Hell Is Us first caught my interest when it was announced. Not because of anything that was said about it, but because the visual design appealed to me.. The darkness of the world, the enemy design, the characters all combined in a dystopian Captain Planet-esque way that I couldn’t ignore.
While I may come off as a graphics-snob, good graphics are only a small part of what I actually want: Solid visual storytelling. Despair can be a visually interesting thing to consume, and when it’s properly composed as an entire feast for the eyes? Yeah, I’m all about that.
Then the core gameplay gimmick was announced: There is no game map. There are no quest markers. You have to figure everything out for yourself.
I grew up with games like this; Police Quest, Final Fantasy I and more all the way to Morrowind, I enjoyed games with minimal hand-holding. Now, though? Now I’m old. I’m tired. My hands don’t work well enough to take notes. I get distracted by real life shit.
Am I able to play Hell Is Us, despite the lack of direction in how to play?
As it turns out – so far – yes, and it’s all thanks to the brilliant world design that’s both visual as well as practical.
Here’s the short answer: Much like how the enemies white forms contrast the darkness of the world they occupy, the design of the regions you operate in aid in giving you just enough guidance and guardrails to allow you to experience things in an open, free-form way while also ensuring you can eventually get to where you need to go and do what you need to do.
You still need to pay attention – and I’m sure it’ll be handy to keep a pen and paper nearby – but I myself have played this game with multiple stops and starts and haven’t gotten frustrated yet.
This isn’t a big sprawling open world; the regions seem huge, but honestly? They aren’t that big.
Aside from the core gimmick, though, there is the gameplay.. Which is pretty good, too. Combat is fun and has variety, and the fact that it provides difficulty options makes it even better (I play on the “Normal” difficulty). This isn’t a souls-like; While the darkness and combat style may make you think it’s a souls-like, it’s much more approachable than even, say, Elden Ring.
The puzzles aren’t bad, either, as long as you keep an open mind and remember that you may not have everything needed to solve puzzles as you encounter them (some will require you to progress further in other regions in order to gather the necessary pieces for a prior area).
I’m impressed this game isn’t more popular than it is. It’s a well-designed visual feast, and encourages you to discover shit organically without making you feel lost or unable to progress (there was one level in the original Quake that pissed me off like none-other like that).