Hell Is Us Review

When a studio like Rogue Factor makes a big announcement, people naturally get excited. The developers had teased Hell Is Us for years as an experience that lets players explore without any help. They are known for trying out design choices that diverge from industry standards. What came out is a third-person action adventure set in a made-up country that is going through a civil war and is full of supernatural horrors.

Hell Is Us is not a sequel; it is a standalone story that combines the harsh reality of war with the strange fear of beings from another world. The result is a game that is both new and old at the same time. It doesn't always get the balance just right, but it does try something that most studios don't: letting you find your own way, make mistakes, get lost, and learn the truth at your own pace.

The story takes place in Hadia, a quarantined country in the midst of a terrible religious civil war between the Sabinians and Palomists. The human war and the strange "Calamity," which let loose horrible creatures called "hollow walkers," happened at the same time. Strange essences called "hazes" bring these creatures to life. They stalk both survivors and soldiers, making it hard to tell where the supernatural ends and human cruelty begins.

You play the part of Remy, a peacekeeper with a troubled past who was smuggled out of Hadia when he was a child. He returns to search for his parents and uncover the truth about the war-torn country. The story is told as a retelling, with Remy drugged and questioned under truth serum while he tells a mysterious person about his memories.

Save points resemble polygraphs, reminding you that memory influences every action you take. Even death is seen as a mistake in the retelling, which makes you feel bad by saying, "That's not how it happened". The story's power lies in its portrayal of conflict. Villages are wiped out, families are killed, bodies hang from trees, and conversations are often very dark.

Some of the NPC conversations can feel stiff at times, but the overall feeling of sadness and tragedy keeps the experience authentic. Hell Is Us, on the other hand, doesn't try to make war look better. Instead, it shows how rare happy endings are in such chaos.

The main idea behind Hell Is Us is "freedom without guidance." There are no bright arrows or quest markers that get in the way. You don't get directions from a person. Instead, you assemble directions from maps you find, notes you collect, or rumors you hear. A drone and an APC tablet can help you explore, but you have to figure out where to go, look around, and decide where to go.

The structure is based on hubs, and as you move through the game, new regions open up, each with its own ruins, dungeons, and settlements that have been destroyed by war. There are numerous good deeds, which are like side quests in the game. These could include finding supplies for survivors in need, opening a cellar where refugees are hiding, or killing hollow walkers that are threatening a village.

The problem is that time keeps moving. If you wait too long, you might find that someone has died of hunger or been killed because you didn't act in time. Because nothing is permanent, every choice has weight, even if not all of the side effects have deep narrative follow-ups.

Exploration feels natural, but it can also be a pain at times. Backtracking can get boring if you don't have fast travel (other than going back to your APC), especially if you miss a puzzle solution and then find the key later. It can be frustrating to encounter environmental hazards like the marshes' endless sinkholes, which force you to take long detours.

Still, the fact that you might find ruins, hidden buildings, or haunted dungeons makes exploring feel like a mix of wonder and fear that few modern games can match. One of the most essential parts of Hell Is Us is the puzzles. They can range from simple environmental clues that activate structures in a specific order to more complex puzzles, such as radio frequency puzzles or deciphering numbers hidden in paintings.

The dungeons are the most carefully made parts of the game. They combine maze-like navigation with puzzles that require patience and attention. Every dungeon is different, from the Limbic Forge with its changing water levels to the museum with its colour-coded switches. They are all hard but not too hard to figure out.

Combat, on the other hand, takes some of the surface features of a Soulslike, like light and heavy attacks, managing stamina, parries, and dodges, but it plays more like "Nioh" or even old-school action-adventure games. The healing pulse system is what makes it different. Every hit that works creates particles that can be used to heal and regain stamina if they are used at the right time.

Aggression is encouraged, but if you get hit once, the buildup goes away. It's a competent mechanic, but it's not as risky as it should be because you can block and still trigger the healing. There are swords, dual axes, greatswords, and polearms among the weapons. You can upgrade each one and give it "emotions," which lets you attach "glyphs," which are special abilities or buffs.

Unfortunately, the choice of glyphs seems limited, and many of them are not very interesting, so they don't really change how you fight. The lack of different enemies is the most annoying thing. There are only a few types of hollow walkers, and each one has three levels of difficulty. Their connection to hazes adds strategy—you have to destroy the haze to make the walker weak—but the encounters often turn into the same old patterns.

Some fights can even be made less critical by using stagger mechanics. Boss fights are even worse because they are rare and often feel like bigger versions of regular haze fights, which takes away the epicness that could have made the combat system better.

Progression is directly related to fighting and exploring. Weapons improve as you use them, unlocking glyph slots and increasing their stats. Relics give you passive bonuses, like stealing life or increasing damage. The equipment you choose can significantly impact how you handle encounters, so it's worth trying out different options. For example, you could give up limbic energy to get a huge melee boost, making Remy a fierce fighter.

It's not so much about stat sheets as it is about how well your gear works together. This design choice encourages players to explore and try new things, rather than just grinding for numbers. But it also means that combat can get boring if you don't force yourself to try new things once you've found a build that works.

Hell Is Us uses Unreal Engine 5 to create stunning, realistic landscapes. Blue flower fields, foggy marshes, crumbling dungeons, and giant museums all have a haunting beauty. The game is all about contrasts, like beautiful natural landscapes ruined by war or clean hallways hiding terrible things. Cutscenes are well-directed, and the combat animations for hollow walkers and hazes stand out for how smooth they are.

However, the game's technical issues get in the way. Even on a powerful PC, there are a lot of optimization concerns. There are occasions when textures look blurry, stuttering happens out of nowhere, and flashlight effects show problems with rendering. The art design is fantastic, but the execution isn't good enough to make sure everything goes smoothly. Your mileage may vary, but you should expect to have to change settings often to keep the frame rate steady.

The sound design adds to the game's oppressive mood. The ambient soundtrack is tranquil, and it often fades into silence to make distant gunfire, rustling marshes, or the guttural sounds of hollow walkers stand out. When music does build up, it makes fear stand out more than bravery.

The voice acting isn't always good. Some characters deliver genuine, emotional performances that effectively convey the tragedy of Hadia, while others appear stiff or over-the-top. However, the overall soundscape still conveys the heavy feeling of a place caught between civil war and supernatural disaster.

Hell Is Us is a fascinating paradox. It's about taking away modern amenities and making discovery feel like labor instead of a gift. You can have deep, lasting experiences when you think this way, like when you find a wrecked village or figure out a complex dungeon riddle. But sometimes, the lack of purpose, repetitious combat, and technical flaws indicate how rough around the edges its goals are.

It's not a Soulslike game or a pure action game; it's a mix of the two that takes elements from both and makes its own unique style. The story, which is based on war and human cruelty, is still powerful even when the characters aren't well-written. The visuals are awe-inspiring, but the performance problems are annoying. The puzzles are interesting, but the back-and-forth nature can be frustrating for people.

The primary objective of Hell Is Us is to immerse you in the experience of being lost in a perilous world, forcing you to rely on your wits, courage, and instincts. It might not be perfect, but it is memorable, creepy, and one-of-a-kind.