We spent a few hours with the demo for HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon, the upcoming sequel to Ars Goetia’s dark fantasy dungeon crawler. Some games (or demos) are just too cool and, try as we might, we simply can’t capture it all with words alone. Instead of dropping a massive wall of text about the combat and the detailed world, we decided to build a visual journal of our early hours in the game. Before we show you how our journey unfolded, a quick thanks to JF Games for bringing this title to our attention!
Choosing Our Path
At the very beginning, we had to make a choice: to go with a warrior or a sorcerer. Both held high appeal, but we were really in the mood for bashing heads in and cutting limbs. And that fiery axe—damn, was there really a choice?
Our next step was to choose a discipline. They all held a promise of a unique build that plays differently. You guessed what we picked. This is a great time to mention the music. It’s exotic, with hints of Arabic, evoking deeply rooted mystery. It goes well with our fiery predisposition.
Our lady. There are some modest options for customization, but it’s more than enough to create a character that can stand out in the crowd. Meet Linda—she rocks! We, on the other hand, are like a delicate flower. So, out of the three difficulty settings, we chose the easiest one.
Into the Ruined World
You’ve got one open-world zone to poke around in for the demo, which lets you see how the map navigation works. After a short story exposition in a comic-book format, we found ourselves on a map, riding a wolf of all things. There’s also a world map, and it shows a varied and rich universe.
What’s the story about? Glad you asked! After centuries of war between six demon lords, the heavens have decided to wipe the slate clean by sending the Archon of Judgment. We’re left as humanity’s last shot at stopping the demons before the heavens erase us entirely.
The demo gives you about three to four hours in this ruined world to see how it plays. Exploring is fun as you get to discover a lot of interesting characters and, of course, loot. experientation is also key, adding much variety to the whole experience!
The First Strike
Prelude to our first fight. We were very excited to see how the battles are fought! Visually, the game has this dark and comic-book style. It’s all hand-drawn by the solo developer, which gives the ruined villages and dungeons a distinct, gritty feel.
The first-person combat perspective does a great job of putting you right in front of the enemy models. It’s not your typical turn-based setup, though. It runs on a timeline where every power has a fatigue cost. It’s a balancing act in a way, since it’s imperative to weigh quick, cheap attacks against heavier hits that leave you open for longer. It’s also very tactical, requiring us to pay attention to those cooldowns. It’s a deeply satisfying combat system where luck matters, but knowledge and strategizing are equally paramount.
In all our battles, we constantly found ourselves fawning over our powers and abilities, weighing our options as to what to use, who to attack, and how to defend. Enemies are well designed with unique attack patterns. Learning how they behave and the damage they deal was the highlight of our experience. Again, we have to mention the music. There was an amazing shift from relaxing to a bombastic bombardment of drums and ethnic instruments. It made us excited even before the first blow was thrown.
There’s a flexible talent tree to mix and match your active powers and passive talents that can make a huge difference as you level up your character. In addition to this, there’s a randomized loot system and deep elements that allow you to forge and change your own gear. It’s a detailed, complex, and satisfying collection of systems that push you to do more just to see what random goodie awaits you around the next corner. As a result, the demo has huge variability, strongly encouraging you to go over everything again and again, choosing a different class and discipline.
HellSlave II: Judgment of the Archon has a fantastic demo that speaks of great potential for the final game. We can’t remember the last time we had so much fun with a demo, and we fully recommend you check it out, especially if turn-based dungeon crawlers are your jam. It was the dark and comic-book aesthetic that did it for us, but the deep, rewarding combat is what kept us playing.
- Developer: Ars Goetia
- Publisher: Dear Villagers
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: TBD
- Genre: RPG
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