Flawed but unforgettable, Hell Is Us is a mid-budget adventure that dares to challenge players with its world.
Hell Is Us comes from Rogue Factor, a relatively small studio under Nacon. Known for more modest titles like Mordheim: City of the Damned and Necromunda: Underhive Wars, the team clearly wanted to push themselves further this time. Instead of making just another action RPG, they set out to build something atmospheric and unsettling.
What makes this stand out is that it doesn’t feel like it’s trying to mimic the big AAA titles. And that ambition alone makes it worth talking about. One thing that the marketing made clear was that Hell Is Us wasn’t going to hold your hand: no glowing quest markers or big journal keeping track of everything for you.
Just you and a mix of supernatural horrors and human cruelty waiting to be uncovered. For a studio of Rogue Factor’s size, it’s a gutsy move. That gamble pays off in surprising ways. The story places you in the shoes of Remi, an orphan of sorts from the country of Hadea. It seems that he spent his entire life trying to return to the country to find his parents after his mother, in particular, smuggled him out during the chaos of the war there.
We know right away, though, that it obviously didn’t go as planned because we are actually in custody and being questioned by someone who doesn’t seem completely human with the help of truth serum, which is the narrative device used to tell the player all of this.
Now, in sneaking back into Hadea, you will find yourself dealing with a lot of chaos. Probably the biggest one is the religious civil war that is going on. The people here adhere to a somewhat unusual religion. However, you soon realize that there also seems to be a supernatural force at work in the form of Hollow Walkers and their hazes, only to make things worse.
The narrative deliberately avoids spoon-feeding you. There aren’t any big knowledge dumps, long journal entries, or flashing arrows to inform you what’s going on. What stood out to me the most was how the game didn’t shy away from the harsh truth of war. The game mixes otherworldly horrors with real-life crimes all the time, which makes the title Hell Is Us feel very real.
The plot of Hell Is Us kind of hits a brick wall at the end, after having a great beginning and slowing down in the middle. What’s clear is that maybe they have left some room for a Hell Is Us 2. All things considered, the story’s solid.
In Hell Is Us, the first thing you do is secure an APC, an armored personnel carrier that serves as your hub for fast traveling between the various zones. The game uses a hub-based system, and much of your time is spent traveling between locations to explore, complete puzzles, or just advance the main story in general.
Exploration is a big part of the game, and you already know that there are no quest markers, so you’ve got to pay attention in this game. Side quests, called “good deeds,” involve helping NPCs in need. Many of these are time-sensitive, so ignoring them or progressing the story too quickly can result in failure. While most follow a simple “find an item, return it” pattern, the game often requires you to read between the lines, as NPCs don’t always ask for help outright.
Rewards for completing good deeds and time loops come from a supporting character in the APC. She provides relics and upgrade materials and performs research on collected items. This research unlocks lore and vault codes that lead to further relics and story content.
Mysteries and time loops are another core part of exploration in Hell Is Us. Mysteries are environmental puzzles, sometimes as simple as following notes to unlock a door, and usually reward you with resources, weapon upgrades, or new combat gear.
Time loops, represented by strange half-orbs, generate enemies in specific areas. To shut them down, you must kill the loop’s guardians and possess a particular item. The puzzles work well because they make you think and explore. They’re not impossibly difficult, but they demand enough attention that solving them feels rewarding. It’s just the right level of challenge.
Combat, on the other hand, is more straightforward—but not the game’s strongest point. At first, battling monsters is tense and atmospheric. The system relies on a relatively small pool of weapons and enemies, and combat doesn’t evolve much over the course of the game.
You have four weapon types: swords, polearms, greatswords, and dual-wielding. These can be upgraded into limbic weapons, which allow access to different glyphs. Glyphs are your combat abilities, powered by building limbic energy through attacking.
You’ll primarily fight Hollow Walkers and their hazes. There are five types of Hollow Walkers, and sometimes they are possessed by hazes. Both weapons and enemies come in three tiers, affecting strength and difficulty. While enemies rarely challenge you unless you haven’t upgraded, the first-tier transitions provide moments of noticeable pushback.
Combat mechanics include attacking, blocking, dodging, and timing parries for big red flash attacks. However, Hollow Walkers’ movement and similar designs can make reading attacks tricky at first. Healing is managed via the healing pulse, triggered when your built-up particles flash a white circle or when your gray health bar turns white.
But after a while, it becomes repetitive. Enemy variety is limited, and once you’ve figured out their patterns, the fights start to feel like going through the motions. Boss encounters are surprisingly scarce, which is a letdown considering how effective the atmosphere can be in setting up a sense of dread.
Overall, the gameplay of Hell Is Us thrives on its immersive exploration and world-building. The combination of puzzles, timed quests, and time loop mechanics keeps you engaged, while the lack of hand-holding encourages observation and thoughtful decision-making.
Progression in Hell Is Us isn’t about grinding levels in the traditional RPG sense. Early in the story, you encounter your father’s apprentice, who serves as the blacksmith and can craft and upgrade equipment. Tomes found throughout the game enhance his abilities, allowing you to improve weapons, defensive gear, and relics.
Some weapons come with elemental effects or special cooldown attacks, while gadgets and your drone give you extra tools for combat and puzzle-solving. It’s mostly about expanding your options. That said, the light RPG mechanics give you enough incentive to keep searching every corner of the map.
Visually, the game punches above its weight for a mid-budget project. The environments have immense variety, and each one feels distinct. Walking into a ruined village, not knowing whether you’ll find an NPC, a monster, or just silence, keeps you on edge.
Character designs are decent, though Remi’s strange broccoli-like haircut might be a bit distracting. Monsters, while not the most intimidating, are unsettling enough to fit the vibe. The real star of the visuals is the world itself.
Performance is solid overall, though not flawless. You might run into occasional frame dips or minor glitches, but nothing game-breaking. Considering the scale of the project, it’s impressive how polished it is. Sound design elevates everything. The world is often quiet, but that silence is loaded with tension. When music does kick in, it’s used effectively, heightening moments of tension without overwhelming the experience.
The voice acting deserves credit, too. Elias Toufexis, known for voicing Adam Jensen in Deus Ex, brings a grounded performance to Remi. Remi himself is more of a vessel for the player; the supporting characters you meet feel fleshed out and believable. Combined with the environmental audio, the soundscape keeps you hooked from start to finish.
Hell Is Us isn’t a flawless game. The combat is underwhelming, the enemy variety is lacking, and many of you may be frustrated by its refusal to hold your hand. But those flaws are outweighed by what it does so well. The exploration, puzzles, atmosphere, and handling of its themes—war and the supernatural—combine into something unique.
It trusts you to pay attention, to connect the dots, and to immerse yourself in its world. Hell Is Us is bold and experimental, and while it stumbles in some areas, it delivers a memorable experience that lingers after the credits roll. It’s safe to say that, in Hell Is Us, you will be seeing more of us.
