Hell Is Us Review: A Well-Designed World Suffering from Dull Gameplay

I like supporting small studios and their ideas mainly because they come up with unique ideas, weird worlds, and new gameplay mechanics. Rogue Factor, the company behind Hell Is Us, made some interesting choices both in the art and the overall structure of the game, but it also came with a cost that, in my opinion, left more of a bitter taste in the overall experience of the game.

TL;DR

Hell Is Us is a troubling experience. On the one hand, the world they build is so alive and terrifying. The game is not afraid to pass some serious messages about the cruelty of the war, and even more, the dark nature of humans. On the other hand, the actual gameplay felt more like an obstacle when I was trying to progress through the story. I would suggest this game only to people who like a good story and do not really want to care about the gameplay.

Rogue Factor shows great promise, but also inexperience. Hell Is Us combines lots of games, like Lies of P and Elden Ring, where the player is left completely alone to discover the world. Moreover, the game contains all kinds of puzzles that are solved through hints and notes you find around the world.

Story – A Country that is devoured by its own people

The story follows Remi, a young man who was smuggled out of Hadea when he was five by his parents because of a civil war that broke out. After a lot of time has passed, Remi manages to enter the city again with ON peacekeepers, to find out what happened to his parents, only to see that an unnatural presence has taken over the country.

Hell Is Us is bringing back raw exploration. The player has no quest marks, no map HUD, and no help at all. It is up to you to explore your surroundings, ask the villagers questions, and read through letters to find out what happened. I found this choice really refreshing, as I kept wanting to explore to find out more about the cities and what transpired in the past years.

Visuals – A very good-looking game

Hell Is Us has some very eye-candy visuals. The Unreal Engine provides a beautiful scenery with good attention to detail. I played on PlayStation 5 in Performance mode. Other than some small stutters now and then, I did not encounter any major bugs or other issues.

Cities and locations with secrets to tell

Hell Is Us is not exactly an open-world experience. Instead, it is split into different locations that you travel through. This is where the game thrives. Each environment varies from the next, and each one has its own beauty and darkness hiding behind it. I was really impressed with the detail the team put behind. Some places will make you want to stop to look and take some screenshots, and others describe the madness of war without needing any more context.

Exploration rewards you in Hell Is Us. In each city you visit, you can complete some side quests or “Good Deeds” as they are called in the game. Through those quests, you can learn more about the lore of the world, and at the same time earn different kinds of items, from cosmetics to actual weapons and skills. I must say that after I completed some of them, I stopped because it felt repetitive and more like a fetch quest rather than something more interesting, due to the large number of them.

Enemies – Interesting but not plentiful

The enemies known as Hollow Walkers are the ones infesting the country. They are created by The Haze, which is the physical manifestation of human emotions. Up until the first act of the game, the Walkers vary in classes like heavy or snipers, and the haze attached to them has four different ”emotions” like rage or grief that you need to defeat to kill the Walker.

What really disappointed me is the lack of bosses in Hell Is Us. Throughout the whole game, I only encountered two or three traditional boss fights that were not that impressive. They were just small variations of the normal mobs, with the addition of a big bar of health on top. That made the game feel kind of empty at times.

Gameplay – Simple but oddly entertaining

Early on in the story, you realise that modern weapons do not affect the Hollow Walkers but only some ancient ones you find in the story. However, there is help from modern technology with your drone. This fusion creates a nice mixture when you are fighting, which is addictive but also a bit incomplete.

There is also a blacksmith that you unlock later on, who can upgrade your weapons or create consumables. But if you want to be able to keep levelling your weapon, you must find certain books to give him so he can learn and be able to upgrade it further.

Armoury – Small but entertaining

The weapons in Hell Is Us are split into four categories: swords, twin axes, polearms, and greatswords. There are no other weapons in Hell Is Us, but only different infused versions of the same weapon with the emotions previously mentioned. Each weapon can fit four slots of different abilities. The abilities you can use in your weapon can only be neutral or the same emotion as your infused weapon.

The drone contains four slots as well. You can insert mods that give your drones abilities like shield, thrust, or stun. All of that creates a great blend in the gameplay. I found myself multiple times playing in the menu, mixing and matching all these skills to create something closer to my playstyle. But the lack of actual new weapons was apparent to me and made me feel a little tired of using the same weapons.

Puzzles, puzzles, and ….. more puzzles

Hell Is Us is designed like a big puzzle that you slowly solve as you progress through it. At first, I really enjoyed looking through notes to find passwords as I felt immersed in the world. But, after a while, it felt more like a chore I must endure to keep going forward. Towards the end, every puzzle felt recycled and tiring because sometimes you had to circle around if you forgot the numbers or if you did not take notes to remember them.

Not exactly a souls-like

Hell Is Us can be a bit challenging at times, but it is also very forgiving. When you die, you do not lose any progress you have made, while also, most enemies do not respawn as long as you remain in the area. There are also generous points where you can save your progress and save time from backtracking to where you were.

The mechanics in Hell Is Us are the same as those of a classic souls-like game. The player can dodge, block, and light and heavy attack. The game also features a new mechanic called healing pulse. When you attack enemies, your health bar shows a white bar filling, and if you press R1 at the right time, you heal back all the health you lost.

This comes in very handy as the game does not have stable heal potions like Elden Ring that refill at each save point. It also creates some tension because the stamina bar refills at the level of your health bar. So, if your health is depleted, so will be your stamina, and you will not be able to perform attacks.

Sound and music – One of the best modern soundtracks

Stéphane Primeau did a phenomenal job at describing the pain and the emotions of this country and the lead protagonists in the soundtrack of the game. It made me feel alone, scared, and strange, while at the same time, a feeling that I was getting closer to unravelling this mystery. The music gives me a weird ’80s vibe, blended with some modern elements. To put it in simpler terms, it is like Stranger Things had a baby with The Thing with a modern touch.

The sound design of the game is also excellent. From the weapon sounds, the dialogues, all the way to the enemy sounds. Anyone can see that the developers really worked hard on making the player feel immersed. It was really a surprise to me because usually this is the section every new studio struggles with, but not for Rogue Factor.

Conclusion – Should you play Hell Is Us?

For the first big game of the studio, Hell Is Us is an honest effort. They made some interesting choices in almost every aspect of the game, but the gameplay really affected my experience with the game. I found myself frustrated a great number of times because of the repetitiveness of the game.

That, combined with the lack of bosses, left me with a bitter feeling. Nonetheless, I hope the studio takes the feedback and the next project they create improves on every aspect, but for now, if you are looking for a great story and you do not really focus on the gameplay, then Hell Is Us is a great choice for you.

Big thanks to AVE for sponsoring our review!