If you find games that include depictions of real acts of horror such as firing squads, chemical warfare and beheadings, you may want to avoid this game. It's well constructed mechanically, but real images taken from the German and British Empires prior to and during the second world war and after may be upsetting and in my opinion highly inappropriate for any game.

Journey Hell:

In Brief:
I was quite surprised when I initially entered Journey Hell. Once past the entrance portal to Hitler's Germany hell, you will see several real images of firing squads and other images taken during the war placed on the entrance to the game as framed pictures. After surviving an easy platform section you'll then be shown more images presented as framed pictures of German chemical weapons used by Saddam Hussain against his own people back in the 1990's. Again these images are highly inappropriate for a game (IMO). I have avoided posting any of those images as I don't want to offend anyone. I realise the second world war ended over 70 years ago, but Saddam's reign of terror is still fairly recent in living memories of many people and horrifying in its extent, but such memories based on fact are very in appropriate in any game (IMO).

The actual game play is well paced and relatively easy, using the standard controls for such a game (see the controls section below). It's well constructed, and if you don't mind the theme, a game even the most novice of gamers would be able to proceed with relative ease. When you approach a long corridor after braving a few platforms and some swinging traps there's a temporary and surprising shift to the game with an almost comedic feel to it; (see the third from last image below). I'll let you discover for yourself what I mean by that. After the cut scene that lasts for about 30 seconds or so the screen goes black, then you are transported back to a new level called ''Welcome to the Hell England'', where, once you've passed the portal at the start of the level you are shown harrowing images that the British Empire were responsible for, this incudes a British soldier holding the severed head of an Asian Indian as well as starving Biafran people.(I was in my mid-teens in the early seventies and applied to work as an aid worker to help but wasn't considered too young and under qualified at the time). I can still remember the harrowing images of starving children from the awful time, where kids were scraping the waste bins from behind a hotel in the city trying to get some substance. It still brings tears to my eyes when I think of those times. England finally gave independence to Nigeria, the country responsible in the early 70's.


The graphic are low poly, but very effective at giving an atmosphere to the game; the addition of the real images presented as wall art adds to the atmosphere and for me was very melancholic and sad. Audio is also very effective at adding to the overall ambiance of the games theme, with screams from those in hell and a soundtrack that fits in as well.

I only played the first two levels so cannot say whether there are more. If you fall into the lava or get hit by one of the swinging traps or the slicing swords, you start from the beginning of the level. When restarting the game, you can select to play a new game or continue where you left off. It will always take you to the beginning of the level you left.

The games story line goes as follows:

''After decades of being buried in hell, Mr Hitler takes a few days off from hells officials to visit other parts of hell.''

The games premise is possibly inspired by John Bunyan's book that was made into a movie called Journey to Hell. You can see a short video of game play HERE

Controls:

W = Move forward
S = Move Back
A = Move left
D = Move Right
Space = Jump
Shift = Run
Q = Roll
Esc = Menu
P/Esc = Resume
F1 = Main Menu
F2 = Quit

Notes on Security
I scanned a zipped copy of the installed game using Virus Total and it found zero hits from 62 antimalware engines. You can see the scan HERE