The enemy is the capital
The story of High Hell is very simple, in fact there is not. The protagonist is a woman (I think) wearing a mask (here too, I think), whose only task is to eliminate anything from the huge skyscraper occupied by a mega corporal-criminal corporation that manufactures money, drugs, wurstel, or soft drinks, to the money of merciless masters.
Ah, the bosses are also gigantic robots or strained methamphetamine doctors. If you have not yet understood it, logic in High Hellthere is no or, in fact, logic is the one that lurks in the visionary brain of Terri Vellmann. The levels are in fact a pop split in which the most bizarre and crappy things coexist, and as you move toward the destruction of the terrible corporation, the juxtapositions of figures and images become more and more absurd and foolish: be quiet if you try to imagine the oddest approach existing, it is likely that High Hell has already moved beyond.
Before that for his skimpy and schizophrenic gameplay, High Hellleaves the mark thanks to its unique aesthetics, which violates every single frame: the playgrounds are made between the offices and the staircases of the gray building, where they find space – just to name a few examples – purple bananas, primate puppets, cans of fluorescent drinks, pesky biscuits, refrigerators, crates with unbroken electronic music, barbecue, basket balls, swimming pools and anthropomorphic dogs.
The list goes on for so many other things, without forgetting goals without any sense, such as the recovery of a goat who is likely to end up being a victim of a satanic sacrifice. The apotheosis is reached at the beginning of each level when the anonymous protagonist wakes up from time to time surrounded by any kind of things, including worms (or sausages or snakes, you do not understand well) that creep at techno rhythms or cyborg monkeys.
The sense of confusion and senselessness is then amplified by the exaggerated – and wanted – ragdoll that afflicts every single element of gameplay, including enemies, which, projecting into unlikely acrobatics, leads the level to a paranoia and hallucination unparalleled which is complemented by the incessant OST perfectly complementary, made by Doseon.
The same palace is full of meanings, hidden under a thick blanket of naïve flights in the absurd: in its cold and rigid architecture, the building is a clear recall of embarrassingness and the ruthlessness of that industry halfway between the crime and capitalism without brakes and stresses how often the two things are not always so distinct. Between a dead door and a stolen secret project,High Hell is a real attack on power.
Inferno iconoclast
For Devolver Digital there is nothing sacred and High Hell demonstrates it in all its jewels, attacking the constituted order and profit, represented by beautiful barges of money scattered here and there for the levels to be burned and destroyed to get a higher score at the end of the scheme. Of the vulgarity and scenes over the lines there are as long as you want and, if you explore any room in the skyscraper, it is not uncommon to bark naked enemies in the shower, with so much in the wind, and others covered only by a thin pant while they change in changing rooms.
Ah, despite being nudes as a mother nature has made them, these squared people always wear their inevitable pink trousers and the match between High Helland the set of a sadomaso porn movie is immediately served.
High Hell is ugly and dirty, it has a sense of humor all over it, it’s raw, does not want everyone to enjoy it, and it does not go down to compromise, risking, however, cutting out that slice of audience not willing to drop at the level of its bases absurdity: those who love the touch of Devolver and Vellmann will worship the aesthetic epic and “superflashata” of High Hell , while those who do not like it will certainly not change their minds with this work.
