People love to categorize games. It used to be pretty easy. You had your platformers, shooters, sports games, and RPGs. Then we started saying things like "metroidvania." Fast-forward to today, and burgeoning genres and new ideas led to phrases like "deckbuilder roguelite," "strand game," and "soulslike." These labels are useful to get a quick idea of what a game is, but it gets complicated when you're confronted with something like Hell is Us. I played three hours of Rogue Factor's upcoming title at a recent press event in Montreal, and I walked away thinking it defies easy categorization.
Set in the early 1990s in the fictionalized hermit nation of Hadea, players assume the role of Remi. He was born in Hadea and re-enters the country after years abroad in an effort to learn about his past and find his parents. It seems like he could have picked a better time to do this, as Hadea is currently being torn apart by both a civil war and a phenomenon called the Calamity, which has resulted in the appearance of otherworldly, violent creatures.
As Remi, players will quickly acquire tidbits of information that start to flesh out the story of what happened to his hometown and family. Conversations with NPCs frequently offer up relevant information that is tracked in Remi's datapad. The "investigation" tab of your datapad starts out very basic, with only a few broad threads to follow. Before long, those threads branch out until the investigation tab is a web of leads and mysteries. For players who love piecing together disparate events until a mystery becomes clearer, the early hours of Hell is Us should be very enticing.
Each player's path to uncovering this information should be unique. Rogue Factor is steadfast in its mission to not hold the player's hand throughout this journey. There is no map, no quest log, no objective marker, and very little in the way of a HUD. At most, you might get some diegetic hints like markings on trees or wind chimes in a forest to affirm that you're on the right path. On occasion, you might find something like a hand-drawn map that you can equip just like a health item for easy access.
I was playing the Oblivion remake on my flight out to Montreal. Between my quest log, the Clairvoyance spell, and an abundance of objective markers, I couldn't have gotten lost even if I had wanted to. Going straight from that to Hell is Us gave me whiplash. I wasn't necessarily getting lost in Hell is Us, but discovering the next step in my journey felt solely up to my own deduction rather than looking at a red triangle or compass marker.
The enemy design leans into unnerving aesthetics.
It's hard to think of many games that are as confident as Hell is Us in the player's ability to progress. Red Dead Redemption II could be customized to remove HUD elements so that the player had to rely on in-world markers and NPC shoutouts to guide them on their way, but playing like that depended on the player deliberately tweaking numerous options (and you could still fall back on your quest log). Hell is Us does not give players a choice. You are going to find your own way through the game or you will not make progress.
Plenty of games don't hold the player's hand by default, though they typically still allow you to change some options to make their journey easier. After I dug through the menu of Hell is Us, I saw no such option for navigation and progression, but there are numerous tweaks you can make to the combat difficulty. You can alter enemy aggression, enemy damage, enemy health, and even the penalty upon death--if you find yourself dying a lot in combat, you can make your life a bit easier. It doesn't seem like Hell is Us offers that same mercy when it comes to overall progression, however. Rogue Factor seems to want to leave that part of the game as challenging as possible.
Combat feels deliberate but not quite at the difficulty level of something like a From Software title. The enemies I faced were largely variations of Hollow Walkers. These are white, humanoid, faceless monstrosities that frequently eject formless energy clusters from their bodies. It's hard to explain, but their look and movement is fascinating and disturbing. Often, they're connected via an umbilical cord to these energy clusters, which you have to destroy before you can deal damage to the base form.
You'll meet plenty of faces.
Your options in combat are fairly simple at the outset. There's a standard attack and a heavy attack, the latter of which you have to charge up, and a drone can be deployed to distract enemies, which is especially helpful when facing groups. None of this is particularly unique among third person action games, but at one point during my session, I was instructed to load a save from later in the game and saw widely expanded options for combat. Each weapon levels up independently as you use it and I discovered several in my relatively short time with the game. I have no doubt that Hell is Us will allow players to approach combat in a way that's tailored to their style.
One of my favorite elements of the game is essentially "active reload" but for restoring health. As you land successive hits on enemies, you'll see floating particles form around Remi. With a well-timed press of a button, these particle clusters will restore health. An element of risk/reward is present because if you allow more particles to form by continuing to attack, you'll recover a larger chunk of health, but if you take damage or miss the window of opportunity, they disappear and you recover nothing. It's a great system and adds a fun layer to the usual attack/parry/dodge formula.
