If you aren't playing a roguelite shooter, then the action tends to be calculated. You're either being forced to go on the defensive and look for openings to inflict damage, or your attack output is similar to other adventure games that don't tout randomized levels and perma-death. Rising Hell seeks to do something about that.

In particular, there are two things that Rising Hell does differently. The first game is vertically oriented, similar to Exit The Gungeon. Rising Hell wants you moving ever upward, but you get to control the upward mobility with your double-jumping and wall-grabbing abilities. The game commits to this vertical movement heavily; the areas are narrow, and almost all of the platforms have no gaps, so unless you're rushing through, the methodical approach is best.

The other different element is the combat system, which is much faster than expected. The best way to describe it is that it follows in the footsteps of high-action titles like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta. Your basic attack is enough to deliver some hard-hitting, low-number combos, but your mobility will give you an opportunity to deliver more hits via air combos. Pick up any relics in your journey, and you can deliver attacks with a longer sword or conjure lighting from your attacks. Lighting chains enemies together, and when you combine it with explosions, you're a killing machine. The combat does its job in making the game one big power fantasy. The enemies aren't numerous, but there's enough of them to keep the action going. Even at your most basic level, you're good enough to take out almost every creature you meet, and that only gets amplified during meetings with small mobs and boss fights.

On the other hand, some may look at the combat as a major reason why Rising Hell doesn't behave like a roguelike, with the random branching paths, random power-ups, random shops, and the somewhat random level layouts and item drops. Perma-death might exist, but one may never know since you can easily go through a level without breaking a sweat, and the bosses are a breeze. Unless you start to modify the game so that the odds are against you, you can easily finish a run in one go, so those looking for a true roguelike won't find it in this title.

Provided that you don't mind that aspect, Rising Hell does a number of things to keep you coming back to conquer it multiple times. Each run gives you the chance to unlock and buy modifiers that tweak your future runs in several ways, like increased damage or lower health when you start. You can also spend your relics on new characters, which becomes more than just an aesthetic choice, since the other two introduced characters play very differently, such as one of them trading out melee for shooting. Once you realize that all of those characters have their own modifier track, there's enough to keep you going even before you tinker with the Challenges mode.

At the moment, your anticipation for Rising Hell is going to depend on what kind of game you love. If you're an action fan, the fast, high-combo style in a 2D world with constricted levels and upward mobility keeps the adrenaline pumping. If you're a roguelike fan, you'll like the added difficulty modifiers and variety available for each run, but you'll hate how the game is currently quite easy to conquer. With a long runway to go before the final release, it'll be interesting to see if the difficulty can be tweaked without sacrificing the stylish action.