Hell Of Fear: Mind Breach Review – Indie Horror Done Right

Hell Of Fear: Mind Breach is a first-person horror shooter developed by Abyss Assembly and published by GameDev.ist. You are responding to a distress signal from a research facility on another planet. When the base is eerily quiet, you quickly learn that something has wreaked havoc everywhere. Search the facility for supplies and answers while you battle mysterious aliens that displaced the residents.

The story mostly provides the exposition and establishes the setting. As you progress through the facility, you learn more about what happens through logs and recorded messages. But thanks to the environmental design, it’s clear that something has gone wrong at the facility. Dimly lit areas and blood strewn on the walls heavily suggest something horrible has occurred. Your task is to find out why it happened and to put a stop to it.

Storytelling isn’t one of Hell Of Fear’s strengths as you barely have a narrative or an introduction other than basic exposition. While the plot is simple, you mostly figure out what happened through logs that you pick up. However, the ability to choose how you overcome an obstacle may lead to missing messages or records. You can likely guess the story after a few minutes of playing and once the fighting starts, it’s clear what you must do.

Gameplay consists of exploring 26 different sections of the research facility, combing through multiple floors. You are often looking for keycards or switches to restore power in a specific section. However, you are not alone and aliens are often hiding behind doors or dimly lit areas. Your opponents range from small spiders to large humanoid beings but they all want you gone. Fortunately, you have a decent arsenal of weapons to take down your enemies.

Hell Of Fear masterfully crafts a horror atmosphere that makes you dread exploring further. You have a rechargeable flashlight that gains power when you move but it forces you to be adventurous. Supplies are limited and while you can purchase more, money is in short supply. The worst part is that enemies are capable of infinitely spawning through vents, appearing in areas that you previously believed to be safe, making even backtracking a risk. This keeps you on your toes while forcing you to be quick. Firearms work great against enemies but you must preserve your ammunition for boss fights. Waste time getting lost and you might be too tired for future threats. It’s not strictly survival horror but you can’t tread carefully or the difficulty greatly increases.

Resources are plentiful early on and you can store extras you don’t need in special quantum boxes. Several copies of firearms are lying around, letting you pick one up if you happen to miss one the first time. If in dire situations where you have no bullets, you have a backup melee weapon that is decent. This flexibility prevents you from feeling stuck as you are always in a good position to proceed.

One of Hell Of Fear’s best aspects is that there are often multiple paths to the same objective. For example, if you can’t shut off a turret blocking a door, you may find a ladder that lets you bypass it. This prevents frustration from building if you can’t seem to get past a group of obstacles. It also gives you the freedom to address situations based on your resources. Being able to decide your path to the objective is also immersive as you decide how you want to proceed.

However, the gameplay does have some downsides. The tutorial doesn’t always explain concepts on time, forcing you to adapt after something bad happens. For example, you don’t learn that vents can be closed off by metal plates until you explore a few sections. But you often encounter them at the start of the game and don’t know why you should pick them up. Explaining some concepts earlier would help prepare the player while not feeling like last-minute reminders. Managing inventory is also not easy as you must deal with weight and item placement. You don’t know what’s important and there isn’t much point storing items you aren’t going to use.

With its dark atmosphere and limited resources, Hell of Fear: Mind Breach ramps up the horror factor. Giving you multiple paths to reach your objective rewards creativity and prevents you from feeling helpless. If you want a horror experience that keeps you on your toes, you can’t go wrong with this game. Take your time and work with the flaws to get the most enjoyment.

Victor reviewed Hell of Fear: Mind Breach on PC with a provided review code. This review is based on the version of the game available at the time of writing and our score will not be changed.