A worldly reflection?

Rogue Factor has come out with one of the most bizarre yet enticing AA games this year. Hell is Us is a game that turns off your map and quest indicators in favor of a built-in pen and paper quest log, and to some extent, your own note-taking. It’s certainly an interesting take in a September packed with games. What comes out is certainly one of the most immersive games of the year, and one that, if the concept of “I want to play Morrowind again” has ever crossed your mind, this is definitely one to check out.

An Immersive Gameplay Feel

As someone who was hyped for and enjoyed Atomfall (another immersive RPG that came out in March 25), this game does its investigations a little differently. So, you won’t feel the “I’m lost and confused” fatigue setting in. And it is largely pretty good at what it does.

Players essentially get what would otherwise be a main quest name in the investigation menu, equipped on their fancy ‘90s tablet equivalent. When you progress through an investigation, you’ll gradually meet new characters, and before you know it, you’ve got a more polite version of the mail room board from Always Sunny in Philadelphia going on. Who is my mom and dad? Who’s this random guy that knows this person? All key details that help you remember the many different tidbits you’re told as you play through the game. For the most part, this is all useful stuff, helping you infer clues later on, whether it’s for a main story mission, or you recognize it as a detail about someone, an item you picked up, or an area to solve the many mysteries and Good Deeds (character side quests) throughout the game’s many levels. Alternatively, some of it remains useful lore anecdotes, things that helps make the NPCs you meet feel a bit more alive in a world filled with infinite degrees of war crimes.

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You’ll often find puzzles that make little sense at first, but can be worked out through notes or environmental clues. Image via Gamer Guides / Nacon.

That’s another note the game does well: the world building. Hell is Us is by default an art house experience. The game doesn’t shy away from the fact that the meta is about humanity’s most extreme emotional outbursts, with its ‘90s setting and themes of war violence, rape, genocide, religious tension, all culminating in fear, rage, grief, and ecstasy for those carrying out or experiencing these horrible acts. It’s a mirror to all of the world conflicts happening in the ’80s and ’90s. There are representations of the IRA/British conflict in there, the Rwandan genocide, and the Gulf War too. It makes those historical and current events certainly feel more grounded and real.

All of this really shines through in the various world-building events. Take one of the game’s earliest towns, Jova. This is one of the main settlements you return to in the game for various tasks. As you explore the world, you learn of the military campaign that took place, who used to live there, what it was like, and then what happened with the conflict. When you get there, you see what has truly become of the place when emotions are at their worst. There are shot civilians, mass graves, and there’s one room in the town which features several military backpacks in a bedroom. On the bed are two cuffs chained to the rails, with many used and unused condom wrappers all over the place. You can take a guess at what the environmental storytelling is trying to convey as you explore the town’s quieter parts. There are many real-world examples of similar events taking place during conflicts. A nod of maturity and respect for the darkest parts of Humanity.

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An example of how the developers don’t shy away from representing the horrors of war. Image via Gamer Guides / Nacon.

The sound design is fairly good too. Some areas do get repetitive, though. The Senedra Forest was way too trippy. It fits the first zone well but gets repetitive fast. Meanwhile, different areas have their own musical identity. You get sadness, mystery, cult-like pagan noises, fitting to the level design, which perform much better than the first zone you visit. The emotional sounds from NPCs and creatures are well-detailed which really add to the experience. It all works to support that arthouse vibe they’re going for.

Combat peaks shortly, and then stays on a low for a while

Now, I’m going to have to hit on some of the weaknesses of the game: combat. The combat is about 50% of the game, according to the game director in the press document we got. And there’s certainly a lot of it. For the most part, combat is largely mediocre. At points in the game, you get an “oh, okay, is this it?” moment. Tier 1 enemies, which are the main threats of Act 1 areas, are certainly lacking. You may get one new Lymbic enemy with its Cord that does a special move that surprises you. But once you’ve learned it, it goes back to being a cakewalk. In addition, the Glyphs system in the game is extremely unbalanced. As a guide writer, I largely didn’t mind this, as it meant I could move between areas with ease while I lost my mind (in a good way) at some of the harder side quest puzzles. The Rage and Ecstasy Glyphs are the most broken in the game with their tricks. The stance breaker in the Ecstasy Glyphs made combat irrelevant when you got the matching part for the enemy.

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Moments like this, you can see the combat at its best. But these challenging moments are too few. Image via Gamer Guides / Nacon.

However, saying that, combat at times does get very interesting. As we got into an area at the end of Act 2 called the Lymbic Forge, where it started throwing Tier 2 enemies at us. At that point, the Glyphs were not as effective at dealing with Tier 2 enemies, so they actually had some threat. Throw in how the developers started to use level design to make enemies more threatening, and the combat got very interesting indeed.

However, like the bell curve, it fell off hard when our weapons and more advanced Glyphs started showing up. Some of the Relics and defensive gear even made us too strong for the enemies we were fighting. Then, as Act 3 came around, or late Act 2 enemies, the Tier 3 enemies once again got really interesting and somewhat challenging. In one area of the game, I actually died a few times before I beat the fight. Yes, in my nearly 30 hours of gameplay, I was shocked the combat got that interesting or difficult. I had to learn to use my Drone tactically in fights, target priority, and kiting. It was quite fun, that was, until I got my favorite overpowered Glyphs at Elite level and then once again, Tier 3 enemies became completely trivialized.

This experience may differ between people. That’s because Act 2 is fairly open, and you can do any of the main quests in any order. Throw in bonus rewards for completing various Mysteries and Good Deeds, and you can get different power spikes at different stages. For example, that fight I really struggled on would have been much easier if I did another area first due to rewards. But another person might struggle there because they don’t have something I have from another area. So, there are certainly wild swings going on with content difficulty in this game. And for the most part, you’re on the easy dip much longer than on the challenging parts.

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There’s simply too much power in many Glyphs, making some of the combat way too simple. Image via Gamer Guides / Nacon.

It’s combat that sadly drags this game down fairly hard. The immersion, notes, leading, and engagement the game gives to its world, investigations, deeds, and mysteries are really good. If you want a non-handholding experience and want to use your brain, Hell is Us does a very good job. But, if you want combat to be equally as good, then you’ll likely be sadly disappointed.

I should clarify that one of the staff at Gamer Guides also played it, and really didn’t gel with it. While the writer of this review certainly loved it for the most part, others didn’t. This is going to be a Marmite of a game (rejoice British readers), and many players will have massively different takes on the expert adventure that has been crafted here.