I spent 30 minutes walking around a forest trying to find my way back to the main road by observing my surroundings. I can't believe I was actually looking at the environment and not ten pulsing HUD elements. There was no yellow paint on the road, either. There was no yellow paint anywhere.

Hell is Unreal 5 The performance isn't that great for me. Whoever came up with the whole "you lose as much stamina as you lose health" mechanic should have kept that thought to theirself. For it being an exploration game, my issues with that are: you can't jump, can't crawl or crouch and water kills you. The total lack of enemy variety killed this as a day-one buy for me. Refunded.

This game is kind of boring.

Before you downvote: read and pay attention. My review might have a reward at the end. You like rewards, don't you? Bla bla "exploration," bla bla "it rewards you," bla bla "pay attention." Every mystery, as the game calls it, starts out with you wondering: a. if you even should come back later, because you are missing key items b. If your solution is simply about thinking it out c. The missing key item is somewhere near. It is fine as is, but the problem lies within solving it. You may never know if you can solve it right from the beginning or if you should come back later. This issue highlights, in my honest opinion, the biggest flaw in Hell is us: Hell is time-being-lost-running-around-like-an-idiot. So what are you doing when you are not actually solving any mystery? You run, like, a lot. Combat is easy even on the merciless setting. If you know your way around an action game, you are set. There are no different builds or enemy variety. There is none. There are about 4 enemy types, 4 "Lymbic Sphere" assigned to them, 4 weapon types. One is slower than the other. Pick your weapon, and you might use it until the very end. That's called fun. Yes, exploration is so grand and massive, and it's rewarding! But why should I care? Those rewards are some random ahh relics, which I won't even need because the combat is already so easy. So why should I care about collecting more relics if I am already set for the whole game? You simply upgrade one weapon to tier 2 and tier 3 and tier 4, etc. The best example would be comparing two different kinds of rocket launchers with each other: One does 300 damage, but reloading takes 2 seconds, but the other does 250 damage and reloads in 1.5 seconds. People may try to tell you this is variety. But they won't tell you, regardless of what you choose, the enemy dies in one hit. So the variety falls flat because there is no reason to use and experiment with relics. If combat were more diverse and challenging in the right ways, I might be more motivated to look for relics. So what does this tell us? If you enjoy exploration for the sole reason of doing it rather than being rewarded, then be my guest. But if you think the reward SHOULD matter, then maybe your best course of action is to simply look elsewhere. This game tries so hard to be different, but it falls on its head even harder. The story and the lore are all kind of interesting, but they never go beyond being kind of interesting. . . . . Here is your exploration reward: SUPER RARE NON-AVERAGE RELIC OF EXPLORATION +100 stamina +5% stamina regen -5% stamina cost ABILITY: While your HP is kept above 90%, your stamina cost is further reduced by 5%.

