What I love about roguelike games is their replayability – that special moment when a gameplay loop really hooks you. It’s one of the things I loved about Hades, the ability to toggle on and off God Mode, and make my run easier when needed. And it looks like the new roguelike on the scene, Hell Clock, has added its own version, introducing a new, more casual mode for players.
With a story grounded in the real life events of the 1896 – 1897 War of Canudos in Brazil, Hell Clock quickly jumped to the top of my Steam wishlist. It launched last week to great success, with an 82% positive rating on Steam and ‘very positive’ reviews, and is poised to put up a fight to make it onto our list of the best roguelike games.
And if that wasn’t enough to already convince me, the developer has now made things a little easier with Vengeance Mode. The game already had a Relaxed Mode, which was supposed to help players get into their combat groove with Pajeú, as he descends through hell to save the soul of his fallen mentor. Vengeance Mode, however, takes things a step further.
If you’re anything like me, you’re sick of replaying the same area and just increasing your damage (and decreasing enemy attack power) to rush through zones you’ve already played. Every time a run fails, Vengeance Mode will increase the effects on the damage you deal and take, helping to make Pajeú even more powerful in your next run – and hopefully prevent you from becoming too frustrated.
Rogue Snail states that Hell Clock is “NOT designed to be a grindy game,” and if everything I mentioned before isn’t enough to convince you to give it a whirl, then the developer’s focus on welcoming players to enjoy the game in their own way should.
It adds, “Regardless of being an ARPG player or an Action-Roguelike player, you are now a Hell Clock player – this is YOUR game. Use Vengeance Mode. Don’t use it. Turn it on when you feel like the game is dragging. Turn it off when you feel like you want to dig deeper into the build-crafting. The only correct way to play videogames is to have fun.”
There are plenty of other features to dive into as part of this update, including, but not limited to, improved tutorials that better explain the game and its mechanics and systems, tweaks for performance issues, and a bug where the game time would be slowed down after death. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, you can check out the full patch notes here.
In the meantime, you can check out our guide on the best RPGs. Or, for players looking for a game to hone their strategy skills with, you can read all about the best strategy games in our guide.
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