Hellpoint: A Peak at Irid Novo’s Deepest Secrets
The Irid Novo space colony and research center has become somewhat of a legend in the rest of the galaxy. Due to its proximity to black hole Sagittarius Prime, nobody can know what really happens on board. Has the experiment been a success? Is the colony thriving? Or did something go wrong? Millions of prayers carry on through deep space to reach the brave pioneers who dedicated their lives to find new answers about life, energy and their origin. Here is a rare peak at some of the many secrets, tricks and intricacies that Irid Novo hides from anyone but the few. Read carefully, and you might just have a chance at surviving some of the countless dangers of Hellpoint.
The first thing you’ll realize as you emerge from your primordial soup is that you are on your own. No map, no compass, no light. You will have to make your way by yourself, remember landmarks and find shortcuts to new grounds, and combat whatever monstrosities lurk in the shadows. You’ll get lost, a lot, but embrace it, as any piece of evidence you will find and every achievement you accomplish (named “Data” in the game) will bring you closer to the end, whatever path you choose to take. Hellpoint is built in a strange way that creates no bottleneck whatsoever, the whole world is open for you to explore and there is always a new place to discover and a new secret to find.
There is value in veering off the beaten path. Look for conspicuous walls that hide entirely new levels. Otherwise, you might only experiment half of the game. You can jump to climb on platforms that will bring you to unseen areas, so look up and down at possible secret paths. Hellpoint’s handcrafted level design offers tons of treacherous dungeons, city streets, suspended skyscrapers, alien temples, radioactive caverns and much, much more. That is, for those who dare to take the journey.
You might notice the bizarre clock thing located at the top left corner of the game HUD. This represents the location of the space station around the black hole orbit. During the “day”, each level of the station will receive the beam of the black hole once, and pass through the accretion ring that surrounds the black hole twice. This unlocks a variety of events on board the station, like mini-bosses appearances, enemy horde assaults and of course, secret passages. The Arcology level is a humongous city with skyscrapers encrusted with giant concentration rings, designed to react to the black hole position in the sky. But in order to make them operational, you must find the correct codes to calibrate them. Once two rings are aligned properly, a uber secret area will open at the right time in a different area of the world. Can you find them all?
Hellpoint offers a flexible weapon customization system that rewards both dedication and experimentation. Every weapon in the game has an XP bar that increases the more you dish damage with them, to show that your character is becoming more familiar with their particular fight style. This eventually unlocks passive and active abilities, like backstabs, lethal dodge or weapon throw. Everything on Irid Novo is quite old and decrepit, but using a weapon crafting station you’ll be able to restore some weapons to their former glory, or further corrupt them into truly demonic versions, so that you can access a different set of abilities. To further upgrade your weapon, you can implant a “conductor” on it that will greatly boost their efficiency based on the stats of your character. This allows you to add elemental damages to your weapon like Entropy or Radioactivity. If you find a new weapon that tickles your fancy, and you will, simply take the conductor off your previous weapon and implant it into the new one. That way you can try as many weapons as you like during one playthrough and remain deadly on the battlefield.
We hope to see you in great numbers exploring the depth of Irid Novo, either by yourself or with a split screen friend, or online across the world. Beware the singularity!
Hellpoint
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