This is probably the most unique mash-up of genres I have ever encountered. HellSign has all the trappings required to make an authentic paranormal investigative thriller game, and shows a ton of promise. The game doesn't offer a whole lot in terms of an informative tutorial, but what it has got thus far is just enough to get you started with a little experimentation and exploration on your part. There's something quite addictive about the general gameplay or searching around a creepy house in the dark, shadows dancing as you sway your torch around, breaching doors and investigating rune trails with a black light in utter darkness. Creeps are suitably skittery and jumpy to keep you on your toes, random paranormal activity and its crazy audio and visual cues are enough to make your cheeks clench even if you're only in a scouting mission, and the sheer depth of possible iterations of the game's true monsters leaves you permanently on edge.

Audio is simplistic but beyond perfect for the role required in this game, and the randomly generated houses are similar enough to leave you paranoid about certain room layouts, but random enough to keep things very interesting indeed. The art style hits right on the mark for such a genre and setting, and the lighting work is just about perfect. The vignette filter on the player camera is a nice and subtle touch, too. The game is exceedingly deep in terms of character progression, monster variety, the deduction aspect of the Cryptonomicon, crafting, and just about everything else on offer. Gameplay is a simple concept that is absolutely artfully executed, and genuinely made me partially enjoy the grind of tumbling through houses, shooting creeps, and getting my EMF scanner out looking for grisly trophies in the early game to unlock the infinitely more entertaining monster hunts.

It is an Early Access title, however, and comes with no small amount of issues. The tutorial has been a falling point for numerous people thus far, with the black light mechanic acting a little shaky and trails disappearing into walls. Loading screens are longer than I'm comfortable with, and stutters in performance during key events that can affect whether you live or die are quite frustrating, even on a solid midrange system. The UI is poor, lacking basic fundamentals, like double clicking to buy and sell items, and the font isn't differentiated enough to decipher what's clickable and what isn't. The story thus far, as well as general dialogue, is fundamentally awful. It can be quite easily ignored up until the developer starts planting in a proper story to progress through, at which point I think changes really need to be made to the script. Over 9000 jokes in brackets during dialogue just isn't funny anymore. Early game difficulty seems needlessly high in the blind hopes of a generic reviewer describing the game as a Souls-like to grant it a reputation, but Dark Souls was and is fair. As the game stands, you start at the hardest part and end in a far less hopeless situation, not through much improvement in skill, but simply due to bigger numbers—gun damage, armor, health, etc.

Overall, for an Early Access title, it's pretty damned good. With a few tweaks to some of the smaller issues I came across, it has the potential to be a truly awesome and unique title. I still found myself addicted to just investigating one more house even after getting horribly murdered and losing all my hard-earned signs. That new player experience needs adjusting, though, or it's going to be a real turn off.