Rogue Issue’s new third-person action-adventure sport Hell is Us is enigmatic, bleak, and steadily elegant. Loaded with intricate worldbuilding and downcast wartime themes, it oozes effort and obvious depth, even when this impact could be smudged by the sport’s fight shortcomings, sometimes shallow puzzles, and burdensome backtracking. Regardless, as a contemporary AA title, Hell is Us punches properly above its weight, providing a slow-burning sci-fi thriller you may lose your self in.
Directed by Jonathan Jacques-Belletête – whose inventive imaginative and prescient helped make the 2010s Deus Ex duology so important – Hell is Us will attraction to weird-game aficionados, and its load-bearing lore and strange construction hearkens again to these halcyon days stumbling round Lordran on a blind Darkish Souls playthrough, an impact which few different video games convincingly conjure.
Conflict & Items of the Puzzle
Hadea is A Gorgeously Grim Panorama to Be taught and Discover
Rémi is a refugee from Hadea, a fictional Soviet-Bloc-like nation devastated by a provincial civil warfare and reality-rending occasion often known as The Calamity. His mother and father smuggled him overseas as a younger baby, however now he sits drugged to the gills and related to weird machines with solely a grotesque interrogator for firm. His obvious crimes unclear and true motivations unknown, the majority of Hell is Us presents as Rémi’s reluctantly instructed confession, a tortured twist on the narrative conceit of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
That’s as far as I’ll spoil it, although the sport’s central plot is much less exceptional than its conversational element, audio logs, and plenty of colourful scraps of lore, all of which deliver the broader world into focus. Hell is Us’ trumpeted absence of map and monitoring icons someway helps its aura, with no apparent targets to blithely pursue by way of the HUD. Commendable and gutsy in concept, the impact is alleviated by a helpful Pip-Boy-like Datapad which consistently refreshes with objects, character data, and connective plot leads, so that you’ll not often be hopelessly disoriented.
There are different mechanics to find as you go, and Hell is Us is strongest when your quests are stacked excessive, weakening in its again half as you desperately seek for the one factor you missed. A set of cyphers, puzzles, and elaborate key hunts resolve gathered side-quests the sport dubs as “Mysteries,” simply don’t anticipate something remotely near Blue Prince’s rapturous mind teasers. There’s often a course to pursue, however a number of brute power approaches and space retreads proved unavoidable in my playthrough.
Extra Puzzles And Much less Fight, Please
I might Somewhat Be Chasing Clues Than Hole Walkers
Sadly, these retreads typically imply extra fight. It’s thrilling at first, this scrabbly Soulslike stamina-baiting motion in opposition to eerie phantasmal hollow-face demons, wielding a Ki-Pulse-like rally mechanic straight out of Nioh that precludes the necessity for therapeutic objects when you get the timing proper. Weapons are strictly melee-only, a set of upgradable gleaming blades rotted over by coloured status-effect components, although Rémi himself lacks any correct level-ups or talent timber. Past the blade, an assistant flying drone affords a number of particular modules that set off sprint assaults and different capabilities.
Early elation at these potentialities shortly gave technique to routine, and I used to be largely uninterested in Hell is Us’ fight by the top of the primary act. The wraith-like enemy designs are beautiful, however you’ll have seen nearly all of them inside that timeframe. There’s a projectile one, a tanky one, a pea-brained zombie kind, all ghouls with horrible concentrating on and floaty motion, and the sport engine chugs and input-skips throughout busier bouts. Harder fights heart on “Hazes,” multicolored spirits who spring to life out of choose foes and should be killed earlier than their hosts.
Any obvious selection outcomes from mixing and matching primary enemies with these Hazes, however I discovered fight both dismissively simple or abruptly deadly by way of stunlock; if poise is an energetic mechanic, it’s by no means constant or correctly defined right here. Fortunately, demise simply kicks you again to a checkpoint intact on regular problem, so the fight feels extra like an intrusion than a significant gameplay or narrative ingredient, just a few gravel to tempo out the puzzle-solving.
