Hell is Us

perfect

Hell is Us starts off with a warning, which in my view is a cleverly disguised sales pitch. [b]Our game has no map, no markers indicating where people or things are, where to go next, or who to talk to. We will never tell you precisely what must be done or how to do it. To thrive in Hell is Us, you will need to pay attention to your environment, listen, and be vigilant.[/b] Refreshing, really. And if you are already intrigued by this design idea, which Hell is Us executes very well, do yourself a favor and dive in as blind as you can. It's very good, and while I do have some grievances, they don't outweigh what the game gets right. [hr][/hr] In Hell is Us, you play as Remi, a decorated soldier on a personal mission to confront his long-lost parents. In order to do so, Remi must venture back to his birth country of Hadea, a sort of fictional Balkan country isolated from the world and its neighbors, now engulfed in a full-scale civil war. Hadea has a certain beauty to it, draped in atmosphere and filled with visually striking locations. But it is, as expected, also a war-torn country steeped in haunting imagery of the macabre and obscene. The music and ambience do a terrific job of pulling you in, elevating the atmosphere and amplifying the feelings the visuals try to stir in you. Early in the game, you venture through the village of Jova, searching for more answers that will put you on the trail of your parents. Jova is in a bad way, as opposing forces have violently seized control of the village. Your search for answers will inevitably have you cross paths with characters and stories that pull no punches in illustrating the absolute horrors humans are capable of. It's such a strong narrative opener to a game, and I really love how bold it dares to be! But the characters and their stories are not only narrative devices. They are also the clues and hints that drive the exploration and discovery in Hell is Us. As well as nudging you towards your own goal, they may have their own motivations and opportunities for you to help them. This structure of narrative puzzles works really well, as you become totally immersed in the dialogue both for the possible pieces of information it contains and for the storytelling itself. You have to remember names, places, landmarks and seemingly insignificant details, and there is a genuine satisfaction in suddenly realizing that something you heard or found hours earlier connects to what is in front of you now. This is where the game's opening warning really delivers on its promise. Hell is Us trusts you to pay attention and understand its world through observation rather than simply pointing you towards the answer. When it works, exploration feels less like following objectives and more like actually learning your way around Hadea. Some of the more traditional puzzles, involving finding and combining information from notes, pictures or other environmental clues, follow a more familiar structure. It does get a bit predictable throughout the game, which is further compounded by the game's narrative shift from character-driven storytelling to heavy lore exposition. And here we meet my main grievances: the predictability and slight tedium of exploration, and the narrative shift later in the game. Let's first look at the one constant that sort of binds these together: the combat. The combat in Hell is Us, over its runtime of about 25–30 hours, is serviceable. Not great, not terrible. It has some very light RPG elements that give it a little surface-level variety, but with the limited pool of enemies and weapons, it lacks meaningful depth. I found myself quite indifferent to it by about the halfway point. This contributes to some of the tedium of exploration and navigating the often very good level design. Regularly, you will find yourself with a clue or item in your inventory that points you back to a place you have already been. There is a difference between rewarding you for remembering something from earlier and simply asking you to retrace your steps, and without an engaging combat loop accompanying this back-and-forth traversal, the latter can easily start to feel like a chore. Then comes the shift in narrative focus. The beginning of Hell is Us is visceral and brutal. It feels intimate when you meet these vulnerable and hurt people, as well as their oppressors. At some points, the tragedy will tie your stomach in knots; at others, the brutality will make your blood boil. The cruelty often feels disturbingly recognizable, clearly drawing upon the kind of violence, hatred and suffering found in our own world. Though a bit inconsistent, even Remi as a character and the initial motivation for the journey we are on are compelling. There is something interesting about sending this man back into the country he fled, forcing him to confront both his own past and the people still living through Hadea's present. I do wish the people and stories he encounters along the way had left more of a visible mark on him, because the setup feels ripe for a more substantial personal journey than what we ultimately get. The mystery and worldbuilding surrounding the different groups and locations also work really well as a backdrop. Early on, Hadea feels like a place you are gradually coming to understand through the people who live there. But then, at some point, the storytelling takes a backseat in favor of lore exposition. A lot of lore exposition. Regardless of whether or not one thinks the lore itself is good, it's just such a poor substitute for storytelling. And perhaps most strangely, it feels at odds with one of the game's greatest strengths. Mechanically, Hell is Us is confident enough to tell you to pay attention, piece things together yourself and accept that not everything needs to be explained to you. Narratively, it eventually becomes far less willing to extend that same trust. On a very personal level, I also think a lot of the lore, which aims to explain far more than I think it needed to, has a severe tonal incongruity with what came before. It's no longer that raw and grounded portrayal of civil war and violence, but instead these grand fantasy tales that, in my view, create a lot of friction between the two halves of the game. I didn't really need Hadea to become more important. The people already were. [hr][/hr] Now, just to be clear, these criticisms don't outweigh what the game does well. They can sound substantial when elaborated on, but I still very much stand by my recommendation of Hell is Us. It's a special game that's by no means executed perfectly, but when its storytelling, exploration and world design work together, it creates something genuinely memorable. It asks you to observe, listen and engage with its world rather than simply consume it, and at its best manages to make its fictional suffering feel uncomfortably human. For all my issues with where it eventually takes its story, Hell is Us still took me places very few games even attempt to go.