You've woken up in Hell! Don't ask why, you've got more important concerns. Like, you know, being in Hell. And being a ghost. And finding out the natives are hostile. And that you can't use your DVR if you're a ghost. (Trust us, that's the worst.) You could cower in a corner like a wrinkled old bedsheet, or you could track down the Devil and demand to be released! Show us you're the ghost with the most in Hell Tour, a turn-based strategy title from NOB Studio and entrant into the 6th Casual Gameplay Design Competition.
Turns out Hell is a board game, more or less. The objective in each level is to find the key, and then find the door it opens to descend another level. You can move to adjacent spaces by clicking on them if they're clear, or unexplored. Orange areas are places you can move to, red areas are places you've uncovered but are too far away to reach, and gray areas are places you haven't explored yet. Each time you move to a new place, all the nearby spaces are uncovered, revealing whatever dangers or items there are.
In order to keep adventuring, you need to keep an eye on your soul power, which decreases by ten each time you move. You can purchase items at the store to replenish this, or increase it when you go up a level. Gain cash by defeating the weaker creatures you'll find loitering around Hell's picturesque acid pools. Hover the mouse over an enemy to see their strength as relates to yours, and click on them to attack. Once you've destroyed their soul, they'll vanish, leaving behind a fat wad of cash for you to line your ghostly pockets with.
Analysis: Hell's scenic vistas never really change, which is a shame. Judging by the quirky, cartoonish monster design, the artist was more than capable, and by comparison, the board you're playing on feels pretty bland. Even so, there's something addictive about Hell Tour's one-click style gameplay that made me sit down and play all the way through the first time our eyes met across the room. It was terribly romantic.
Whereas the game initially ended very abruptly with a stark "congratulations" screen once I passed a certain level that left me feeling a little cheated, NOB Studios has since expanded it to include a bit of dialogue and one final challenge. You'll want to make sure you have at least one of your skills maxed out by the time you reach the last level, but with so many beasties around waiting for you to knock the cash out of their pockets, that shouldn't be a problem. What is a problem is how short the game winds up feeling. Hell is only twenty floors deep, apparently, and it probably won't take you long to get through them all. Why is there no option to play an endless mode? Or even just a double-length game? Instead, once you're done, you're done, and all your hard work is wiped.
The combat also feels unbalanced. Sure, I can stand there whittling away at the health of a stronger monster, but why would I want to? The reward for doing so isn't any greater than what you get for picking on some puny little hell-beast you can slay with one hit. Since enemies don't attack unless you hit them first, it's too easy to simply bypass the heavy hitters altogether. There are even several levels with no enemies at all, which become dull click-fests as you simply avoid pools of acid and play hide-and-seek with the key and exit. Hey, it's like a Saw movie, only not as boring, and you don't feel as though your intelligence has been insulted afterwards!
While Hell Tour lacks enough flesh over its ghostly bones to really feel like a full, hearty adventure to keep you coming back for more, it's still a fast, fun way to spend an afternoon. It's clever, easy to pick up, and definitely deserves a look. So go on. Let the spirit move you.
Amazing. Really fun and addictive and it balances the difficulty well. Loads of fun (:
I liked many things about this game, but the "Hell" in the title, for me, refers to the fact that you can beat the game, lose the boss fight, and have to start all over. The "dull click-fest" part of leveling up made me decide against replay, even though once you lose, it becomes obvious what you have to do to win.
If i level up i cant get back to the game. the exit button does'nt work. Pity
I disagree a bit with the review; there IS a reason to whittle away at the harder enemies... to get enough cash to level up every stat. If you make that your goal, the game is just long enough to do that, and you have a new option at the end... Take over hell.
It would have been nice if that ended up being a battle instead of a menu choice, but it's not as bad as the review makes it out to be.
This was a fun little distraction from work today.
In the first couple of levels, you will want to put one level each in Attack and Defend. If your defend score matches an enemy's attack score, he won't be able to hurt you, so you can just sit there and peck away at him until he dies, assuming his Defend score isn't higher than your Attack.
Dump the rest of your points into Greed until you have it maxed out. Once you have done this, you'll be making so much money from kills that you can buy levels and max out other skills.
I found it valuable to upgrade Sight and stopped short of getting the bonus Flying Eyes ( You won't really need them if your Sight is upgraded that much)
If you put plenty of points into Max Soul, you won't need to upgrade your Move skill either.
In order to beat the Devil, you need to have at least one ability maxed out.
I had my Greed score maxed out, so I was able to bribe my way out of Hell.
