Hell is Us, developed by Quebec’s Rogue Factor, is a pretty interesting game that I sunk hours and hours into. When playing the time just went by; I could sit down at 10 p.m. and all of a sudden it was 2 a.m. This doesn’t happen often, and this year, there were only a couple of other titles that has had me so invested, such as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Before the launch of Silksong, I was wrapped up in the world of Hell is Us, an action-adventure game played in third-person. In this world you control a soldier named Rémi (tellement Québecois) and fight supernatural beings named Hollow Walkers, while trying to learn about Remi’s mother and father, and the war-torn country he was born in, Hadea. However, there’s a civil war here between its Palomist and Sabinian religious factions, which seem to still be in conflict, even when there are supernatural beings attacking and normal weapons don’t work. I hope if this were to happen in the real world, humans would work together against the monsters, because this game depicts a lot of discrimination between its fictional religions.
Anywho, while trying to discover your past you’ll find an assortment of weapons and abilities to fight against these entities while learning about your past and the where and why these monsters are attacking. The game is interesting and the vibe feels similar to Control with a dark atmosphere and secrets to discover. I liked the dark undertones of this world and sometimes the enemies might give you a jump scare, which I think is so incredibly fun.
That said, the game isn’t too georgeous and while it haw some good enviroments, like a field with a ton of blue flowers and a house on a lake in the far-off distance, you’re often in caves that kind of feel the same. The title isn’t completely open-world, but some of the sections feel large enough, and some have verticality, whether you’re going underground or on top of a mountain.
I don’t find the main story to be intriguing. As you continue throughout the game, you learn a lot more about the main narrative, but none of it kept my attention. However, I’m pretty curious about how Hadea became infested by these creatures. And the game is full of rich history about previous wars, monarchies and more, and I’ve found this interesting to learn about, and often they’re applied to some of the puzzles, which I enjoy.
The title lacks a real map to use, objectives and markers when playing. At first, I was pretty thrilled, and I found it to be even more immersive. Then somewhere in the middle, I started getting annoyed because I didn’t know what to do next. There were a ton of puzzles to figure out, I kept getting lost and a bit flustered. And when I sort of got into the groove of the game, the immersive experience returned and I started to learn a lot of the smaller regions in the title, so I stopped getting lost, and pretty much knew what to do next, and at least had an idea where to look.
Hell is Us has a ton of puzzles you have to figure out. While I’ve never played Blue Prince and don’t really know a lot about the title, I watched my roommate play the game with a huge notebook, so he can take note of the clues, and I sort of felt like I was doing the same in taking pictures of certain clues, and writing notes on my phone. I’m not usually someone who enjoys games like this as I’m all about the combat, but while this title’s fighting wasn’t the best aspect, I was still pretty involved.
Some of the puzzles involved poems scattered around a certain area, details in photos in a house, an email on a laptop in one location being the clue needed to open a vault in a different area. There were so many puzzles and clues that sometimes it’s hard to know what I solved. The game’s menus are pretty detailed showing exactly how certain clues are related to some characters, but still, there was the occasional confusion. I also love how smart I felt after solving some of the more difficult mysteries.
And while the combat isn’t the best, it’s solid enough my taste. Probably my biggest issue with combat is lack of weapon variety, as there’s only four weapon types. And while I enjoy using the quick twin axes, I started getting bored of them partway through the game and switched to the basic sword and greatsword combo — as you can have two equipment loadouts and switch between them on the fly. There are abilities, called Lymbic Abilities, you can attach to weapons using Glyphs, based on the weapon’s Lymbic Sphere. Lymbic Spheres are based on one of the damage types in the game, Grief, Rage, Ecstacy and Terror. Grief tends to cause damage over time experiences, Rage is all about hard hitting damage, Ecstasy does great damage at the cost of your own life, and Fear seems to be support, able to turn invisible and can even do damage at one enemy you’re locked onto, just slowly draining away their lifeforce.
I thought these were interesting to learn about, but at the same time, I think just using regular status abilities is more worth it. After hours and hours of playing, I still don’t even understand all the status ailments and what happens when I’m suffering from too much Grief. Still, I had fun exploring the different Glyphs, and your character’s Drone also can help, by improving dodge speed, distracting enemies, blocking incoming projectiles and more.
I’ve seen complaints about the enemy types in Hell is Us, but I thought the variety worked for me. Some enemies are feral and hard to predict, others shoot projectiles and fly, and some even mess with your drone’s abilities. These enemies are called Hollow Walkers, which are white humanoid creatures (sort of) and are always agressive towards the player. Often these Walkers spawn into the world with a Haze, which are monsters that take various shapes and colours, like red for Rage, green for Terror, blue for Grief and yellow for Ecstacy. These Haze monsters come in various stages of difficulty, with a level three Rage Haze, is typically the most challeging to beat.
While Walkers are attached to a Haze they take zero damage, so you have to focus on the Haze first before taking down all the Walkers, despite them barraging the player with attacks. You’ll need to dodge, stun or distract the Walkers while taking out the Hazes, but sometimes there’s a few Hazes surrounded by several Walkers, and this becomes a true challenge.
I like Hell is Us, and had a lot of fun playing this new title. It’s unfortunate that it’s getting overshadowed by Silksong. I loved discovering the solutions to puzzles, riddles and more. It was great to play around in this Control-like backdrop, and I loved the jump scares around every corner. And while I prefer games with a variety of weapons, there was enough variety to keep me interested, even though the enemies were similar. The title could look a little better, and while it has a rich world, and backdrop, I wasn’t too interested in the main character or his story. Still, I’d recommend Hell is Us to anyone who enjoys uncovering mysteries, that lead the player to even more questions.
Image credit: Rogue Factor
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