Hellscreen, the FPS with a rear-view mirror, has left Steam early access two episodes short of its original plan: 'This is a bittersweet experience for me'

Adding a rearview mirror to a first-person shooter might sound like a daft gimmick, but as PC Gamer’s Ted Litchfield discovered three years ago, the defining mechanic of Hellscreen is anything but: “You have a mini, lower-res screen in the upper quadrant of your view at all times, and can blow it up and shrink it back down with the shift key,” he wrote after taking the early access shooter for a spin 2023. “Left click fires forward, while right click fires backwards and does quadruple damage while you’re in motion.”

It was an idea that produced thrilling and highly unusual combat encounters, and Hellscreen showed huge promise as it launched into early access. Then, things went quiet. Hellscreen’s last Steam update appeared more than two years ago, a long time for an early access game to remain dormant.