Does "maximize one stat" mean the bonus levels as well as the actual stat? Because I thought I was maxed out in move, but I couldn't run away. Grrr. Actually, grrr anyway for not making clear from the beginning that a balanced build is a bad idea (I admit that it was silly to put my points in move, but didn't know how much the creatures would be leveling up.)
Actually Fleebnork, there is a different way to win the game that gives you more points:
If you max out every level, you can take over hell and become the devil yourself!
This can be accomplished by:
Try to max out your stats in the following order:
Greed - make more money off of monsters and traps
Defense - allows you to withstand damage and gains you an extra "level up" when maxed out
Move - Decreases movement cost and gains you extra trap removers when maxed out
Attack - Increases your attack strength and gets you more "one hit kills" when maxed
Put your first two levels into Greed to maximize your money.
When the more difficult monsters arrive, kill the easy ones first and then put one levelup into attack and kill another monster or two. Make it to the shop and buy another levelup and put it in defense. You should then be able to defeat the eyeballs easily, and maybe one or two of the other ones if you are lucky. An alternate strategy is to put both levels into defense. You can then defeat both types of monsters, but it is tricky because you might not have enough money to buy the second one.
For the next few levels, put your level up into Greed when needed and try to kill the monsters only after you've leveled up - i.e. do your exploring until you are low on soul, then level up and kill the monsters. That way, you will maximize the return.
At the shop, you will only need to buy level ups. Once traps start appearing, you can start to buy the trap removers which will turn the trap into cash based on your greed score. So long as your greed is 30 or more, it will be profitable. If you can, don't collect the cash until you've leveled up.
When greed is at 50 (no need to get the bonus levels) put your extra levels into defense.
From there on, it should be pretty easy. As soon as you have enough levels to max out defense (note - you should only be using them to make your way around the field) do it. Then go through the door and you will collect 2 levelups - more than enough to get through a level.
Then max out move so you don't have to buy as many trap removers, and attack so you don't have to buy as many knives.
Buy the end of the game, you should have enough levelups to max out every stat.
This is one of these games where you get quickly bored with the actual gameplay, but you keep playing because you want to get every possible upgrade to become a "Superman".
You have fun while it lasts and feel cheated for your time afterwards.
Muahaha I MAXed every stat and took over the devil.
Here's how:
1. Get greed to the last square upgrade. DO NOT spend points on anything else or get the diamond upgrades. Try to use your level ups at the beginning of the level unlike what you would think. As soon as the shops open but a few instant kills and remove obstacles. Explore every single space and kill every monster (killing the ones you cannot damage with instant kill) and remove every obstacle. Whenever you can, buy level ups. Never buy regenerates except maybe 1 at most.
2. As soon as you get greed that high, spend all your upgrade points on defence and MAX IT. DO NOT just get it to the top of the squares. GET IT TO THE DIAMONDS! THEY GIVE YOU AN EXTRA LEVEL UP EVERY ROUND/LEVEL. Continue removing obstacles and exploring and killing.
3. Max move and spend 1! (just 1) point on greed. Again, don't spend points on anything else besides the greed and make sure you max the diamonds too, they will give you remove obstacles. Continue exploring/killing/removing.
4. Once you MAX move, then you won't have to spend as much money on remove obstacles. Now its FINALLY time for attack. Max attack. You should be getting about 4-6 level ups every level now.
5. Max sight, don't worry about your spirit, it should be fine,
6. Feel free to use flying eyes. About now you should be near level 15-17ish. Finally, max Spirit.
7. max everything you didn't before and now, when you use a level-up, you will gt like 10 attack 10 defence and 50 spirit. Feel free to pwn the mini devils, but the moose things should still hurt.
8. TAKE OVER THE DEVIL!
I get 2nd place this week in scores :D.
The game doesn't tell you what the win conditions are until the very last level, at which point it may be too late to meet them and you will have to start over.
In order to win, you must
level up one stat completely, including diamonds. It can be any stat. Then when you meet the devil, you can beat him with this stat.
End game Devil and tips
You must completely fill any one upgrade to get a win in the end, be it attack, move, sight or any other.
To Take Over the Devil you must max out all stats. This includes the diamond stats where you earn items such as Level Up, Instant Kill or Flying Eyes
Tips
One way to do this is to max out Greed early on. You will however need at least one upgrade to Attack by about level 6 to kill the Eyeballs and possibly a soul upgrade.
I had a bit of luck with just Greed and Attack upgrades for one play through, but I died around level 10 due to not paying attention to my stats and wanted a perfect game, however I could have continued had I been paying attention or if I had not wanted a perfect game.
Hey, the game has changed. Just began to play and what I've found so far is money on some of the circles and the extra life costs 100 instead of 70.
I liked the original, I hope the updated version is just as good.
Update