An atmospheric “AA” motion title from developer Rogue Issue, Hell Is Us is a temptingly bold curiosity because it treads perilous paths and slathers itself in intrigue and the fascination of participant discovery by way of exploration. Hell Is Us seems like an amalgamation of online game greats, and with its mysterious and brooding undertones, manages to captivate with a singular presence and id, creating one of the vital alluring video games of 2025. Does Hell Is Us deliver a brand new imaginative and prescient of a hell we’d wish to spend hours and hours invested in, or is the “Hell” within the sport’s title an apt descriptor of poor high quality?
Set within the fictional European nation of Hadea, the story of Hell Is Us follows Remi Letam, an ON Peacekeeper who’s desperately looking for his mother and father in his homeland. Nevertheless, Hadea has turn into infested with a scourge often called Hole Walkers, and Remi’s search is thrown into additional hardship as a result of a ravaging civil struggle that plagues the land. Hadea is a harmful place, seemingly reduce off from the civility of surrounding nations, and trapped in a bleak authoritarian panorama that really places the “Hell” in Hell Is Us.
A Hell Of A Time
Hell Is Us does a formidable job bringing the world of Hadea to life with a backstory scarred in struggle, and a rustic decaying in unrest and malevolence. Hell Is us raises many questions so that you can uncover as your journey by way of its perilous and desolate landscapes. Who is that this burly monstrosity with a flabby face interrogating Remi? What’s Remi’s historical past and what had been his mother and father like and the way does Remi get together with them? And, how on earth can Remi go from wanting like a Silent Hill protagonist jogging by way of forests, to a badass who dons a cloak and may function a drone?
Not many massive trendy video games put within the effort, however Hell Is Us goes past the bog-standard to give you causes to care. There are many of us Remi will encounter on his quest with their very own tales and turmoils, which add taste and perception to the general story, and a few encounters are haunting and upsetting-showing you simply how harrowing and grim Hadea’s scenario really is.
The way in which Hell Is Us handles its taut themes of hatred and struggle do a lot to entrench you in its thick and uncompromising world constructing, which compels you to care concerning the story and characters.
When so many AAA video games offer you tales that refuse to emotionally interact gamers, Hell Is Us and its “AA” expertise reveals the gulf that exists between the 2 breeds of online game. Avid gamers champion AA video games due to emotionally participating titles, and their needs to prioritize artwork over cash, and Hell Is Us proves itself as an exemplar of that mentality.
There’s a sense the early goings of Hell Is Us are slapdash. Remi is underneath interrogation with a fact serum to pressure him into telling the reality about his story within the lead-up to his seize. Nevertheless, it’s jarring that Remi is at first a repeatedly clothed man exploring the forests of Hadea, however when he sees a feminine cloaked determine fall in battle, he seemingly dons her cloak, works a drone someway, and may wield weaponry like a badass. Extra explanations are wanted to contextualize Remi’s empowerment as a result of the set-up is a large number, and is sort of a big draw back to an in any other case actually spectacular story and ambiance.
Letting You Off The Hellish Hook
Hell Is Us prides itself on letting gamers off the leash with minimal steering, which means you’re inspired to analyze and discover the options to issues your self. Hadea accommodates many voters you possibly can have significant dialog, who moreover providing you with extra consciousness of the historical past of Hadea and its individuals, are sometimes in determined want of your assist because of the calamitous scenario the nation is embroiled in. Early on within the sport you discover a severely wounded soldier who’s in pressing want of a medical package, however he additionally vaguely is aware of the whereabouts of a key to a hulking APC. What you do subsequent is search the close by space with out directional arrows or any markers, however you do obtain help in different methods.
One of the crucial putting nuances in Hell Is Us, is that regardless of the sport’s refusal to inform you what to do, environmental clues deliver you nearer to the solutions and whereabouts of goal objects. Whether or not it’s following a string of wind chimes or timber marked with the letter X, Hell Is Us doesn’t maintain you helpless, however makes use of visible and sound cues to information you in the direction of options. What this implies, is that you simply’re given the instruments to be your individual investigator inside the tough expanses of Hadea, and this greater than something is why Hell Is Us is such an absorbing and rewarding expertise to play.
