Hell is Other Demons

Glad to see my old favorite Flash game site Kongregate is still supporting game development. Hell is Other Demons is one of their published games on Steam that I just tried out. Sadly, like with many other games they've published on Steam, it wasn't bad, but also didn't quite suit me.

Hell is Other Demons is a bullet hell game, but instead of flying in a spaceship/plane equivalent, you're platforming. I had initially thought this was like a more fleshed out roguelike, but most levels are still tied to roughly one screenful of room to move around in. There's some platforms, environmental hazards, and waves of spawning enemies per level. You get a double jump, an invincibility dash, a pistol (or more like a machine gun) that can only shoot sideways, and a "bomb" that can be charged up through kills. Definitely closer to the design of a bullet hell.
You can also buy some upgrades to your character like more health, faster bullets, etc. as well as new guns and bombs with different attack patterns. Additionally, each level has extra challenges like don't get hit or don't use your bomb, if you want that.

After playing, it became clear to me that this is yet another game oriented toward the perfectionist players who like challenging the same content over and over for slightly better scores. The lack of a map and exploration was kind of dissapointing, and that might've been enough to drop it. However, what really irked me about the combat was that I couldn't shoot up, and couldn't dodge with precision. Bullet hell games are supposed to be about using fine control and good planning to dodge all the enemies and their attacks. Here, I feel more like commanding an unyieldy ragdoll. I've a large hitbox, and the constant assault of gravity and environmental hazards.
Sure, it might be too easy if I just get to stay in a corner and gun everyone down, but then that's the developers' problem to fix, instead of shackling me with unsatisfying restrictions.

Overall, definitely not a game for me. I can appreciate what it was going for, and the execution isn't bad at all, but I simply don't wish to repeat the same content so much, finding ever less interesting ways to kill the enemies to compensate for the restrictions placed upon my actions. Just give me mouse aim for dodges and shooting. As it stands, maybe if you want to try a mediocre platformer bullet hell, but otherwise I can't recommend it.