Hell Is Us Review: A Cryptic and Ambitious Meditation on War
Hell Is Us, developed by the French studio Nacon, emerges as a complex mixture of storytelling, combat, and puzzles set against a backdrop of a civil war torn landscape, specifically in the fictional country of Hadea. The game is emblematic of a new genre that combines elements of introspective narrative, detective work, and action, crafting an experience that evokes comparisons to iconic titles from renowned creators like Hidetaka Miyazaki.
Confounding Opening Hours
The initial hours of Hell Is Us are deliberately confusing. It’s not merely a game; it’s a labyrinth of names and concepts that swirl around the player as they navigate through a factionalized world embroiled in war. Terms like "Lymbic weaponry" and "Guardian Detectors" bombard players, leaving a sense of bewilderment that enhances the game’s thematic focus on confusion and chaos provoked by war.
Visually, players are introduced to a ravaged landscape reminiscent of Eastern Europe, littered with cryptic stone panels covered in undecipherable engravings. This motif highlights a central theme—understanding is elusive, much like the clarity often sought in times of conflict.
Eldritch Inspirations
Drawing a parallel with FromSoftware’s Souls series, the game manages to capture a similar sense of atmosphere. Much like Elden Ring, players are thrust into a world rich with symbolism, riddles, and an intricate backstory. Combat mechanics echo this experience; stamina is carefully measured, rewarding strategic strikes and retreat rather than mindless aggression.
However, Hell Is Us distinguishes itself by incorporating detective elements. Players collect clues and utilize a retrofuturistic datapad, creating spider diagrams to trace leads. The game encourages players to engage more actively with their environment—keeping a notebook might help in untangling its many mysteries.
Visual Design and Atmosphere
The stark aesthetic of Hell Is Us compounds the overarching sense of despair. The environment is replete with haunted imagery—lynched bodies, a soldier’s mournful violin, and bizarre creatures haunting the landscape. Encounters with “Time Loops,” which represent anomalies in the game’s fabric, further highlight the sense of time’s fracturing due to the “Calamity,” an event central to the narrative.
As the game unfolds, diverse visual styles and thematic elements begin to coalesce, creating a haunting quality that permeates the landscape. This infusion of strange beauty, however, is often disrupted by the dense and obscure nature of its puzzles, leading to feelings of frustration.
Thematic Depth and Emotional Resonance
Contrary to its sometimes convoluted narrative structure, Hell Is Us tackles profound themes tied to the emotional toll of war. The enemies encountered resonate with this theme, manifesting as representations of grief, terror, and other emotional wreckage stemming from prolonged conflict. Each enemy’s color-coded persona connects these emotions to their physical forms—while the metaphor may veer into cliché, the emotional weight it carries is undeniable.
Rémi, the game’s protagonist, embodies the struggle to process and reconcile interconnected histories. His journey highlights not just a physical exploration, but a psychological and emotional one as well. However, moments intended to evoke depth may fall flat, as some lines of dialogue struggle to capture the weight they aim for, feeling jarring rather than profound.
Narrative and Engagement
Despite a strong start, the narrative does lose momentum as players progress. The unique setting of Hadea remains intriguing, but Rémi’s personal backstory and the overarching mystery of the Calamity lack the gravitas necessary to keep players emotionally invested. The pacing falters, with moments of action interspersed with tedious quest mechanics, underscoring a cycle of puzzle-solving that can drag on.
Combat begins to feel routine as players traverse the world, leading to diminishing returns in engagement. While the environments offer breathtaking design—from claustrophobic dungeons to open atriums—the lack of narrative urgency begins to dull the experience.
Innovative Design Choices
Hell Is Us shines with its commitment to challenging gameplay design. The absence of traditional waypoints and quest markers places the onus on players to pay attention to their surroundings and refer to journals for navigation. Moreover, players can only engage characters about information they’ve previously uncovered—an innovative choice that encourages exploration rather than linear following.
In a gaming landscape often populated by overly streamlined narratives, Hell Is Us carves a different path. It invites players to engage with its intricate, sometimes prickly narrative framework, making each revelation heavily earned rather than handed out freely.
The Universality of War
As players navigate through the game’s world, one enduring theme emerges: the universality of human suffering in times of war. The imagery throughout is bleak yet poignant, conveying sentiments that resonate regardless of geographic or temporal context. Hell Is Us encapsulates the enduring pain and emotional wreckage of conflict, suggesting that the horrors of war remain perennial, transcending language and culture.
Conclusion
Hell Is Us launched on September 4th and presents itself as a challenging yet compelling meditation on war and its implications. While it grapples with execution in certain areas—losing narrative engagement and repetitive combat—the ambition and creativity it showcases cannot be overlooked.
Its evocative atmosphere, coupled with a distinctive narrative that dances between the cryptic and the profound, positions Hell Is Us as a thought-provoking experience. Players seeking a rich, albeit challenging exploration of the emotional landscape shaped by war will find much to ponder in Hell Is Us. However, potential players should be prepared for a journey steeped in mystery and complexity—a journey that, like war itself, hinges on understanding the nuances of human emotion amid chaos.