Interactions with the completely different characters you’ll come throughout as you discover Hadea will supply varied insights and quests; they could additionally commerce objects with you as effectively, which can show helpful as you wade by way of the ruined lands. Taking part in these conversations generates a way of consolation that offsets the hell and the hazard discovered within the wilds, which you’ll very a lot recognize everytime you get the chance to work together with others.
The way in which characters look and the way they stare at you throughout conversations are harking back to Bethesda’s RPGs, which matches for the high-tech stock display screen too. This reinforces how integral the personalities and the stock are within the Hell Is Us expertise, and the knowledge in addition to the objects you decide up are significant while you encounter the sport’s puzzles and discovering the assortment of collectibles strewn all through the sport.
As insistent as developer Rogue Issue are so that you can discover your individual solutions in Hell Is Us, they do advocate that you simply play with tutorials on to acclimate to the Hell Is Us gameplay expertise. When you allow tutorials, they are going to pop up now and again to instruct you on how one can make the most of the assorted mechanics of the sport and how one can greatest cope with these illusive creatures.
A Hole Stroll In A Devastated Wasteland
When you’ve donned the black poncho and achieve entry to the drone, it’s time for Remi to take the sword and eviscerate Hole Walkers. These unpredictable white-bodied hostile beings lunge into you with harmful swipes, and to defend correctly you’ll want to dam and parry their assaults to get the drop on them. If you end up attacked in numbers, you need to use your trusty drone to distract one whilst you cope with one other, which is a really helpful approach to weed out enemies and single them out. You may as well regain a bit of well being by consuming the power hole walkers depart behind after an offensive assault.
Hell Is Us seems and looks like one more Soulslike, as you end up ready for the proper alternatives to strike whereas timing blocks and parries to ward the scourge, although regardless of its blatantly unoriginal appear and feel, Hell Is Us is held aloft by the sense of thriller and the regular evolution of challenges posed by these mysterious entities. As you proceed by way of Hell Is Us, you’ll encounter new kinds of Hole Walker, together with variants with big wing-like limbs, and one other sort that has a hyperlink known as a Haze hooked up to it by an umbilical chord, and can the Haze will must be destroyed earlier than you possibly can take out the now-vulnerable Hole Walker.
The empowering essence of the foe additionally applies to Remi as effectively. Remi can decide up varied weapons on his journey like axes, a Lymbic Polearm and a Greatsword, and he can ship devastating finishers that appears fairly sick in movement. You possibly can apply glyphs to weapons that increase them with emotional heft like Rage, Terror and Grief, which grant an enormous and satisfying increase to assaults. The visceral suggestions from these assaults makes them exacting to carry out, and also you’ll really feel a way of energy normally reserved for hack and slashers like Satan Might Cry, so Hell Is Us has finished an exemplary job of transferring its specific aura in each approach that issues.
A Deliciously Decayed Dystopia
Hadea is a dismal wasteland and admittedly Hell Is Us doesn’t stand aside an excessive amount of from its contemporaries. Nevertheless, this doesn’t imply Hell Is Us doesn’t look implausible as a result of it’s impressively detailed with darkish brooding environments, in addition to a suitably uninviting attract that permits the sport’s hellish vibes to return to life. All the things from the inexperienced smog, to the wide-open expanses unfolding in entrance of you’ll persuade you that Hell is Us is greater than merely a “AA online game.”
The sound design is implausible as effectively from the gargling screams of the Hole Walkers, to the attractive slashes of blade because it delivers repetitive swipes into their haunting our bodies, there’s an attractively scrumptious tone to the sounds of vanquishing enemies in Hell Is Us that conveys the sport’s disturbing ambiance very effectively. Likewise, the character voices do an excellent job of capturing all of the turmoil left behind by Hadea’s fractured remnants, and you may hear their innermost emotions in each dialog. Total, the visible and sound design in Hell is Us is great.
Not many trendy video video games embroil you into an absorbing world and invitations you into that visceral world by providing you with a myriad of causes to discover it whereas being inspired to search out your individual approach by way of it with out the need of hand-holding, however Hell Is Us is a type of particular video games. You may deride Hell Is Us as a follower of the online game business’s most celebrated motion and RPG video games, however by doing so you’ll be tearing your self away from what’s a really impressed, but very gripping and robustly constructed motion title. When you’re in any respect happy with what you’ve seen from Hell Is Us, relaxation assured that it is without doubt one of the yr’s most compelling AA video games, and that the immersion this sport builds will enrapture you in all the correct methods.
