Circles of hell

I will be honest with you: very few people on the internet have written about Circles of Hell, and Urban Ghosts did not exactly launch it with a fanfare. What we have here is a compact, clearly handmade 2D platformer that drops up to three players into a descent through all nine circles of hell across 90 levels, controlling one of four playable undead characters who are essentially doing penance for past sins by running a gauntlet of increasingly punishing obstacle rooms. The premise is thin - redemption through suffering - but for a budget co-op platformer, that is enough of a hook. The core loop is simple and deliberately cruel: coordinate with your co-op partners to survive platforming challenges that the "Difficult" Steam tag earns honestly. Local split-screen is supported, and the title leans hard into that couch co-op identity. There is also solo play, but the level design seems tuned to punish a lone runner. Playing with two or three people turns the frustration into the kind of shared laughter that makes a sub-two-hour session genuinely memorable - or at least survivable. Gamepad support is present, which is the right call for a game like this. The four playable characters do not appear to carry dramatically different stat lines or abilities from the available information, so character choice reads more as cosmetic preference than a build decision. The presentation is spartan. Urban Ghosts is a tiny operation, and Circles of Hell wears that plainly. The pixel work is functional rather than artistically ambitious, and the sound design does not carry the weight of the hellish atmosphere the setting invites. If you come in expecting a handcrafted visual experience or a layered soundscape, this will feel thin. What it does offer instead is sheer volume of short, punchy levels - 90 is genuinely a lot for this price tier - and a structure that respects your time by keeping each stage brief. There is a small sense of progression as you descend circle by circle, and 12 Steam achievements give completionists something to chase. The community around this game is almost nonexistent. Steambase aggregates a mixed reception from a tiny pool of reviewers, and concurrent player counts hover near zero. That matters if you are hoping to find strangers to play with, but for a local co-op game, it is less of a concern. Urban Ghosts posted early patch notes in the community hub with refreshing candor about bugs, which suggests the developer cared enough to fix what was breaking. Whether post-launch support has continued is unclear from the available information. Circles of Hell is a game that knows exactly what it is: a scrappy, difficult local co-op platformer with a hellish theme and enough level content to fill a few late-night sessions with the right company. It will not challenge your emotions, dazzle your eyes, or expand your understanding of what games can be. But if you and a friend enjoy the quiet masochism of a tight 2D platformer with just enough spite in its design to keep you both swearing at the screen, there is something honest and unpretentious here worth your attention at the right price.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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