Have you ever wanted to dive into the world of a gamer who wishes to go pro? Welcome then to the world of Elo Hell where you dive into the seat of Chase Betzinger who dreams of going pro in the popular Echo Star game. Deal with the real-world drama that comes with sacrificing everything for games and fight to be the best at Echo Star as you create a team and fight various opponents. Those who want to see the real-life trials and tribulations of esports will want to continue reading on.

Elo Hell takes the themes of esports gaming and creates a more bite sized experience. Instead of having to control dozens of troops and micromanage dozens of bases/resources, you will take control of a singular troop and engage in short skirmishes. Elo Hell also gives players a narrative experience that allows them to try to mingle with friends and deal with reality while also focusing on the intense world of Echo Star and its competitive concepts. Elo Hell might seem simple in theory, but be prepared for an experience that will keep you engaged and focused from start to finish.

Esports is the theme of playing video games not for recreational purposes or to let out some steam after a long day at work/school but to play against others for money and fame. Take control of the young senior Chase Betzinger who yearns for the professional circuit of the esports world but must handle the stress that reality places on individuals that pursue this hard to grasp dream. Can Chase make his debut as a professional gamer in the world of Echo Star or will he have to settle for the normality that life seems to want him to take? Find out in this episodic journey of Chase called Elo Hell!

As gaming becomes bigger and bigger in society, the gamers who wish to make a living off playing games grows steadier. This is why esports has in turn grown as a more lucrative career path for those truly dedicated to fighting online to become higher ranked and more noteworthy. However, the life of esports still can be a bit of an enigma due to not a lot of people ever talking about the struggle and only a few ever really diving into looking at what the world of an esports hopeful looks like. That’s why we had our eyes on Elo Hell by developers Exato Game Studios. Can Elo Hell give a semi-realistic take on the world of esports hopeful all while providing a fun game to actually enjoy? Let’s find out in this early access version of Elo Hell for the PC!

Elo Hell tells the story of a senior named Chase who has found himself eyeing the life of pro gaming. In this early access version, players will learn a bit about this young man, his hopes, his dreams and his personality as they engage with others by making choices similar to games like Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead. Each choice the player makes influences the responses of Chase’s friends as well as those he might meet during his journey. The prologue story was the only bit we got to dive into while playing Elo Hell’s early access but it showed some good narration despite some semi-weak character animations and some interesting character models. Though we did love the characters—such as Chase—and how they felt reminiscent of some our gaming friends here at Honey’s Anime.

Outside the narrative focus of Elo Hell lies a secondary theme that gives players actual gameplay to enjoy. In the world of Elo Hell lies an RTS-like title called Echo Star which is where Chase dreams of making it big as he ranks up against others. Echo Star isn’t an RTS though in the traditional sense as Exato Game Studios changed up the formula. What do we mean by that you might ask? Well, let us explain what to expect from Echo Star in Elo Hell.

Echo Star takes the extreme basics of how an RTS works and simplifies it in ways we’ve never seen before. Rather than controlling a team of units and gathering resources to build bases and troops, players will only ever make on base, take control of a singular unit—while the AI takes the rest over—and engage in battles that last literally 60 seconds. This allows even those with little RTS experience to enjoy Echo Star’s fights and aims to be just about killing enemies, getting points to build stronger units and then taking down the objective or enemy base. It might seem to be overly easy and simple but from the few battles we played on against the AI, we can see how it could become more difficult as the enemies get smarter and the chaos increases.

Now, here’s our biggest issue with Elo Hell at the moment. While Echo Star is a lot of fun against the AI, we longed to play online against other people and found even on the weekend no one playing online. Elo Hell right now is pretty new and in early access which might be the reason for this, but we didn’t get a good grasp of how online battles could make Elo Hell ten times better. Our next issue is the price tag for Elo Hell is a bit high. We do understand this is a deep game with several episodes slated for the narrative elements but as an early access this might be a bit too steep of a price tag. Though we will say we do think it’s worth the price of admission as the gameplay is pretty awesome from both spectrums of Elo Hell.

Elo Hell might not be fully complete yet and may lack people playing it online but what we see in this Early Access version is a ton of potential for an amazing title. Most narrative games lose a bit of gameplay to tell their stories but Elo Hell seems to already be blending solid gameplay with narrative focuses that we presume will only get better in the full release. The prologue shows off a nice set of friends that feel akin to real world friends who take jabs at each other and really try to be cool despite sometimes being kind of nerdy. Equally, the way Elo Hell makes for a simplified RTS experience that gives you control of the units in small 1-minute bursts is a truly excellent idea that keeps Elo Hell from feeling stale and repetitive. Our time with Elo Hell was short, but we fully recommend this $19.99 title just because we think it could become a truly amazing game once the first episode drops and the online base begins to hopefully grow. We do recommend getting some friends to also buy Elo Hell so you won’t have any issues going online and playing some matches.

Elo Hell has a lot of potential and that is what strikes us as the most intriguing here at Honey’s Anime. While we hope the online community blows up a bit—as we weren’t able to play a single match against real people—we still loved practicing how to best handle the short skirmishes and playing the narrative focused prologue of Elo Hell. As Elo Hell gets updated more, we will try our best to provide you folks a more in-depth review but for now we think Elo Hell is worth a download if you can get past the bit high price tag and the fact that multiplayer is a bit empty at the moment. Are you going to pick up Elo Hell based off our review? Tell us using the comments below and for more game reviews and news articles be sure to keep stuck to our hive here at Honey’s Anime.