I want to believe in HELLPIERCERS like it believes in me

“The War in heaven was won.” That’s the first line in HELLPIERCERS, a tactical fantasy feast from design collective Sandy Pug Games. In the prologue, the game declares that God is evil and the universe nothing but a “cosmological system of abuse”. In the face of this, “a united humanity, armed with the gnosis of their own selfdivinity, claimed heaven through violence and have banished mortality forever.” But after the liberation of heaven, the work was not done. Billions of souls languished in the other place. And so, a new campaign began with a simple promise: Hell. Will. Fall.

Mechanically, HELLPIERCERS chases a noble dream: analog XCOM. The inspiration from the tactical video game series is even present in the names of the three phases: STRATCOM, the building and upgrade phase; the strategy layer, TACCOM, tactical combat between units; and RECON, more open roleplaying that binds everything together. The loop is clear: sortie out from the city of Dis, engage in combat, gain resources, invest them in buildings and upgrades, repeat until the Demon Princes are defeated and the game is won.

As HELLPIERCERS’s prologue suggests, the game is a celebration of excess. It’s maximalist in look and feel, design and contents. The example character is of the class Chrysaor. They wear the Baraquiel armor. For weapons, they wield the Ten Thousand Year Reign Shattering Blade and the Sethian Externalized Annihilation Cannon. They’re also equipped with the Motes of Bountiful Forethought. The factions of Hell are called things like Syncrasis, Metricos, and Paracletus. It’s over the top, more than a bit silly, and infectiously joyful.