A Gritty Sci-Fi Journey With Intricate Worldbuilding

Rogue Issue’s new third-person action-adventure recreation Hell is Us is enigmatic, bleak, and ceaselessly 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 nicely above its weight, providing a slow-burning sci-fi thriller you’ll be able to lose your self in.

Directed by Jonathan Jacques-Belletête – whose creative imaginative and prescient helped make the 2010s Deus Ex duology so essential – 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.

Battle & Items of the Puzzle

Hadea is A Gorgeously Grim Panorama to Study and Discover

Rémi is a refugee from Hadea, a fictional Soviet-Bloc-like nation devastated by a provincial civil conflict and reality-rending occasion referred to as The Calamity. His dad and mom smuggled him in another country as a younger little one, however now he sits drugged to the gills and linked 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 convey the broader world into focus. Hell is Us’ trumpeted absence of map and monitoring icons in some way helps its aura, with no apparent targets to blithely pursue through the HUD. Commendable and gutsy in concept, the impact is alleviated by a useful Pip-Boy-like Datapad which always refreshes with gadgets, 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 amassed side-quests the sport dubs as “Mysteries,” simply don’t anticipate something remotely near Blue Prince’s rapturous brain teasers. There’s often a course to pursue, however a couple of brute pressure approaches and space retreads proved unavoidable in my playthrough.

Extra Puzzles And Much less Fight, Please

I would Quite Be Chasing Clues Than Hole Walkers

Sadly, these retreads typically imply extra fight. It’s thrilling at first, this scrabbly Soulslike stamina-baiting motion towards eerie phantasmal hollow-face demons, wielding a Ki-Pulse-like rally mechanic straight out of Nioh that precludes the necessity for therapeutic gadgets when you get the timing proper. Weapons are strictly melee-only, a group of upgradable gleaming blades rotted over by coloured status-effect parts, although Rémi himself lacks any correct level-ups or ability bushes. Past the blade, an assistant flying drone affords a couple of particular modules that set off sprint assaults and different features.

Early elation at these potentialities rapidly gave option to routine, and I used to be largely bored with Hell is Us’ fight by the tip of the primary act. The wraith-like enemy designs are beautiful, however you’ll have seen virtually all of them inside that timeframe. There’s a projectile one, a tanky one, a pea-brained zombie kind, all ghouls with horrible focusing on and floaty motion, and the sport engine chugs and input-skips throughout busier bouts. Harder fights middle 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 straightforward or instantly deadly through stunlock; if poise is an lively mechanic, it’s by no means constant or correctly defined right here. Fortunately, loss of life simply kicks you again to a checkpoint intact on regular issue, so the fight feels extra like an intrusion than a significant gameplay or narrative factor, 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 in the end straightforward to cope with. There is not a single superior weapon combo to study, although extra engagement choices do emerge, with a modular improve system that comes with each blades and drone. All of it produces that basic situation of a recreation which drip-feeds you loads of fight choices, however I set my favorites early on and was performed with it.

Luxurious Sights and Fascinating Individuals To Meet

A Finely Drawn World Packed With Properly-Drawn Characters

Following a smaller starter zone the place you study the fundamentals, Rémi can journey by way of choose areas in Hadea at will, chasing down clues at every map level and unlocking new locales. The environments are properly differentiated and include sufficient constructions and landmarks to assist get your bearings over time, although the dearth of any direct fast-travel factors inside every space finally examined my persistence.

The sport’s giant solid 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 listing of common conversational key phrases by no means updates all through the sport, although particular inquiries seem following sure situations, often the invention of a particular 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 whilst you’re trying (although quest progress can see them relocate elsewhere on the earth in a while). Nonetheless, the total suite of voice appearing and character animations are wonderful, infusing these in any other case static entities with vibrant life and element.

Each

Apparently, I am unable to get into essentially the most memorable features of Hell is Us on this assessment, the moments that are finest left unspoiled. Whether or not that is the beautiful reveal of a hidden temple, fixing a trickier puzzle, or a couple of choose plot twists, these challenges really feel extra rewarding to traverse than one other recreation’s senseless dungeon slog to a treasure chest.

Alternatively, there are occasions when Hell is Us seems like much less than the sum of its components. Some puzzles I assumed fascinatingly ornate ended abruptly, and plenty of advanced NPC micro-stories resolve in an anticlimactic stroke, absent any worthy coda. Because of this, 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 delightful 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 paying homage to Alex Garland’s Annihilation, to which this recreation ceaselessly doffs its cap.

Admirable for each its persistently artistic imaginative and prescient and dangerous ambiguity, Hell is Us is an intriguing expedition you’ll completely wish to see by way of to the tip, even when its ambition exceeds its grasp. Go in as chilly as doable and do your finest to keep away from the deluge of on-line walkthroughs positive to return; you’ll uncover a recreation that’s trying one thing new and is happy to indicate it to you.

Hell Is Us

Techniques

8/10

Launched

September 4, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ // Blood, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Robust Language, Use of Medicine

Developer(s)

Rogue Issue

Writer(s)

Nacon

Execs & Cons

• Superbly grim world and wealthy lore, additional bolstered by nice voice performances and a robust script
• A concentrate on exploration and puzzles units it other than different third-person action-adventures
• The entire lack of lively 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 issue
• Occasional recreation efficiency points, particularly throughout busier battles
• Some irritating backtracking, additional exacerbated by lack of fast-travel inside maps