| Hell is Us | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Hell is Us Review Overview
What is Hell is Us?
Hell is Us is an action-adventure game by Rogue Factor and published by Nacon. It is set to be released on September 4, 2025 for the PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
The game follows Remi as he ventures back into the war-torn country of Hadea, infested with chimera and the worst monsters of all—humans. Armed with his sword and drone at hand, he fights for survival against the desolate landscapes to find answers to his past and uncover the secrets behind the chimeras.
Hell is Us features:
⚫︎ Player-Pattering Gameplay
⚫︎ 50/50 Focus on Exploration and Combat
⚫︎ Dark and Eerie Atmosphere
⚫︎ Puzzles That Require Memo
⚫︎ 4 Different Weapon Types
⚫︎ Multiple Skill Systems
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Hell is Us’s gameplay and story.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 PlayStation |
 Xbox |
|||
| Edition | Price | ||||
| Standard Edition | $59.99 | ||||
| Deluxe Edition | $79.99 | ||||
Hell is Us Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Unique and Original Setting Heavy Atmospheric Vibes Great Balance of Exploration and Combat |
Lacks Emotional Weight Slowed Down By Unnecessary Cutscenes Tons of Backtracking Lack of Visual Clarity |
Hell is Us Story - 6/10
Despite the unique setting and great worldbuilding that the game has to offer, the slow-burning narrative can leave you clueless and confused for hours on end. The dialogue doesn’t make it any easier either, as both the writing and the delivery make it harder to keep yourself invested.
Hell is Us Gameplay - 6/10
Hell is Us’ gameplay loop is a balanced cycle of exploration and combat, where both elements work in tandem, fueled by your curiosity. Still, both have flaws in execution in the little details, as the former can feel tiring due to a number of factors like quest design, enemy variety, and more.
Hell is Us Visuals - 8/10
In terms of visuals, the game’s bleak tone and atmosphere are big positives that constantly emanate throughout the game. It captures that perfect eerie feeling, where it can actually pass up as a horror game with a few more additions. While the character designs may be lacking, the enemy's supernatural designs are impressive, except when it comes to visual clarity for combat.
Hell is Us Audio - 8/10
With the heavy atmosphere provided by the visuals, the audio design complements it. The ambient music makes for an unsettling feeling, and what can be considered as the enemy voices
are equally as disturbing and impressive. The voice acting leaves much to be desired, though, as the monotone delivery for the main cast only adds to their boring characterizations.
Hell is Us Value for Money - 7/10
Priced at $59.99, the amount of content that it has is surprisingly staggering. The many secrets, quests, investigations, and mysteries to solve by reading between the lines and exploring areas with a keen eye can make for a potentially good time. But the lack of variety in quest results can lead to a lack of replayability because of its linear quest design and the frequent breaks in pacing.
Hell is Us Overall - 70/100
Hell is Us is a one-of-one, creating a completely new experience combining modern tech elements with the supernatural. It's able to balance exploration and combat in a way that keeps players engaged with the world while adding to the mystery of its narrative. However, the slow pace of its narrative and the other tiny nitpicks of its gameplay can quickly snowball into a huge, dissatisfactory experience due to how it stalls you from keeping the ball rolling.
Hell is Us Review: A Strange Yet Interesting Trip to Hell
It’s an unsurprising cold take that games have been increasingly hand-holdy
these days. With examples like the yellow paint markers and even the overcrowded UI that literally spells out where you need to go. Rogue Factor noticed this and wants to bring back the good old days of having players actually explore a new world and let them rely on their instincts and observations.
Hell is Us is just that. A fictional world that combines reality with the supernatural, that’s unafraid to delve into social commentary about how far human beings are willing to go. With no map and no quest markers, the game lets the player’s curiosity guide them to the many secrets and stories to unravel.
Given my experience in games that have narratives that don’t spell it out for you and have open-ended gameplay, like the Souls series, the Gothic series, and even Hollow Knight, I knew that this game was right up my alley. And I gotta say, Rogue Factor succeeded in their goal because after my experience with the game, I really did ask myself: What did I just play?
A Disaster With a Civil War
The game is set in the fictional country of Hadea, where there is a civil war between two differing religious factions, the Sabinians and the Palomists. While all this is happening, a supernatural phenomenon called The Calamity is giving rise to strange, hostile creatures known as Hollow Walkers.
You play as Remi, an amnesiac who was born in Hadea but was smuggled out of the country by his parents when he was still five years old. To gain answers to his mysterious past, he joins the army as a peacekeeper as soon as he realizes that this was his only chance to enter the country due to Hadea’s near-total autarky.
While the story and its thematic relevance aren’t exactly new, the world is unique in how it combines realistic influences, modern technology, and the supernatural in the form of The Calamity.
Moreover, the setting of the game creates a heavy atmosphere, which you can feel as you explore the different regions of Hadea. The bleak and harsh reality of war is clearly noticed in the different populated areas in the fictional country, and is even supplemented by the eerie soundtrack and ambient noise that cements the overwhelming atmosphere.
An Extremely Slow Burn With Uninteresting Dialogue
While the premise and world itself are interesting, the issues regarding its narrative are the slow pacing and the dialogue itself.
