Audiences got a meaty look at the Nacon-published Hell is Us during PlayStation’s recent State of Play event, which showcased the game’s haunting atmosphere and visceral melee combat. Although it’s hard to ascertain its level of quality so early on, Hell is Us promises to be a solid Souls-inspired title, though its influences may go much deeper than FromSoftware’s winning formula.
Melee-focused action games have always been popular, but their identity, broadly speaking, has shifted in the past decade or so. Unsurprisingly, these sorts of games tend to draw heavily from the soulslike sub-genre, a style of game christened by 2009’s Demon’s Souls and honed in subsequent FromSoftware entries. There are positives and negatives to this overarching trend: soulslike foundations are strong enough to build an interesting game around, but far too many titles shy away from the innovation that characterize their obvious influences. This can lead to underwhelming outings like Enotria: The Last Song as much as it leads to landmark releases like Lies of P. Hopefully, Hell is Us falls into the latter category.
How Hell is Us Blends Genre and Stylistic Conventions
Upon first glance, Hell is Us doesn’t seem particularly special. It’s developer Rogue Factor’s first original IP, but the basic premise of a mysterious calamity that has befallen the world, infesting it with strange and incomprehensible monsters, doesn’t exactly sound Earth-shattering. It’s not until one looks at its dramatic aesthetic and gameplay chops that it becomes clear just how much the game is doing to differentiate itself from the competition, ironically via homage and the melding of assorted influences, which should give it a singular flair and identity.
Hell is Us’ Gameplay Is a Mix of Contemporary Action Games
Hell is Us incorporates elements of the ever-ubiquitous soulslike genre, focusing on slower melee combat with strafing and single-enemy targeting influenced by the classic 3D Zelda games that spawned the likes of Demon’s Souls. The game’s Steam page boasts that it will include “a wide range of weapons,” suggesting build-crafting and RRG aspects, which could feed into a broader sense of flexibility and player freedom. At the same time, Hell is Us appears to have a few tricks up its sleeve, with added mobility via an in-game drone, special attacks, and classic puzzles that could make for more dynamic gameplay.
The Setting and Aesthetic of Hell is Us
The first reveal trailer for Hell is Us, with its strong and stylized imagery, is highly reminiscent of recent Remedy games like Control, as is its ostensible narrative about monsters that “live inside” the minds of regular people. There’s also the game’s mix of current-day, medieval, and science fiction motifs, which hearkens back to the likes of many Final Fantasy games, and even more surreal titles like Death Stranding, which use apocalyptic elements to create a fluid and unsettling game world. The player’s gear is described as being “from a different age,” further suggesting a degree of anachronistic worldbuilding that is present in so many other releases.
Many games—arguably too many—use a mysterious blight upon the world as a crutch for storytelling, relying on the inherent emotional weight of widespread catastrophe to evoke emotions from players. But the way that Hell is Us leverages themes of war and creature design that seem straight out of The Evil Within gives it a lot of potential to be something special, or at least memorable and creatively distinct. Here’s hoping that its many influences come together to make it exceptional.
