Hell is Us

For me this was an amazing game and experience. I was reluctant for a long while and did not buy it or (once I had it) actually start it. The reviews and comments made it seem like a vastly confusing game with serious gameplay flaws. Then, two weeks ago, I finally decided to just give it a try and see for myself. At least for an hour, so I could decide on whether to continue or not. And the game initially tried its hardest to persuade me not to play it. With most graphics settings, the game just hard crashed in the intro or after taking a few steps in the world. I am playing on Linux with an NVIDIA graphics card, so I figured it is just "one of those games" and put it away. The next few days I tinkered a little bit and tried, until I find the settings that were stable: everything on "high", no DLSS and no other shenanigans. And honestly, the game still looks pretty and with smooth framerates even at 4K, I got over not playing with "ultra" settings pretty quickly, because... The atmosphere, the music, the vibe, the mystery -- damn, this was so perfect from the get go. The first few areas introduced everything, from the mechanics, the civil war setting, the entities, the combat, the timeloops, and all that time, the atmosphere was dragging me deeper and deeper into the game. I found the lack of a map and the iconeritis of AAA open world games refreshing and enticing. Rather than focusing my attention on 1/20th of the screen and walking from icon to icon, I explored freely, even took some notes and immersed myself fully. [i]Gothic[/i] does not have a map (well, it did, but not a good one). [i]Dark Souls[/i] does not have a map. I even played [i]Witcher 3[/i] on its hardest difficulty without the radar, just to learn the places and help the immersion and exploration. So [i]Hell Is Us[/i] did not, in fact, seem confusing at all. On the contrary, I found the level design to be excellent overall, with all areas bringing something unique and being full of nooks and crannies with something to find. Of the ~28 hours of my playthrough, at least half of it was spent exploring places without following the main story. Combat is functional. This is not [i]Dark Souls[/i]. It does not want to be [i]Dark Souls[/i], even if elements of the gameplay and combat are obviously inspired by it. [i]Hell Is Us[/i], first and foremost, wants to tell a story and for the player to experience its atmosphere and its all-too-real, grim side stories about the atrocities in war ("hell is us", get it?). So combat and enemy variety are not the focus. Despite that, I was never bored of combat at any point. I figured out a strong combination of weapons and gadgets quite early on, then by the midpoint I was a tank with a power fantasy and even until the very late game, most enemy encounters were me just "Havel'ing" my way through enemy after enemy, any damage taken rerouted into damage or healing. I think there are other ways to play the game, more agile, more gadget-focused, etc. But I was not looking for combat variety, I was fine with being efficient and roleplaying as a walking weapon that eradicates all the entities (even got the rarest achievement, woohoo!). It was fun. It is not revolutionary combat by any stretch of the imagination, but it is fun and perfectly fine for this type of game. At last, the story and characters. I found the side quests and NPCs mostly interesting and "enjoyed" talking to them. I did not enjoy what these characters went through. Current world events are as grim as I can imagine in my 45 years alive, and [i]Hell Is Us[/i] pulls absolutely no punches showing or implicating what war and raging people can do to each other. Mild spoiler warning, but it needs to be said: This game contains mention, strong implication or visual evidence of torture, child deaths, rape, mass murder and worse atrocities. The otherworldly entities may look and sound alien and monstrous, but the real terror comes from seeing what humans have done (both in distant past and current events of the story) to each other. You cannot take sides in the civil war and you don't want to. I am a hopeless idealist, so mentally I side with the innocent and the weak 100% of the time, but aside from a few "good deeds" you cannot change or impact the war. You cannot fight or attack humans, even the vilest of scum that you know have just raped or murdered. The game does not want you to take sides, it wants to show you that both sides have the full range of characters: from innocent victim to evil piece of ♥♥♥♥. No, your job is to understand, fight and stop the otherworldly threat, as that will, hopefully, bring at least some peace to a country with a bloody history that rivals real-world situations in complexity. Suffice it to say, this part of the game is hard to stomach at times, at least for naive, empathetic little goody-two-shoes like me. So, after 28 hours, what is my verdict? I think this is a masterpiece. I don't really anticipate me wanting to replay it anytime soon or likely ever, but that's alright. Not every game needs to be replayed. Sometimes you can just be amazed and happy that you have experienced a game and [i]Hell Is Us[/i] is one of those for me.