Hellbound

An earnest but empty love letter to Quake and Duke Nukem 3D that never gets around to doing anything to call its own.

Hellbound's campaign is roughly three hours long, with secrets to find in each level and several survival missions that unlock after the finale. That's it. Again, Hellbound is pretty upfront with what it is. If you've already burned through most of the homages I listed above, give this a shot.

Hellbound has potential, and will surely find an audience for both its nostalgia and its challenge. While the story is almost completely unnecessary, it's a real shock that the whole narrative focus appears to not be concluded in the game, though. Just as the story gets going, and the first big boss is defeated, the endgame credits roll, leaving Hellbound feeling unfinished. That feeling is compounded by the fact that the main reason for returning comes from the score-based survival mode which is still available as a free download on Steam. Hellbound is not big, nor is it clever, and in all the wrong ways.