Hell Clock Review
If you have read any of my reviews, it is of no secret that I am a huge fan of the roguelite/likes genre. The thing is, it is really a subgenre of sorts as it is inserted into other games like roguelite platformer, roguelite shooter, etc. You also cannot just spot a roguelite in a screenshot or on a convention floor. 2D/2.5D are probably my go-to if I had to pick based on view, especially the isometric variety like Diablo or Torchlight. So, walking around PAX East, of course I am going to gravitate towards one of these games, and when it turns out that it is also a roguelite…
Developed by Rogue Snail and published by Mad Mushroom (great names by the way, and that logo!), Hell Clock is a Diablo-esque roguelite/like. The setting is rooted in real history; the War of Canudos took place from 1896 to 1897 in the northeastern state of Bahia in Brazil. Nearly 25,000 inhabitants of Canudos were slaughtered. In Hell Clock, this event takes a supernatural twist with Canudos serving as the battleground between heaven and hell. You play as Pajeú, who is fighting to save the soul of his mentor, Antônio Conselheiro. Fun fact: although Pajeú is a fictional character, Conselheiro is based on a real-life historical figure.
He looks pissed.
Once you take control of Pajeú, the Diablo similarities become quite apparent, but the game shortly carves out its own identity. Health globe on the left, mana globe on the right, and abilities front and center. Your objective is to move room to room, and up and down hallways, killing enemies and breaking crates and barrels until you reach the portal to the next floor. Unlike Diablo, looting is completely automated (as long as you are in range, it will be picked up). That “loot” consists of the following: gold, soul stones, gear, trinkets, and relics. Gold is used during each run to purchase Blessings at the statues found on nearly every floor. The further you progress, the more the Blessings will cost. Gold is also used to reroll said Blessings as well as the Power choices when leveling. Soul Stones can be found off of elite enemies, bosses, and scavengers (think Diablo’s loot goblins) and used exclusively in between runs back in town. Gear can be found throughout the run and will be automatically equipped on Pajeú provided there is not a piece already equipped. If there is a piece, the game will prompt you to replace or discard it. The gear represents itself as various armor (helm, chest, rings, amulets, etc.), but really just serves as stat sticks. Pajeú’s appearance remains the same regardless of what he is wearing. Gear also remains equipped permanently for the entire game. Trinkets, on the other hand, are exclusive to the current run. They boost stats in four categories: Fury (damage), Spirit (defense), Vigor (health, speed, regeneration), and Other (yes, it says other on the Character screen; these can be gold gain, experience gain, relic drop rate, etc.). Three from each category can be equipped, but they are automatically equipped, and a better one will always replace any existing ones. Relics affect the various skills you have, but can only be changed between runs. Like gear, they are permanent until you replace but unlike gear, they can be swapped on and off (you have access to inventory in town).
The game’s story plays out over three (3) acts, with each act being a separate 21-floor dungeon. This is the roguelite segment of our program. Unlike similar games, progression is gated to allow the story to develop. You are forced to stop instead of just trying to brute force your way through all 21 floors on your first try. This may seem awful on paper, but it does help to ease you into the titular clock (more on that in a bit). The basic loop here has you clearing floors and leveling up when you kill enough enemies. Every level up allows you to choose from 3 upgrades to one of the skills you are using. There are no “wrong” choices here, but RNG can provide rare and epic selections that are more powerful. For example, a common upgrade may only grant a 10% boost to an ability’s damage, but the epic upgrade could be 50%. Each equipped skill can receive 10 upgrades, but it is highly unlikely you would do more than one (there is an achievement for one) in a single run. On my best runs, I was in my mid-20s. It’s possible, but the best strategy would be to augment skills somewhat equally to make the best use of them.
Time. Clocks tell time. Hell Clock only counts down time. Assuming (I know, I know) you play as designed, the Hell Clock gives you only 7 minutes to finish the run. Killing bosses and clearing the horde wave floors will add time to your total (they also stopped the clock for these fights) but the clock runs at all other times, including looking at your character screen or when selecting Blessings. Runs end upon death or when the clock hits zero. Of course, there are ways to deal with this. For starters, and I did this myself, you can turn on the ability to pause. Sometimes you need to weigh your options in-game, and sometimes, you just need to take a break. You could also turn on relaxed mode which kills the clock altogether. I know some people (it is the internet after all) will moan and groan about an “easy mode” that is completely optional (don’t select it, idiot), but I can tell you that it does not actually make the game easier. When playing without relaxed mode on, you will reach a point where you just cannot kill enemies fast enough to outrun the clock. With relaxed mode, it turns into a battle of attrition. Eventually, enemies just have too much health, and you will not have enough DPS to deal with everything. For example, in my small sampling of using it, I fought a boss for 11+ minutes. I did defeat it but it was excruciating. When I leveled up a bit, I returned (without relaxed mode) and was able to kill the boss in half the time. Does it get you a little further? Maybe. Does it kill the game experience? Absolutely not. Go whine about something else.
