I'll be honest, when Hellraid was announced it was easily one of my most anticipated co-op games. Heretic and Hexen were some of my all time favorite shooters and this looked like a solid spiritual successor. Hellraid has taken a turn though, instead of a full fledged release (at least for now) - it's merely a concept in a piece of content for Dying Light. So does it scratch that itch?
Access to Hellraid is achieved in Dying Light by going to the first level of the tower and entering in a room past the shop. There you'll find an arcade machine that transports you to the "game." Hellraid itself is a self contained mode that has its own small progression system and melee weapons to collect. There's also a few collectibles to be found but it's pretty light from the traditional RPG like features.
Combat shares a lot of the mechanics with Dying Light, including stamina, traversal and grapple mechanics. The weapons though you'll find are mostly melee with swords, axes, and maces being your primary methods of skull pounding. There isn't much to the enemy variety - a few zombies, skeletons, and magic wielding beings. There's the occasional "big guy" you'll face too, but more or less it's straight forward.
Where I think Hellraid really shines it the level design itself. The verticality in the rooms allow you climb up and over into different areas to escape combat or locate hidden treasure. And while you could easily just run from room to room and open up the next door, there's a small exploration element here that hints at what Hellraid could be as a proper full fledged release.
From a co-op perspective there's not much going on here, no rez mechanics or healing. There's team damage (thanks for exploding us Jason) and a shared life pool. That said, having a buddy around definitely helps juggle the hordes of enemies and makes things easier.
At $10 the Hellraid DLC might not be for everyone, it's a nice taste of what might have been though there's not a strong replay loop in terms of value. Up to four player can play co-op online in Hellraid and its available now on Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4.