For context, finishing the first act doesn’t exactly reveal any answers about the ongoing conflict or even The Calamity in general. In my experience, this was already a good four to five-hour stretch, and while most of it was spent in side content, the main story had only answered a few parts of Remi’s background, but not much about other important plot threads.
The narrative could’ve given both The Calamity and the civil war a bit more context earlier, to set the stage as to why Hadea is walled off from the rest of the world. Of course, this is addressed later on in the game, but the fact that you’re still clueless and just piecing together the reason or even the origin of both events after about six hours of gameplay is definitely slow.
And then the next problem, the dialogue. Or to be more specific, just the monotone delivery of the characters in general. Remi has an underlying lore reason as to why he’s expressionless, but the other characters in the story just feel so generic and unmotivated that dialogue can feel bland and uninteresting. One scene in particular, felt like it should've had a really big emotional impact, yet the delivery and the characters feel empty.
Exploration and Combat: Two Halves of the Same Coin
Hell is Us prides itself on its gameplay loop, having an equal focus on both combat and exploration. The latter focuses on discovery, where you must talk to different NPCs and find details that eventually turn into investigations, mysteries, and even questlines for you to finish.
These all culminate in finding details organically and might even have you taking notes outside of the game to solve puzzles and help the citizens of Hadea with their problems. While these are ultimately glorified fetch quests, which we’ll focus on later, they offer enough variety in the exploration aspect to keep the player engaged and occupied.
Outside of the exploration, fighting the Hollow Walkers is what comprises the other half of the game and what I would argue to be the game’s best part. Remi gains access to four different weapon types with their own movesets, but that’s not what makes the combat engaging.
On top of the different weapons, there are other combat elements like Glyphs, which grant your weapons abilities, and the KAPI drone that gives you access to even more options like distractions, mobility, and more. As if that wasn’t enough, the combat mechanics involve a stamina system, a parry system, and the unique Healing Pulse
mechanic.
The Healing Pulse is a special combat mechanic that can easily be described as a fusion of Bloodborne’s Rally and Nioh’s Ki Pulse mechanics. Upon taking damage, you can recover health by attacking enemies and pressing the appropriate controls at the right time to recover a portion of the damage dealt. This is especially important considering that your current health actually determines your max stamina, meaning taking damage will mean you can do fewer actions.
Despite the wordy excerpt detailing the combat of the game and the exploration being seemingly confusing, everything ties together in a surprisingly simple way. Both halves don’t overcomplicate things for each other with mind-boggling interactions or unsatisfying combat.
Little Things Add Up to Big Gameplay Issues
Despite the combat and exploration keeping each other up, there are several little things that the gameplay has that anchor themselves down.
One instance is the game being bogged down by several cutscenes, which leads to too much downtime. For example, to enter another area, you enter the APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) to travel, which leads to a cutscene with you entering the vehicle. Then, you go to the navigation panel to confirm an area, which plays yet another cutscene showing you leaving the area. After that? Another cutscene showing you arriving in that area.
Another issue is the side quests, as most of them are fetch quests that might even involve trial and error. It’s unavoidable that there will be quests like these, but I found myself running around from area to area, NPC to NPC, just to deliver an item with absolutely no hints that I had to take this item to that person. And the worst part? To get the rewards of accomplishing these quests, you have to talk to an entirely different person, which means that you’ll need to run around even more.
Lastly, another issue is visual clarity. The Hollow Walkers are fine for the most part, as even with higher-tier enemies, their attacks are telegraphed enough to be defended against. However, the Hazes, or the other enemy type that are like flying spirits, have patterns that are not very easy to see. What makes this an issue is that Hazes are linked to a Hollow Walker, which requires the former to be defeated first before being able to damage the latter.
This means that not only are you fighting two enemies at once in a game that wants you to isolate enemies as much as possible, but also one of them has erratic patterns and movements that make it hard to defend against. The game isn’t particularly difficult or even pretending to be a soulslike to challenge you at every turn, but I think visual clarity is needed for any action RPG, especially when higher-tier enemies have new attacks.
Is Hell is Us Worth It?
Yes. The Novel Concept Makes It a Worthwhile Experience!
At $59.99, Hell is Us is a game that isn’t afraid to try out new things and bring back concepts that made gaming interesting. While the story and the gameplay have their issues, it’s still a unique enough game that I recommend it for players to try. Its peculiar setting, great premise, and heavy atmosphere are enough to be a recommendation for those who are looking for a different action RPG.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
PlayStation |
Xbox |
|||
| Edition | Price | ||||
| Standard Edition | $59.99 | ||||
| Deluxe Edition | $79.99 | ||||
Hell is Us FAQ
What are the System Requirements for PC to play Hell is Us?
The System Requirements as listed on Steam are as follows:
| Specifications | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-7700K or AMD Ryzen 3 3300X | Intel Core i7-11700K or AMD Ryzen 5 7600 |
| Memory | 16GB RAM | |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, 8GB or AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, 6GB | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, 11GB or AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT, 12GB |
| Storage | 30GB | |
| Additional Specs | Direct X12; HDD supported, SSD recommended | The specifications were tested with upscaling enabled. |
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Hell is Us Product Information
 |
|
| Title | HELL IS US |
|---|---|
| Release Date | September 4, 2025 |
| Developer | Rogue Factor |
| Publisher | Nacon |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | Action, Adventure |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | M17+ |
| Official Website | Hell is Us Official Website |