Different gameplay programs – just like the cool Timeloop black holes you see off within the distance – appear imposing at first, however they’re finally simple to take care of. There is not a single superior weapon combo to be taught, although further engagement choices do emerge, with a modular improve system that comes with each blades and drone. All of it produces that traditional situation of a sport which drip-feeds you loads of fight choices, however I set my favorites early on and was executed with it.
Luxurious Sights and Attention-grabbing Individuals To Meet
A Finely Drawn World Packed With Nicely-Drawn Characters
Following a smaller starter zone the place you be taught the fundamentals, Rémi can journey by choose areas in Hadea at will, chasing down clues at every map level and unlocking new locales. The environments are properly differentiated and comprise sufficient buildings and landmarks to assist get your bearings over time, although the shortage of any direct fast-travel factors inside every space ultimately examined my endurance.
Gamers must be suggested that, alongside the sport’s matters of warfare, Hell is Us incorporates sexual assault themes absent of any formal warning. There’s little outright express content material of this kind, however I needed to ensure it was talked about right here.
The sport’s giant forged of NPCs are compelling right down to a person, however most not often combine into the gameplay or wider plot, appearing extra as quest-givers and lore fonts. A standardized checklist of basic conversational key phrases by no means updates all through the sport, although particular inquiries seem following sure situations, often the invention of a selected merchandise associated to an NPC’s tracked Thriller.
As such, they successfully carry out as animated statuary, and NPC by no means budge an inch from their given station when you’re trying (although quest progress can see them relocate elsewhere on the planet afterward). Nonetheless, the complete suite of voice appearing and character animations are glorious, infusing these in any other case static entities with vibrant life and element.
Each
Curiously, I can not get into probably the most memorable elements of Hell is Us on this evaluate, the moments that are greatest left unspoiled. Whether or not that is the beautiful reveal of a hidden temple, fixing a trickier puzzle, or a number of choose plot twists, these challenges really feel extra rewarding to traverse than one other sport’s senseless dungeon slog to a treasure chest.
However, there are occasions when Hell is Us seems like much less than the sum of its components. Some puzzles I believed fascinatingly ornate ended abruptly, and plenty of complicated NPC micro-stories resolve in an anticlimactic stroke, absent any worthy coda. In consequence, the sport’s promise of depth and experimentally self-directed unaided play can seem at odds with these puddle-deep penalties.
Fortunately, that by no means compromised what’s most compelling and exquisite about Hell is Us, its imposing horrific surroundings and complete worldbuilding, the broader political drama that seats its hero’s journey. It renders the lesser fight a mere prelude to the juicier puzzles and environments. There’s additionally a luscious ambient soundtrack, a choir of cooing alien synths that add texture and distressing dread to each scene, inescapably harking back to Alex Garland’s Annihilation, to which this sport steadily doffs its cap.
Admirable for each its constantly inventive imaginative and prescient and dangerous ambiguity, Hell is Us is an intriguing expedition you’ll completely wish to see by to the top, even when its ambition exceeds its grasp. Go in as chilly as attainable and do your greatest to keep away from the deluge of on-line walkthroughs positive to come back; you’ll uncover a sport that’s trying one thing new and is excited to indicate it to you.
Hell Is Us
8/10
- Launched
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September 4, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ // Blood, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Sturdy Language, Use of Medication
- Developer(s)
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Rogue Issue
- Writer(s)
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Nacon
- Fantastically grim world and wealthy lore, additional bolstered by nice voice performances and a powerful script
- A give attention to exploration and puzzles units it aside from different third-person action-adventures
- The entire lack of energetic map or overstuffed HUD efficiently will increase immersion
- Excellent visible and sound design all through
- Restricted enemy selection and a few underwhelming fight on regular problem
- Occasional sport efficiency points, particularly throughout busier battles
- Some irritating backtracking, additional exacerbated by lack of fast-travel inside maps
A digital PC code was offered to Display screen Rant for the aim of this evaluate.
