scroll at the beginning of the game, but can't find any) and mana potions.

5.The dialogue especially the sound effects dialogue like *URK* *ARGH*

6. Choose your gender? I noticed there are only 2 female classes in the game. It would be nice if there is female and male rogue etc. Of course, this isn't a big issue for me.

7. High end non deciphered scrolls : Buy for 50, sell for 250+ (of course sometimes you get a bad one that sells for less than 50, but rarely).

8. Quests bug : Shadow demon "you get a ball of light" but Pablo doesn't actually give you any.

9. Check the Ending (evil) one, there is a naming error.

Closing : 4/5
Overall, I would say that this game is pretty good and fun to play. There are some limitations, but the gameplay and innovation makes up for it. Besides, there are a lot of replay value here, various classes and all that. Good job Kentona.