After three hours with Hell is Us, I'm certainly more intrigued than I was coming in. It's a unique game in ways that can't be easily communicated via a short State of Play trailer. I feel like it's bound to be polarizing. Some players will thrive on the level of player agency Hell is Us offers, while others will butt their heads against it and quit in frustration. I'm leaning toward the former--this is a game filled with bold, confident, deliberate design decisions on the part of Rogue Factor, and it'll be interesting to see how players react when it releases September 4.
Source
Set in the early 1990s in the fictionalized hermit nation of Hadea, players assume the role of Remi. He was born in Hadea and re-enters the country after years abroad in an effort to learn about his past and find his parents. It seems like he could have picked a better time to do this, as Hadea is currently being torn apart by both a civil war and a phenomenon called the Calamity, which has resulted in the appearance of otherworldly, violent creatures.
As Remi, players will quickly acquire tidbits of information that start to flesh out the story of what happened to his hometown and family. Conversations with NPCs frequently offer up relevant information that is tracked in Remi's datapad. The "investigation" tab of your datapad starts out very basic, with only a few broad threads to follow. Before long, those threads branch out until the investigation tab is a web of leads and mysteries. For players who love piecing together disparate events until a mystery becomes clearer, the early hours of Hell is Us should be very enticing.
Each player's path to uncovering this information should be unique. Rogue Factor is steadfast in its mission to not hold the player's hand throughout this journey. There is no map, no quest log, no objective marker, and very little in the way of a HUD. At most, you might get some diegetic hints like markings on trees or wind chimes in a forest to affirm that you're on the right path. On occasion, you might find something like a hand-drawn map that you can equip just like a health item for easy access.
I was playing the Oblivion remake on my flight out to Montreal. Between my quest log, the Clairvoyance spell, and an abundance of objective markers, I couldn't have gotten lost even if I had wanted to. Going straight from that to Hell is Us gave me whiplash. I wasn't necessarily getting lost in Hell is Us, but discovering the next step in my journey felt solely up to my own deduction rather than looking at a red triangle or compass marker.
The enemy design leans into unnerving aesthetics.
It's hard to think of many games that are as confident as Hell is Us in the player's ability to progress. Red Dead Redemption II could be customized to remove HUD elements so that the player had to rely on in-world markers and NPC shoutouts to guide them on their way, but playing like that depended on the player deliberately tweaking numerous options (and you could still fall back on your quest log). Hell is Us does not give players a choice. You are going to find your own way through the game or you will not make progress.
Plenty of games don't hold the player's hand by default, though they typically still allow you to change some options to make their journey easier. After I dug through the menu of Hell is Us, I saw no such option for navigation and progression, but there are numerous tweaks you can make to the combat difficulty. You can alter enemy aggression, enemy damage, enemy health, and even the penalty upon death--if you find yourself dying a lot in combat, you can make your life a bit easier. It doesn't seem like Hell is Us offers that same mercy when it comes to overall progression, however. Rogue Factor seems to want to leave that part of the game as challenging as possible.
Combat feels deliberate but not quite at the difficulty level of something like a From Software title. The enemies I faced were largely variations of Hollow Walkers. These are white, humanoid, faceless monstrosities that frequently eject formless energy clusters from their bodies. It's hard to explain, but their look and movement is fascinating and disturbing. Often, they're connected via an umbilical cord to these energy clusters, which you have to destroy before you can deal damage to the base form.
You'll meet plenty of faces.
Your options in combat are fairly simple at the outset. There's a standard attack and a heavy attack, the latter of which you have to charge up, and a drone can be deployed to distract enemies, which is especially helpful when facing groups. None of this is particularly unique among third person action games, but at one point during my session, I was instructed to load a save from later in the game and saw widely expanded options for combat. Each weapon levels up independently as you use it and I discovered several in my relatively short time with the game. I have no doubt that Hell is Us will allow players to approach combat in a way that's tailored to their style.
One of my favorite elements of the game is essentially "active reload" but for restoring health. As you land successive hits on enemies, you'll see floating particles form around Remi. With a well-timed press of a button, these particle clusters will restore health. An element of risk/reward is present because if you allow more particles to form by continuing to attack, you'll recover a larger chunk of health, but if you take damage or miss the window of opportunity, they disappear and you recover nothing. It's a great system and adds a fun layer to the usual attack/parry/dodge formula.
After three hours with Hell is Us, I'm certainly more intrigued than I was coming in. It's a unique game in ways that can't be easily communicated via a short State of Play trailer. I feel like it's bound to be polarizing. Some players will thrive on the level of player agency Hell is Us offers, while others will butt their heads against it and quit in frustration. I'm leaning toward the former--this is a game filled with bold, confident, deliberate design decisions on the part of Rogue Factor, and it'll be interesting to see how players react when it releases September 4.
Source