Game is alright. Nothing mind blowing outside of real depictions of heinous acts that can occur in wartime scenarios. Combat is underwhelming. There are systems in place which would suggest an increase to it's depth but those systems are mostly superficial. - As you progress you will primarily focus on 1 or 2 weapons. This is due to both the materials required to upgrade them (without significant farming) and also the fact that you gain experience in the single weapon not the weapon type and as that weapon levels so does its damage. Meaning if you want to swap weapons you will not only need to gather more upgrade materials but then spend time grinding EXP for that weapon as well. -- You will also eventually be able to stop enemies from spawning permanently in zones/maps which further reduces your ability to grind lower tier materials/xp weapons against lower tier enemies. - When you first upgrade a weapon you choose between Rage (Red), Ecstasy (Yellow), Grief (Blue), or Terror (Green). These types/colors don't correspond to anything else besides limiting the color glyphs you can use. - The majority of Glyphs are bad. Rage (Red) has 1 good glyph and Neutral (Grey/White) has 3. The rest aren't even worth using. - Enemies don't change much through out the game. You'll be fighting the same 5 enemy types and the only difference is occasionally 1 might spit out more balls to destroy before you can defeat them or there might be several tied to a ball to destroy. - The drone offensive moves are basically completely garbage and one of the enemies has the ability to deactivate your drone making it unreliable as a combat tool. - You can have 2 weapons equipped (requires swapping between and cannot use the same glyphs), 2 defensive pieces of gear equipped, 1 active relic and 1 passive relic. - All of the defensive pieces of gear do the same thing as far as defense and HP (called endurance in this game) goes. They all have a 3rd bonus modifier most requiring specific conditions to be met for activation. The two best defensive pieces of gear I've found thus far have no specific condition requirements and are by far way better than the rest. With very minimal trade off between defensive gear options become very shallow. - Active Relics have interesting effects and you may be swayed into picking one that best suits your play style but some are clearly much better than others. - Passive Relics are mostly junk imo with one of the best ones, in my opinion, being obtained near the beginning of the game. Combat doesn't even seem to be secondary in nature to this game. There is also a decent spike in difficulty (read: damage) between the enemy tiers. Exploration is good*. Each map has puzzles to solve. Maps very from small to large and the only progress blockers on a map is usually related to knowing a code combination or finding a key (so many keys). The issue becomes very apparent when you spend 20 minutes running to 5 different points on a map to do a puzzle correctly on the first go for nothing burgers. There is plenty to do and backtracking becomes mandatory at points if you are trying to uncover everything a map has to offer and sometimes because you have to in order to progress story. - One key issue I have with exploration is tied to progression. When you hit certain mile markers the maps will progress their states. Now you'd think this is a no brainer but when you've hit 3 maps and map states haven't been progressed it lulls you into a false sense and then you do something and BAM map state progression and now you need to replay the game if you want to obtain an achievement. Puzzles. - They range from pretty simple to oh I need a part from a different map and then will need to come back. Sometimes the part you need will be much later in the game. The hardest puzzles for me were because I misunderstood what it was asking of me instead of taking the clues at face value. Once I stopped trying to add in perceived notions I come across one that was that difficult. Sometimes a puzzle is required to progress but you might not find the clue, thats okay a majority of the progression puzzles are smaller combinations that can be brute forced and the more difficult ones with much harder combinations are generally optional. - Puzzles aren't seeded or generated in any way so if you know the combinations from your first playthrough they aren't changing on your next playthrough. Great for speed runners but not so great for replayability as you can skip a lot of exploration by just punching in the combination without needing to find the clues. The story still hasn't made a lot of sense to me. I'm nearing what I believe is the end of the game and nothing is really explained to you in cutscenes but I can make some educated guesses as to what I believe is going on base on all the clues you pick up and put in your inventory. As for our MC, his story so far is pointless and he is not very interesting. The land of Hadea is probably the most interesting thing and the MC could have literally been anybody. Overall this is a game that I'll beat* but I most likely won't replay it at least not immediately. This game is worth $40 at best. I'd honestly wait for a discount. tl;dr Nothing is particularly bad about this game but nothing is great either. * I'm on an i9-9900k + 2080 TI and the game runs great on medium settings with only minor stutter due to what I presume is background caching/loading areas even though I'm on an NVMe. However I can only play between 1 - 6 hours, typically 2.5 hours, before I get a crash to desktop. Never says what the crash is just prompts me to send the report in. It is starting to grate on me and if I don't finish the game before my patience runs out I'll probably just never finish it. Review written after my 4th crash today.

So, I just can't recommend this game. It's combat gets kinda stale fairly quickly, they make a big deal about "we don't give you maps or quest markers or anything" but it's pretty much just talk to the first person you come across and follow the threads. It's listed as "open world" and it has got some open areas, but it's not like an Elden Ring or Spider-Man where you can go anywhere and do anything, it's more of an open stage that has a few quests to go around and do in. You clear out one, then go to the next when you unlock it. Now, I only have 6 hours in it, and I have only completed act one. I have only fought one boss so far, and it was just a buffed up normal enemy. SO it's possible my opinion will change, but right now, I can't say it was worth the price tag, especially buying the deluxe for the 3 day head start. It is important to note that it does have positive reviews right now, so maybe I'm the oddball here.

