To Hell with Hell is an indie roguelike game akin to titles like The Binding of Isaac. Those who love challenging—at times nail biting—games will revel in the toughness To Hell with Hell doles out. Death doesn’t always mean restarting the game in To Hell with Hell. Players will find ways of avoiding complete restarts through smart and limited saves available. However, with constantly increasing enemy counts who get harder and stronger each level, players best be ready for a fight!

Run, shoot, and equip several guns/masks to survive Hell in To Hell with Hell. Your controlled girl named Natasia is a normal woman who just has a rough side to her and wants the chance at finding a way back to her life outside the pits of Hell. Thus, you will need to help Natasia—whether you like it or not—by surviving Hell’s numerous enemies and bosses in order to find Hell’s leader and rescue him. Dying will be your companion in To Hell with Hell. Each level will change upon death and it will be up to you to think about how to survive and equally learn to make the most out of your various masks and weapons you find.

Ruler of Hell—Asmodius—has found himself in quite an unfortunate bind. Taken prisoner and fearing his demise, Asmodius looks for a possible savior to aid him in a last-ditch rescue attempt. Thus, Asmodius choose one of his so-called daughters by the name of Natasia to come free him. If Natasia can perform this nearly impossible task, Asmodius promises her a second chance at her original life. Can Natasia face off against the demons and beasts of Hell and make it out alive?

Usually, roguelike games are typical clones of one game or another. The Binding of Isaac—one of the more famous roguelike titles—is seen constantly cloned by other companies due to its awesome gameplay and grueling difficulty level. To Hell with Hell looks very similar to games like The Binding of Isaac, but after playing for several hours and dying numerous—NUMEROUS—times, we noticed this isn’t a mere clone. What is our final verdict of developer Lazurite Games’ action orientated roguelike indie title? Let’s find out in our review of To Hell with Hell!

To Hell with Hell primary goal is quite simple. Players take on the role of half-naked warrior—Natasia—and must kill all enemies of a level to progress forward. After so many successful levels, players then must defeat a boss and continue the cycle till they reach the end game. Simple enough as it seems, To Hell with Hell is far from simple in terms of completion. When you begin To Hell with Hell, it warns you that there will be times you will need to restart a run because you’ll just find yourself against impossible odds and when they make that bold claim, they mean it. To Hell with Hell is grueling and taxing but that is the main appeal of sitting down and playing it.

The crux of To Hell with Hell’s gameplay is that players go around as Natasia shooting various guns at varying enemies that change as you go further in. Along the way, Natasia will be aided not by leveling up or gaining stats boosts but by finding new guns like shotguns, machine guns, spear guns and even melee weapons. Natasia will also find numerous “masks” which are where the similarities of games like The Binding of Isaac come into fruition. Masks allow Natasia—aka the player—to gain special abilities that can be utilized with a meter called Rage. Kill enemies, gain rage and unleash special moves depending on said mask worn. Masks also don’t replace one another so you can ultimately have several masks to utilize in a level and use them when you feel the time is right.

Masks themselves come in a variety of types. There are masks that will turn Natasia into a swat-like warrior who can shoot bursts shots regardless of her equipped gun and there is even a ninja mask that makes Natasia invisible and or brings her enemies towards her with a stun ability. Masks can make or break a player’s run in To Hell with Hell and often you’ll find yourself wanting to survive with a mask you like—we preferred the knight mask as it gives Natasia a powerful sword, a lance ability and an impenetrable shield skill—as long as humanly possible. This is where To Hell with Hell changes up the roguelike gameplay of other titles. Death isn’t a simple restart the whole game affair but something far more sinister and interesting.

As the player beats a level, they are given the option of saving the game. The good news is that you can save 6 times so you could possibly progress through 4 areas, save and then if you die you just start over at the beginning level you last saved on. However, remember that warning from earlier about restarting a run? That comment applies to the said save system where players will need to be smart about when they save. A few times we here at Honey’s Anime saved when we had low ammo—as guns do have ammo—and found ourselves literally forced to restart our games on a new run because surviving a level was nigh impossible. Saving in To Hell with Hell makes levels seem easier but due to their constantly changing layout upon death and the fact you can doom yourself with an ill-timed save and you will learn To Hell with Hell requires patience and practice to make it further in.

We wrap up our review of To Hell with Hell by talking about the graphics and sound. While To Hell with Hell won’t tax any computer as it uses simple sprite-like designs, we loved how the enemies looked and how different they were as we progressed further into the game. Equally, we loved the soundtrack for To Hell with Hell that has a nice variety of tunes that play. Upon death, new songs tend to play out meaning we weren’t stuck listening to the same tune over and over in a stage. This was a great idea on the developer’s part as we sometimes died 10-20 times in a stage and if we were forced to hear the same song playing, we might have found our rage building. Though luckily, with new songs to enjoy, death had some reward in the long run.

Dying, surviving and dying become an atypical theme while playing To Hell with Hell and yet, it never gets old. While To Hell with Hell copies a lot from other Roguelike games—namely as we mention The Binding of Isaac—To Hell with Hell feels original thanks to its use of limited saves and very cool weapons/masks. We also loved how tight the controls felt with a controller or keyboard/mouse and it made us feel like death was always preventable as long as we the players continued to grow and learn from our deaths. We did run into several infuriating glitches, but as To Hell with Hell is still in early access, these issues were semi-expected. Overall though, To Hell with Hell is a fun game with a lot of replayability for those who can endure its challenging gameplay. To Hell with Hell isn’t easy, but for those who are gaming masochist who prefer games with some difficulty, To Hell with Hell will certainly deliver.

To Hell with Hell isn’t super original and it still has some gaming bugs that need to be ironed out, but none of those issues remove the enjoyment that we had while playing. Even dying over and over didn’t make us ever hate To Hell with Hell but instead made us strive to become better players. To Hell with Hell is a game we highly recommend to fans of The Binding of Isaac and to those who love tough games in general. Are you excited to play To Hell with Hell and die numerous times? Let us know in the comments and for all your game reviews and article needs, be sure to keep stuck to our hive here at Honey’s Anime.