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 the rest prefer it this era.
You play as Remy, a sociopath that has snuck his manner 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 figuring out that he got here from a village referred to 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 giant yarn, and it wants you to start out taking notes – actually.
Hell Is Us doesn’t characteristic a standard map or marker system. As an alternative, virtually every little thing 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 be aware of the large foremost quest descriptors to level you in the appropriate path, however the sport’s Good Deeds (its model of aspect quests) are fully right down to your reminiscence and a spotlight to element.
You may 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 full of ramblings of historic royal feuds and image scribblings.
Which 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 standard map or quest system.
If a personality describes a landmark that you have to go to, they’ll provide you with all the main points 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 acquired misplaced. And whereas a notepad actually did assist us, we don’t suppose it’s obligatory.
We’re enormous followers of this method, nevertheless it might have been a whole bust if the world itself was properly designed however narratively boring. Nonetheless, Hadea could go down as probably the most attention-grabbing online game worlds in current 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 battle. It’s an oppressively darkish setting at instances, with some streets suffering from corpses of kids 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 spiritual 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 quite a lot of characters from either side, gaining extra context alongside the best way. Very often these folks can have very important data that will help you in your quest, however you may as well assist them by discovering gadgets, whether or not these be keys, medicine, and even simply clearing the best way for them.
Generally an merchandise for an individual in a single stage may 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 most of the time it is a possibility to be taught a bit 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 acquired them there within the first place. Fairly rapidly you might be exploring deep cave programs and studying by way of 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.
By means of its notes, talking with NPCs, and learning the surroundings, the sport begins to type 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 standpoint it’s extremely cool.
Nonetheless, by taking note of its story, which is a byproduct of its palms off design, uncovering these places or fixing historic mysteries feels unimaginable. It’s like one of the best type 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 type of manner. All the things attention-grabbing about it has already occurred. This isn’t actually the type 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 just 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 cut up by an affinity for puzzles and fight. Puzzles are virtually fully 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 very important keys to open new pathways.
It’s virtually like a Resident Evil sport with its method to stage design, with tight mazes that you just’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 wrestle 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 may be levelled up, upgraded, and utilized with a type of elemental injury sort. Expertise may be utilized to those weapons, and the identical may be stated to your little drone Kapi.
Enemy selection isn’t all that, however the sport does throw more durable and more durable challenges your manner as you delve deeper into the sport. Most creatures will ultimately host these types of vibrant spirits referred to as the Haze, which should be killed first earlier than injury may be completed to the primary goal. Nonetheless, in case you aren’t fast sufficient, the Haze will respawn.
We performed on the arduous issue, so fight may be brutal at instances, particularly when a number of enemies are attacking directly, nonetheless, we personally loved the problem. There’s a good mechanic that lets you acquire again well being from injury completed to enemies in case you time a faucet of R1 proper. It means you’ll be able to utterly flip round fights in case you are tactical and play issues gradual.
Nonetheless, fortunately the sport is pretty forgiving in relation to dying. When you die in a stage any enemy you killed will stay useless, and there’s no penalty for dying. The one occasion the place enemies will respawn is in case you truly depart one stage to a different, nonetheless, as soon as you determine tips on how to shut the mysterious timeloops, you’ll be able to then freely discover these cleared ranges.
There’s an possibility of Efficiency and High quality mode on each PS5 and PS5 Professional. The bottom PS5 was largely clean 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 trying sport that successfully utilises PSSR. We additionally famous some refined however good DualSense haptic implementations.