There are other ways to deal with the clock. Post run, you will earn experience, leveling up, and get the opportunity to spend points at the Great Bell. Amongst many upgrades, the first Hell Clock upgrade is increasing the time by 2 whole minutes. That can be increased even further, but you are the judge if you need the additional time. Other upgrades include increasing stats like health, mana, resistance to specific damage types, and how much gold or soul stones will drop, but the biggest upgrades were increases to your relic space and skill levels. Fully maxing out those last two requires you to be in Act 3, but I felt the biggest progression jumps came after putting points in those nodes.
Skill level is relatively self-explanatory. Higher rank skills do more damage. Simple as that. So why do you need more relic space? Pajeú can equip several relics that provide additional stat bonuses as well as enhancing or outright changing how the various skills work. In the early goings, you have a very limited amount of room to maneuver the relics that you want equipped. Relics take up grid space and can vary from 1 grid small to 4 large. By increasing the space, you can fit more.
Before going about upgrading skill and relic levels, you probably need to know what skills are what. You begin the game with just 5 abilities, but after your first run or two, you can purchase another 4. Only 5 can be equipped so you have plenty of options. Upon completion of Act I, another 6 abilities can be added to your repertoire, and finishing Act II unlocks the remainder. The game does a fantastic job of not only spelling out what each ability does but also what leveling them up does. For example, Closed Body acts as a shield, but every time you level up (during a run), you also gain .75% Physical Resistance. Shadow Dash could be used as a damaging ability but I used it mostly to get out of harm’s way or to get through the level quicker if time was getting low. Leveling up increased the damage but also reduced the mana cost of all skills. Not only do abilities work well when used in tandem, but some may have a buff that another skill can benefit from, even if the skills do not seem like a good pairing. The amount of build diversity in the game is unreal. You could have a build that focused on two or three skills and then grab two other skills seemingly out of place but they provide great global buffs.
Personally, though, I am not a fan of new abilities for your character in the final act for multiple reasons. For example, in Infamous Second Son, Delsin gains the Concrete power and shortly after, the game is over without fully fleshing out the skill. In Hell Clock, you have just spent significant time in the first two acts working on a build, and you gain a whole new set of skills to use. The build I finished the game with was complete by the end of Act II. I found some new relics in Act III, but skill wise, I was all set. Not only was the build strong enough to progress, I also really enjoyed the playstyle significantly more than the two builds I played around with earlier in-game. Hell Clock also does not have loadouts so this might have been part laziness, but I did not want to go through the trouble of dealing with unequipping my relics for new ones and swapping back if I did not like it. All that said, each act is replayable, plus there is an end game, so I might experiment down the line.
And now for the suggestion box/things to improve portion of the review. I just mentioned skills and the lack of loadouts but the inventory system needs a massive overhaul. As you gain new relics, they are just added to empty spots in your inventory or tacked on at the end of new pages. A sort feature would be incredible but I think a search box would alleviate more issues with the inventory than sorting. Not only are relics different sizes but “X ability does Y now” is not tied to a specific relic. The 4 grid tall relic could have that flavor text just as a 4-square relic can, so sorting would just clean everything up. Being able to search for Repeater skills or Lightning damage would be far more helpful. Speaking of relics, the entire system could use a tweak or two, but I honestly am not sure what the fix is without completely altering other in-game systems. Relic drop rate is perfectly fine. Tier 1 relics drop in Act I, Tier 2 relics drop in Act II, and Tier 3 in Act III. The tier just improves the quality of the stats on the relic (i.e., a fully upgraded tier 1 relic would be surpassed by a rank 2 tier 3 relic). As skills are tied to acts, relics that drop favor the skills from that act, with a small chance at previous act relics dropping. I have no issues with farming, although others might. It took a bit of patience and some RNG to get Tier 3 versions of my Tier 1 relics.
It is like Tetris but without being time which is ironic…
The only other thing I wanted to bring up is that while controllers work fine for the game, there are moments that show the design revolved around keyboard and mouse. The biggest offender was working on the inventory. With a controller, you have to scroll box by box in the relic grid but a mouse can easily go back and forth between inventory and equipped relics. Also, there did not seem to be a way to increase the level of skills (after hitting that node in the Great Bell) using a controller. I played on my PC so the mouse was always within reach, but I am not sure what you would do if playing with the Steam Deck docked, sitting on a couch. Fortunately, the contrast between controller and keyboard/mouse was while Pajeú was in town so there racing against any clock as you fought menus. Despite all these suggestions trending towards a broken game, Hell Clock had a very smooth flight with only slight turbulence and a shaky landing.
Regulars to Dear Gamers know that we do not partake in the silliness of GOTY awards. We do however, create our own awards with random categories to celebrate the games we played that year. It is only July but I am confident in saying that Hell Clock will be included. It was my favorite game to come out of PAX East 2025 and it is one of my favorite games this year. This assessment is mainly based off of the campaign though. For those who like to experience pain, you can play on hardcore, where there is only one run. There is an endgame, currently in beta (it is available to play but not complete), that turns this roguelite into a quasi-roguelike, perfect for massive replayability. There are also plans in the works to add a crafting system, a larger skill tree, a completed version of the end game, plus an entirely new act which arrives with the expansion, Cursed War, coming in Q1 2026. I know I say it in most of my reviews, but this is a can-not-miss title.