Ultra settings, 1440p, DLSS Quality, with 3090 ~80 fps. No stutters. Impressive graphics and atmosphere, responsive movement. I stop buying AAAA+ games if this kind of quality gets delivered from smaller studios. EDIT: After 3 hours i can say i am hooked. Totally. I count the minutes when i can play again. Atmosphere: is so dark. Really dark. Its what the title says. And so thick you could slice it out of thin air. It confronts you with the human abyss that peeks deep into your soul. The stories you experience are dark, twisting, and what matters most; believable. Authentic. It just fits. The immersion is perfect. They know storytelling and in these times its one of the most outstanding traits there can be. Gameplay: Combat is nothing special but very well executed. Block, attack, special ability, dash/roll. But the focus is more on exploring/story. And that is what really shines. I walked through the same areas thrice, back and forth just to not miss anything. Without getting annoyed. But rather satisfyed that i saw and experienced every inch of the map. I talked to every NPC just to be impressed on how diverse their personalities are and what they tell me about this world. Usually i in RPGs i just rush through to get to the next weapon/eqipment, not in this game! Soundtrack: Fits perfectly into the world. Not more or less. It pulls the strain, underlying the tension, making you dive deeper with every new situation just to never let you go when you think you now can relax or take a step back. Play with good headphones and enjoy getting soaked in!

no yellow paint on walls and roads no following a glowing trail no quest markers telling you where everything is no npc's telling you what to do just good old fashioned "here is a digital world and story, go explore!"

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Loses its appeal really fast. Everything is so arduous is mentally exhausting to the point it feels like a chore to do anything. There is so much crap you can find for NPC's it's ridiculous. There is so much crap you can find that you have no idea what it's for. Go here, go there. Find this, find that. Need something to open that door? Don't have what you need? Better remember what you need and where you are along with all the other places and things you need. *sigh* I'm just over 12 hours in and am having to push myself to play, just to finish it because I paid for it. Also the combat is bad.

Lost and Loving Every Second

10/10 – For people who love wandering around like headless chickens and actually enjoy it Okay, so I bought Hell Is Us right after pre-ordering Lost Soul Aside and immediately regretting that choice like a bad haircut But this game? No regrets at all. It just tosses you into this gloomy, war-torn mess and basically says, “Good luck, Sherlock, Find your own way.” And honestly? I did. Sort of. After walking in circles a lot

No Map, No Clue, No Problem

This game is the king of giving zero help. No maps, no arrows, no glowing lights pointing where to go—just you, your bad sense of direction, and a whole lot of confusion You’ll wander around like a lost puppy sniffing every corner, hoping you’re not retracing your steps for the hundredth time SPOILER: You probably are. But that’s half the fun. Or half the headache. Depends on your mood.

Sadness Everywhere, And I’m Here For It

The world looks like someone forgot to turn off the “depressing war movie” filter It’s dark—but also kinda beautiful in a “wow, this place really hates me” way If you like your games like your coffee—dark and bitter—this one’s got you covered

NPCs Who Could Win at The World’s Most Boring Tour Guide Contest

Forget friendly chatty people The NPCs here are more like, “Go over there. Solve that thing. Don’t get killed. Bye.” No emotional backstory, no dramatic speeches Just blunt directions like your least helpful friend who still somehow gives the best advice Sometimes they drop puzzle hints, but mostly they sound like they’d rather be anywhere else

Fighting That’s Actually Fun (Surprise!)

The combat is fast, brutal, and really satisfying The finishers are so savage I laughed and cringed at the same time—like watching a horror movie but with swords Plus, there’s a big bunch of weapons to choose from, so whether you want to stab, smash, or just mess stuff up, you’re covered

Puzzles That Make You Question Your Life Choices

The puzzles don’t hold your hand You’ll stare at a weird rock or some random thing for ages thinking, “Is this important or just a rock?” Then suddenly you figure it out and feel like a genius… right before the next puzzle makes you feel dumb again It’s confusing, annoying, and somehow addictively fun—like trying to assemble furniture without the instructions

Runs Like a Dream, Unlike My Life

Big shoutout to the developers because this game runs smooth No crashes, no weird bugs, no lag. The only thing breaking here is my brain trying to understand what the heck is going on

Final Thoughts: I’d Get Lost Here Again in a Heartbeat

If you’re into: Walking around totally lost and loving it Solving tricky puzzles that make you want to scream Fighting creepy monsters with brutal weapons Exploring a sad, broken world that’s basically a big emotional mess Then Hell Is Us is your perfect nightmare. 10/10. Got lost, got confused, fought monsters, solved puzzles, and had an absolute blast. Would happily get lost again and again

I will change my review to positive once I'm able to remap the interact button. I want "Interact" on B and "Dodge" on A why this company is vehemently against the remapping of interact is bizarre.

