Hellpoint

Hellpoint is a 2020 sci-fi Soulslike developed by Cradle Games and published by tinyBuild, released July 30, 2020 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with Nintendo Switch and Stadia versions following in February 2021 and native PS5/Xbox Series X|S versions arriving in July 2022. It holds a Metacritic score of 68 and an OpenCritic rating of 61 (“Weak”) — a reception that landed it firmly in “flawed but interesting” territory, built around one genuinely original idea layered on top of a fairly direct Dark Souls structure.

That idea is time itself. Irid Novo, the derelict space station where the entire game takes place, orbits a black hole on a schedule tied to the real-world clock — and where that station sits in its orbit at any given moment actually changes what you’ll find waiting inside it.

Technical Specifications

A Montreal Studio’s Space Station Souls

Cradle Games, a small independent studio based in Montreal, built Hellpoint around a deliberate genre fusion: the structural DNA of a FromSoftware Soulslike, transplanted into a dark sci-fi setting closer to Dead Space or Event Horizon than the medieval-fantasy trappings most of the genre defaults to. Publisher tinyBuild backed the project through launch and continued supporting it with patches and paid content for roughly two years afterward.

Irid Novo and the Spawn

Players control a nameless, artificially created humanoid known only as a Spawn, waking with no memory aboard Irid Novo, a derelict space station whose crew and inhabitants have all been transformed or destroyed by a catastrophic event referred to as the Merge. The setting blends hard science fiction with occult horror rather than choosing one — Irid Novo’s scientists weren’t just researching physics, but attempting to harness the power of cosmic, god-like entities, and the fallout of that experiment is what the player spends the game picking through.

The Quantic System

Cradle Games’ signature contribution to the genre is the Quantic System, which the studio has described as functioning like a dungeon master: Irid Novo’s position relative to the black hole it orbits shifts in real time, tied to the actual clock, and that position affects enemy strength, triggers horde events at specific “black hole hours,” and can even change which bosses appear in a given area. Combined with world layout that shifts slightly with each death, it means two players’ experiences of the same area can genuinely diverge — an ambitious systemic idea that reviewers largely credited as the game’s most original contribution, even when they had reservations about everything built around it.

Twitch Integration and Co-op

Ahead of its time for a small indie Soulslike, Hellpoint shipped with direct Twitch integration, letting a streamer’s viewers spawn additional enemies into the streamer’s game in real time. Multiplayer runs on a drop-in model rather than the traditional summon-sign system: a second player can join an ongoing run at almost any point, either via local split-screen or online, with shared loot drops for a fully cooperative playthrough, alongside optional PvP.

Reception

Critics were consistent about what worked and what didn’t. The atmosphere, environmental design, and the ambition of the Quantic System were praised fairly widely — GameSkinny’s review summarized it as “if Dark Souls were set in space, it would be Hellpoint.” Just as consistently, reviewers flagged real technical shortcomings at launch: wonky hitboxes, unreliable jump mechanics, framerate hitching (particularly on Switch), and combat several outlets described as laggier and less responsive than the genre demands. OpenCritic’s “Weak” rating and low recommendation percentage reflected a harsher overall critical consensus than Metacritic’s own “Mixed or Average” score suggested, with several reviews explicitly noting the game needed more time in development before shipping.

Blue Sun DLC

Cradle Games continued supporting the game well past launch, releasing the Blue Sun expansion in July 2022 — timed alongside the game’s first native PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions — adding three new interconnected zones, new two-handed weapons, additional bosses, and quality-of-life improvements including stat respec and better inventory management, developed with direct input from the game’s existing player community. Reception to Blue Sun mirrored the base game closely: a welcome, competently built expansion rather than a transformative one.

Where to Play It Today

Hellpoint is available on Steam, GOG, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, with the Blue Sun DLC available as a separate purchase for players who want the full story.