HELLMART

Introduction

HELLMART, released 28 January 2026 by GAZE IN GAMES and Storymode, casts players as a clerk at a remote 24-hour convenience store, stocking shelves and serving customers by day, and surviving strange visitors and anomalies by night across a seven-day shift. It sits Mostly Positive across a full sample of around 1030 reviews, and reading widely through them reveals a release whose genuinely atmospheric concept draws real, specific praise sitting alongside a complaint serious enough to shape this review's score before anything else.

A distinctive hybrid concept reviewers genuinely respond to

Set aside the complaints for a moment, because the underlying idea works for a meaningful share of this sample. Reviewers repeatedly and specifically credit the tension of the day-night structure, serving ordinary customers by day, then having to assess which visitors at night are actually threats, as a genuinely distinct horror mechanic rather than a straightforward jump-scare gauntlet. Multiple reviewers separately praise the store's cast of recurring strange customers, several naming specific characters as highlights, and multiple reviewers specifically enjoy the dark, horror-movie-referencing comedy woven into product names and dialogue. This review reads that consistency as real evidence the core concept, day-job dread meeting genuine threat at night, genuinely lands for players willing to meet it on its own terms.

An overwhelming, specific complaint: the paid release barely expands the demo

Set against that praise, this review found the single most repeated and specific complaint across this entire sample: that the finished, paid release adds very little over the free demo that preceded it. Multiple reviewers who explicitly state they played both independently describe the same specific experience, the full game feeling like "the demo, just longer," several noting identical jump scares and content rather than meaningful expansion. This review reads the volume and consistency of reviewers making that exact comparison, not a vague "it's short" complaint but a specific, checkable claim about what changed between two versions they'd both played, as unusually strong and credible evidence of a real gap between what was marketed and what shipped.

Specific, repeated reports that features never actually activate

Compounding that complaint, this review found multiple, independent and specific reports that features shown in the game's own marketing and teased within its systems never become usable. Reviewers separately describe shop upgrades, additional shelving, weapon and trap purchases, and computer programs that remain visible but permanently locked regardless of progress, several describing this directly as the game clearly shipping unfinished rather than deliberately holding content back for later. This review treats that specificity, naming particular systems rather than a general complaint about depth, as a credible and serious concern distinct from ordinary Early-Access-style incompleteness, especially since this is a full, non-Early-Access release.

A very short runtime with no replay mode

This review also found a repeated, specific complaint about the game's length. Multiple detailed reviewers report completing all three available endings within a combined two to four hours, and several specifically note the absence of any endless or extended mode at launch despite widely requesting one. This review reads the consistency of that specific runtime figure, repeated independently across many reviews rather than one outlier's estimate, as a credible basis for treating value as a genuine, central weakness rather than a minor gripe, particularly set against this game's asking price and genre peers like Phasmophobia and Supermarket Simulator, which several reviewers directly and specifically invoke for comparison.

A claim about the developers this review reports carefully

This review also found multiple reviewers specifically raising a claim worth reporting transparently rather than ignoring: that this studio is connected to the team behind Zoochosis, an earlier, widely criticised release, operating under a different name here. This review did not independently verify that claim and reports it exactly as what it is, a specific accusation repeated by multiple Steam reviewers rather than a confirmed fact, offered here because it appears often enough in this sample to plausibly be shaping how some reviewers are scoring the game.

Specific technical complaints worth naming directly

Beyond the value and completeness concerns above, this review found a cluster of specific technical reports. One detailed reviewer describes a softlock bug on day four, an anomaly registering as present without ever being able to be cleared, blocking further progress without a full restart. Steam Deck players separately report the game becoming unplayable after a recent update, and at least one detailed reviewer, having completed multiple playthroughs, reports the game's supposedly random nightly events occurring on identical days across separate runs, directly contradicting the developers' stated design.

Why this review scores the game in the middle despite real atmosphere

It's worth being direct about how this review weighs a genuinely distinctive, well-atmosphered concept against the scale of complaints documented here. The core day-night hybrid idea works, and reviewers who engage with it on its own terms describe a genuinely tense, entertaining single playthrough. But the overwhelming, specific and independently corroborated demo-comparison complaint, combined with concretely unfinished features and a runtime measured in single-digit hours with no replay mode, describes real gaps between what this release promised and what it delivers, not simply a short game. This review scores HELLMART as a genuinely interesting concept let down by a launch that feels meaningfully incomplete relative to its own marketing.

Final Verdict

HELLMART pairs a genuinely distinctive day-night horror-retail concept with real atmosphere and a memorably strange cast of customers. What holds this score down is an overwhelming, specific and widely corroborated complaint that the paid release barely expands on its free demo, concrete reports of unfinished shop features, a very short combined runtime with no replay mode, and a handful of real technical bugs. Worth a look on sale for the concept; approach full price with real caution.