Sublime, story, atmosphere , gameplay. Must play and NO its not a Soulslike, you can tune quite a lot the difficulty of the game. And bless the exploration on this.

Kind of boring.. feels like I'm doing something wrong. The style is great, love everything about the world but the gameplay is a slog. The combat seems like I always run out of stamina immediately so the intended counter is using the over-abundant Drone-Cooldown-Reset consumables I have every single combat encounter. There's more to the game but really it boils down to that's the loop for me: run into combat, run out of stamina, pop CDs, pop CD-refresher, repeat. (ZzZz..) I hope it gets better but so far it's such a by the numbers game with meh combat I'm struggling to want to continue to play this over pretty much anything else.

Hell is your quest designer, who the fuck in their right mind would force a side quest to fail (Death's Door) because you finished another one (Heart of Gold), no hand holding doesn't mean you can get away with stupid design like this.

The ONLY thing you guys need to fix is the MC's hair. Queen above, that hairstyle is atrocious.

You can't jump? You're a soldier who can not move over any obstacle? A combat and exploration game where you're completely glued to the ground? I have to navigate around a car tire, tree stump and 10 inch tall fence? I played for 9 minutes and got a refund.

Its not souls like its a souls-lite (ok story though)

The bad repetitive combat and enemy designs makes it easy for me to refund this one!

Game of the year 2025

Generic Complaint: Bought the deluxe edition to play early, got a 5% discount buying it third party, and I regret that because now I can't a refund. Review: What this game does right, atmosphere, exploration, visuals, soundscape. What makes the game downright NOT enjoyable: The combat Personal Issue: Camera/Character movement doesn't feel well to me, even after messing with their unique camera/movement settings. I understand the game is a AA game and not a triple, but claiming to be 50% exploration, 50% combat, with their iteration of combat they should've left it out entirely., Due to how unsatisfactory it is, I can't justify retail price of this game unless you're just in it for the story. I think if they just focused on exploration it could be the next puzzle game since Myst, or The Witness. I recommend picking up the game if you're still interested in later months at at least a 50% discount.

They should have spent more time on mouse and keyboard binds rather then just posting a message saying this game is best experienced with a controller, that is just lazy. No vaulting or jumping over the smallest ledges in 2025 is also unacceptable in this type of game. Other than that I think the story and graphics are well done. Its definitely a bag, but the devs fumbled it. Thank you are coming to my TED talk.

there is some downsides , but on hardest mode it feels like souls game :) like it :) downside is stamina is always same as heath, so if it will drop to 10% then stamina will be same 10 %. it is so stupid. overall for now i feel satisfied. also they could make only one difficulty and monster respawns after death, would be way better .

What if Dark Souls was based on modern war torn countries? The soul in this game is busting out from the seams. The environment paints a picture of reality, of our world now. If immersion was their creed, then, for the most part, they accomplished it. And if that were all I would need to judge this game on, then this review would have the thumb in the upright position. I don't dislike the game, I love souls games. It just isn't unique enough to be recommended at full price. In a single sentence, I would summarize my experience so far as, "I played it out of hope and found a solid souls game." The voice acting, the story, the world, a cut above the rest. The game-play, a mixture of trying to do something new while keeping the formula intact. The unique promise is no more than making the environment the guide. In an attempt to immerse the players by forcing them to read and think, it creates the frustration that players have criticized for so long with a simple phrase, "what do I even do?" The inevitable is that you will either love the game for this or be just be completely lost. I like to think about this concept, direction, as a two sided bridge. One side from the game, the other from the player. In many games, the quality of life for understanding direction is usually built out for you. In this game, you are expected to build that bridge yourself with only hints to guide you. Are you dumb? No, you're not. Going over the environment a hundred times over in hopes of catching something gets old. Trying variations of actions to build understanding is a simple task, but monotonous. You're time is valuable. After going at it a few attempts, I'll end up doing what a majority of us do when we seek answers, look it up. So if this is your cup of tea, enjoy, it brings a Resident Evil Puzzle feel with a basic combat system that amounts to souls game mechanics. But honestly, I would wait to buy this on sale in three months.

