Hell Is Us could also be probably the most distinctive video games of 2025. Half Soulslike, half journey sport, half detective simulator, this gargantuan puzzler is dense, immaculately detailed, and devilishly darkish. You gained’t play anything prefer it this era.
You play as Remy, a sociopath that has snuck his method into the conflict torn nation of Hadea – besides this isn’t his first time right here. Remy was born in Hadea and smuggled out as a baby, however he’s made his return looking for his dad and mom with little or no data to go on.
Merely realizing that he got here from a village known as Jova and that his father was the blacksmith there, Remy begins digging round and asking questions. That is when Hell Is Us begins to unfurl its very massive yarn, and it wants you to begin taking notes – actually.
Hell Is Us doesn’t characteristic a conventional map or marker system. As an alternative, virtually all the pieces it is advisable to 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 preserve observe of the massive predominant quest descriptors to level you in the precise route, however the sport’s Good Deeds (its model of aspect quests) are solely all the way down to your reminiscence and a spotlight to element.
You’ll be able to 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 performed with the sport we had pages full of ramblings of historic royal feuds and image scribblings.
That will make you suppose that Hell Is Us is a hardcore sport, and in some respects it possibly 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 you have to go to, they’ll offer you all the small print it is advisable to 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 suppose it’s obligatory.
We’re enormous followers of this strategy, but it surely may have been a whole bust if the world itself was effectively designed however narratively boring. Nonetheless, Hadea might go down as probably the most 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 spiritual feuds and ravaged by a bloody civil conflict. It’s an oppressively darkish setting at instances, with some streets suffering from 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 begin – 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 either side, gaining extra context alongside the way in which. Very often these individuals may have important data that can assist you in your quest, however you too can assist them by discovering objects, whether or not these be keys, remedy, and even simply clearing the way in which for them.
Generally an merchandise for an individual in a single stage could be present in one other, and it’s then that try 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 chance to be taught somewhat 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 conflict a lot as it’s the historical past that bought them there within the first place. Fairly rapidly you might be exploring deep cave techniques and studying via historic scripts detailing inquisitions, massacres, and royal betrayals. The way in which the sport steadily broadens and delves deeper into its conspiriacies is spectacularly entertaining.
Via its notes, talking with NPCs, and learning the atmosphere, the sport begins to kind an historic 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 arms off design, uncovering these areas or fixing historic mysteries feels unimaginable. It’s like the perfect form of moments from the Indiana Jones films or Uncharted video games, the place you’re uncovering issues that haven’t been seen for a whole bunch 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 method. All the pieces fascinating about it has already occurred. This isn’t actually the sort of sport with expansive cutscenes or gripping character arcs, and Remy as a sociopathic protagonist is a bit boring. 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 much like Silent Hill 2’s endless 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 break up by an affinity for puzzles and fight. Puzzles are virtually solely about opening new doorways to discover even additional. You’ll be piecing collectively components of historic data 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 sport with its strategy to stage design, with tight mazes that you just’ll step by step 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 individuals will battle extra with, nonetheless, 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 harm kind. Expertise could be utilized to those weapons, and the identical could be stated in your little drone Kapi.
Enemy selection isn’t all that, however the sport does throw harder and harder challenges your method as you delve deeper into the sport. Most creatures will ultimately host these kinds of vibrant spirits known as the Haze, which must be killed first earlier than harm could be performed to the primary goal. Nonetheless, in case 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 without delay, nonetheless, we personally loved the problem. There’s a good mechanic that lets you acquire again well being from harm performed to enemies in case you time a faucet of R1 proper. It means you may fully flip round fights in case you are tactical and play issues sluggish.
Nonetheless, fortunately the sport is pretty forgiving relating to demise. For those who die in a stage any enemy you killed will stay lifeless, and there’s no penalty for demise. The one occasion the place enemies will respawn is in case you really go away one stage to a different, nonetheless, as soon as you determine how you can shut the mysterious timeloops, you may then freely discover these cleared ranges.
There may be 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 sport that successfully utilises PSSR. We additionally famous some refined however good DualSense haptic implementations.
