Hellscreen, the FPS with a rear-view mirror, has left Steam early access two episodes short of its original plan: 'This is a bittersweet experience for me'

Firing at enemies with Double barreled shotgun in Hellscreen — (Image credit: Uk_resistant)

Adding a rearview mirror to a first-person shooter might sound like a daft gimmick, but as PC Gamer's Ted Litchfield discovered three years ago, the defining mechanic of Hellscreen is anything but: "You have a mini, lower-res screen in the upper quadrant of your view at all times, and can blow it up and shrink it back down with the shift key," he wrote after taking the early access shooter for a spin 2023. "Left click fires forward, while right click fires backwards and does quadruple damage while you're in motion."

It was an idea that produced thrilling and highly unusual combat encounters, and Hellscreen showed huge promise as it launched into early access. Then, things went quiet. Hellscreen's last Steam update appeared more than two years ago, a long time for an early access game to remain dormant.

"This is a bittersweet event for me," he wrote on the subject of Hellscreen's launch. "The game was to have three episodes but I had to cut it to one due to budget reasons." This echoes the updated early access disclaimer on Hellscreen's Steam page: "Due to the game's sever[e] under performance and external funding being non-existent, I am unable to fully realise the full version of Hellscreen as originally intended."

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Hellscreen may be shorter than Jamie planned, but he says that reframed as a smaller experience like Metal Garden or Hypogea, I am very proud of it!" Certainly, what exists of Hellscreen bristles with fun ideas.

The rearview mirror, for example, reveals hidden enemies and messages in the world, meaning you need to keep a watchful eye on what's going on behind you. You also progress through a mixture of light metroidvania-style exploration and collecting Soul Orbs, which you can plug into portals in a central hub world.

Jamie says that Hellscreen's 1.0 version has a cut-down price to reflect its cut-down ambitions. To further sweeten the deal, he has bundled Hellscreen with his other game, Vapourwave Pinball, offering both at a 40% discount. This, Jamie says, amounts to getting Vapourwave Pinball for "basically free" while also shaving off some of Hellscreen's cost.

Although Hellscreen didn't turn out exactly how he planned, he intends to take what he's learned over the project into his next experience. "I certainly would like to make another first-person game in the future."

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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