Hell Is Us could also be one of the vital distinctive video games of 2025. Half Soulslike, half journey recreation, half detective simulator, this gargantuan puzzler is dense, immaculately detailed, and devilishly darkish. You received’t play the rest prefer it this technology.
You play as Remi, a sociopath that has snuck his means into the battle torn nation of Hadea – besides this isn’t his first time right here. Remy was born in Hadea and smuggled out as a toddler, however he’s made his return looking for his dad and mom with little or no data to go on.
Merely understanding that he got here from a village known as Jova and that his father was the blacksmith there, Remi begins digging round and asking questions. That is when Hell Is Us begins to unfurl its very giant yarn, and it wants you to start out taking notes – actually.
Hell Is Us doesn’t function a conventional map or marker system. As a substitute, virtually all the pieces it’s essential navigate its world is within the environmental particulars. Small specifics in discarded notes, descriptions from surviving characters, and visible design – all of it’s diegetic and brilliantly immersive.
A datapad will maintain notice of the large important quest descriptors to level you in the suitable path, however the recreation’s Good Deeds (its model of aspect quests) are completely all the way down to your reminiscence and a spotlight to element.
You possibly can mark particular items of proof in your datapad, however we opted to scribble down our findings in an precise notepad. By the point we have been completed with the sport we had pages stuffed with ramblings of historical royal feuds and image scribblings.
That will make you assume that Hell Is Us is a hardcore recreation, and in some respects it perhaps is. Nonetheless, Rogue Issue has masterfully designed its world in order that throughout over 30 hours with the sport, we by no means as soon as felt the absence of a conventional map or quest system.
If a personality describes a landmark that it’s essential to go to, they’ll provide you with all the main points it’s essential determine it out. As well as, a compass and audio and visible cues are there to assist, making discovery and exploration really feel very pure – we by no means as soon as bought misplaced. And whereas a notepad actually did assist us, we don’t assume it’s necessary.
We’re big followers of this method, but it surely may have been a whole bust if the world itself was properly designed however narratively uninteresting. Nonetheless, Hadea might go down as one of the vital fascinating online game worlds in latest reminiscence.
Comprised of a dozen or so open ranges, various from expansive fields to claustrophobic libraries, Hadea is a rustic steeped in non secular feuds and ravaged by a bloody civil battle. It’s an oppressively darkish setting at instances, with some streets plagued by corpses of youngsters and horrendous visions of genocide round each nook. And there are ghoulish creatures too simply to make issues worse.
A lot of the world’s narrative centres round a non secular divide between Palomists and Sabinians. It seems pretty floor stage to start out – the Palomists hate the Sabinians and the Sabinians hate the Palomists – and we don’t actually know why.
You’ll meet a wide range of characters from each side, gaining extra context alongside the best way. Very often these folks could have important data that can assist you in your quest, however you can too assist them by discovering gadgets, whether or not these be keys, medicine, and even simply clearing the best way for them.
Typically an merchandise for an individual in a single stage could be present in one other, and it’s then that you need to be making psychological or bodily notes in order to finish your good deeds. These usually have small gameplay rewards, however as a rule it is a possibility to be taught slightly bit extra about Hadea and its ongoing battle.
Nonetheless, Hell Is Us and its central narrative aren’t so within the particulars of its present battle a lot as it’s the historical past that bought them there within the first place. Fairly shortly you’re exploring deep cave programs and studying by means of historical scripts detailing inquisitions, massacres, and royal betrayals. The best way the sport steadily broadens and delves deeper into its conspiriacies is spectacularly entertaining.
By means of its notes, talking with NPCs, and learning the setting, the sport begins to type an historical narrative that regardless of being actually previous information, is endlessly enthralling. The sport nails the aesthetic of deserted medieval church buildings, caves, and towers, so from a visible perspective it’s extremely cool.
Nonetheless, by being attentive to its story, which is a byproduct of its palms off design, uncovering these areas or fixing historical mysteries feels unbelievable. It’s like the most effective form of moments from the Indiana Jones films or Uncharted video games, the place you’re uncovering issues that haven’t been seen for tons of of years, while slotting in one other puzzle piece within the jigsaw that’s Hadea.
Narratively then Hell Is Us is an absolute doozy, however in a bizarre form of means. Every little thing fascinating about it has already occurred. This isn’t actually the type of recreation with expansive cutscenes or gripping character arcs, and Remi as a sociopathic protagonist is a bit uninteresting. However there’s one thing enchanting about piecing collectively one other a part of Hadea’s historical past by discovering an previous letter or a knight’s corpse. A second considerably just like Silent Hill 2’s unending staircase had us sitting on the sting of our seat with anticipation.
It’s not all letter studying and Hadean sightseeing after all. Hell Is Us is cut up by an affinity for puzzles and fight. Puzzles are virtually completely about opening new doorways to discover even additional. You’ll be piecing collectively components of historic information to make up door codes, matching up artifacts to sure positions and discovering important keys to open new pathways.
It’s virtually like a Resident Evil recreation with its method to stage design, with tight mazes that you simply’ll steadily open up. There are just a few puzzles in right here that had us racking our mind – fortunately we had the ol’ notepad to fall again on – however nothing ever feels impenetrable.
One thing we reckon folks will battle extra with, nevertheless, is fight. Made up of melee weapons, you’ll tackle the pale nightmares wandering Hadea with swords, polearms, axes, and greatswords, every of which could be levelled up, upgraded, and utilized with a form of elemental injury kind. Abilities could be utilized to those weapons, and the identical could be mentioned on your little drone Kapi.
Enemy selection isn’t all that, however the recreation does throw harder and harder challenges your means as you delve deeper into the sport. Most creatures will ultimately host these kinds of vibrant spirits known as the Haze, which should be killed first earlier than injury could be completed to the primary goal. Nonetheless, should you aren’t fast sufficient, the Haze will respawn.
We performed on the onerous issue, so fight could be brutal at instances, particularly when a number of enemies are attacking directly, nevertheless, we personally loved the problem. There’s a good mechanic that permits you to acquire again well being from injury completed to enemies if you time a faucet of R1 proper. It means you’ll be able to utterly flip round fights if you’re tactical and play issues gradual.
Nonetheless, fortunately the sport is pretty forgiving with regards to dying. Should you die in a stage any enemy you killed will stay lifeless, and there’s no penalty for dying. The one occasion the place enemies will respawn is should you truly go away one stage to a different, nevertheless, as soon as you determine the right way to shut the mysterious timeloops, you’ll be able to then freely discover these cleared ranges.
There’s an choice of Efficiency and High quality mode on each PS5 and PS5 Professional. The bottom PS5 was largely easy crusing on Efficiency, with some framerate hiccups when transitioning between main areas. On the PS5 Professional the sport ran close to flawlessly, with the tiniest little bit of pop-in. Nonetheless, it didn’t spoil an in any other case extremely sharp wanting recreation that successfully utilises PSSR. We additionally famous some refined however good DualSense haptic implementations.