This game borrows inspiration from many well known games in the horror and RPG genres, but somehow, it still carves its own lane and brings fresh, original ideas. full review on my YT: irohxo Pros: - Amazing atmosphere - Non-gimmicky quest mechanics - Great characters and voice acting - Incredible soundtrack - Highly detailed world design - Excellent UI - Feels truly like a next-gen game Cons: - Replayability, games like this are usually a one-and-done experience until a sequel is released

Absolutely fantastic game. So much better than the demo. ESPECIALLY since now I've traveled, gotten some upgrades under my belt, have some glyph "powers" and better defensive gear. Enemy variety is actually quite varied and challenging. ESPECIALLY if turn a corner running too fast and run into 10 enemies just chilling and waiting for your dumb butt to show up. Good times. Graphically, the game is a 9. It isn't crazy photo-realistic but damn close. The world building, environmental details, the stunning design and art direction. Just entering someone's home and seeing the radio sit on a shelf, the bits and bobs of a life someone lived in. Great attention to detail and it shows. The world and environmental design and art is absolutely insane. The world is HUGE, lived in (or was), has multiple paths or avenues to explore and discover, has a HUGE variety of local points of interest to help guide you in your 'investigations' and to explore. LOTS of caves, underground dwellings, sewers, etc, to find and explore. TONS of hidden discoverables and collectables to find. The game doesn't demand you find useless collectables either. MOST OF EVERYTHING is used in your quest as you progress the story. IF you find something, READ IT. KEEP IT. IT WILL come in handy at some point in your game. Just don't forget to MAKE A NOTE OF IT. Sound Design is wonderful on a home theatre system. Personally, I'm running my PC through a Denon AVR-S77OH with a 5.1 setup and Dolby Atmos is FIERCE. The surround is incredible and really makes the world feel alive. The game features all the 'proper" sound cues you'd expect. Running through water, jumping, landing, sword swings, etc. The game has a wonderful ambient soundtrack that is eerily haunting. The game play loop is different, fresh and exciting. I see a bunch of people saying it's a 'walking sim". Man, that could NOT be further from the truth. I ALSO see a LOT of people saying it's a "souls-like". It is NOT. Even the devs have said it is NOT. It's an action/adventure game with lots of combat, a spectacularly simple old-school questing system, a TON of discoverables, areas to explore, etc. Think of it as a modern approach to games that combine acitve 'questing" (investigations) and achieving those goals through combat and explorations. All WITHOUT the game, or the devs, holding your hand. It's refreshing to see devs still believe in the power of using your brain. In a simple approach made epic in scope due to the sheer size of the world, the vast opportunities to do 'good vs bad" and explore, the wonderful art direction of enemies and how to approach them. The absolute immersion factor due to the minimal HUD and simple button presses for combat. You basically can play the game quite a few different ways. I don't want to spoil anything but the different avenues of approach for combat have me very excited for what's coming. The game is NOT for everyone. If you do NOT like the lack of a journal you'll be hard pressed in this game. The nice thing is that Shift-Tab onto the Steam overlay has a "NOTES" section. USE IT generously in your play through. Or don't and just discover what you can. I HIGHLY suggest playing through WITHOUT any kind of walkthrough your first time. Why spoil the suprises of exploration with someone else's play through? It's ALSO a 3rd person action/adventure game. If 1st person is your schtick then, again, you may not like it. If you like to go in guns or swords blazing you'll hate this game. It requires timing, good sword work, blocking/parrying and use of glyphs and 'powers'. It is VERY EASY to get surrounded in this game and end up very dead. That brings me the final thought on this game. The SAVE SYSTEM is comparable to a Souls game in almost every aspect. They're few and far between. MAKE YOUR DECISIONS worth it. If you see what could be a hard pressed combat scenario coming close, man, run back and save and run back and fight. Again, the game does NOT HOLD YOUR HAND. It's up TO YOU to decide on how you want to approach an area, how you'll handle combat and to make sure you're stocked on what you may need to survive that encounter. However, saying that, the game uses a VERY GENEROUS system of enabling it so you can actually get a nice portion of your health BACK during combat. This game uses a timing system (again, pretty generous) like the Nioh games. You hit the enemy(ies) and you will encounter a 'ring" around you. Timing it properly will enable you to heal up a nice chunk of health IF you're missing any. Anway, sorry for the long post. Again, this game is NOT for everyone. It requires thinking, it requires note taking some times, it requires putting together pieces of stories to continue your investigations. and it requires combat that is NOT any kind of Souls-like. What it is NOT is a walking sim. For crying out loud, please.