HellSign presents many possibilities as you prepare to venture out into the grotesque, godforsaken towns of remote Australia. Choose your favorite class from the interesting classes of detective, archaeologist, or ninja, meet the local undesirables, and start fantasizing about what kind of ghost hunter you want to be. A trapper who lures the beasts of hell. A gutsy gunfighter.

The possibilities seem vast, and the demon encyclopedia you carry around looks great, ready to be filled with your deductions and scribbles as you try to vanquish the beast of night. You can even mark it with in-game highlighters. [But after five or six missions, the allure of paranormal investigation gives way to mundane reality.

HellSign is an oddly paced game, but it is also a game of vision. You play as a rookie ghost hunter in an Australian town decimated by a variety of demons, from poltergeists to bloody hands rising from the ground. Mercenaries, misogynists, and the absolute worst kind of people are flocking to a kind of ghoulish gold rush for the precious relics and body fragments dropped by the monsters. Even the fingers of a single human hand fetch high prices in this Stygian backwater.

You are one of these undesirables, plagued by amnesia and a mysterious tattoo possessed by a demon that resurrects each time you die. The story is light, but held together well by graphic novel-like cutscenes and well-drawn characters (all of whom are assholes).

So you go on a mission to the local skeletons, thieves and psychopaths and choose your destination from a map screen where you can see the type of contract, difficulty level and location. Once in the mission, you'll be in a series of shootouts and clue-hunting, using all kinds of weapons, traps, and paranormal tracking tools.

The best tools go through the game's terrific sound design. Sure, the evil monotone drone on every level is only reminiscent of the classic super-hands moments of Peep Show, but manually tuning in to track manic laughter, creepy children's chanting, or demonic whispering and crying picked up by the microphone The radio equipment is truly unsettling (and good headphones are an essential tool in this game). These tools, along with heat-sensing devices and corpse searches, can be used to pinpoint "signs," figure out where the ghouls are in the ambush, and set traps or equip them with the right ammunition to keep them at your mercy.

Each monster exhibits a distinctive pattern, and learning it bit by bit is a big part of the fun. Ghouls cling to ceilings and trees, so lure them to open areas. Shadow beasts dislike ultraviolet light and can be temporarily dragged into other dimensions. As in many games, enemies that run small are the worst. Tiny (i.e., wolf-sized) spiders and pesky centipedes flank you and scrape you from the shadows. Kill them all with fire.

It feels great to routinely overcome enemies that once posed a serious threat, and HellSign has finally done it.

Defenses are dodge rolls, armor, and enough stability to avoid getting hit by stun locks; HellSign does not have the precision and responsiveness to smoothly incorporate these combat elements, leading to some confusion and frustration. Because his peripheral vision is always lacking, a perfectly timed dodge roll often results in him running into a wall, tree root, or dining chair that blocks his path. On the other hand, smaller enemies are too fiddly to fight accurately and are more irritating than intimidating.

Baby detectives can also do it. If you collect enough evidence in a mission, you can match the body parts and blood splatters you find with those in the beautifully stylized demon encyclopedia. If you deduce well, you will discover the nature and weaknesses of the optional bosses that await you at the end of each level. The bosses range from a giant spider-shaped creature that crawls through the air to a flaming skull that should appear with a bass guitar shred.

The over-the-top nature of these encounters - visual disturbances and synth-op music - softens the largely somber tone of the game, but it will take hours before you have the equipment and knowledge to conquer them. A more gradual boss system or some sort of scaling would have allowed these battles to be spread throughout the game, rather than using them as a game break.

And this is the main problem here: while HellSign has a solid loop centered around learning yourself and a bit of grind to level up your skills, equipment, and weapons to take on tougher enemies, the early to mid-game is boring. The three types of environments - forest, house, and junkyard - quickly become similar, despite their procedural generation. These spaces lack visual flair, and the early-game tracker spends too much time on its knees looking for signs based on overly rough estimates.

In combat, you'll run into some pretty stiff walls where you'll struggle to progress without relevant upgrades. But you can't just save up money to buy the right equipment and tools. Most of what you can wear-accessories, traps, grenades, sight attachments, barrel attachments, etc.-is locked by skill points. You will find yourself repeating the same environment over and over again, spending more XP just to get the essentials than to build a custom-made character. I have come to dread the grind, having to half-heartedly search for the skills and equipment I need to get through the next difficulty.

Then, about 12 hours later, when the critical balance of skills, weapons, and tools was achieved, something magical happened: it actually became fun.

I found the perfect combo of tools to efficiently zero in on the signs, I had enough battery to read the spirit orbs and learn where the monsters would ambush me, I understood most of the monsters' behavior, I had the skills to use traps and night vision goggles I had. I felt efficient and professional, doing wannabe things like adjusting the earcups on my headset with a frown while tuning my ghost radio. Finally, I had become the spooky ghostbuster I had always wanted to be.

HellSign has a lot of good ideas, but it's only toward the end that they really start to outweigh the mechanical, slow-paced problems, and I don't think I would have gotten that involved if I hadn't been obligated as a reviewer. Eventually the effort pays off, but it's a hard road to get there.