Hell is Us Review: A Haunting World Held Back by Flawed Combat

Hell is Us emerges as one of 2025’s most polarizing action-adventure games, delivering an unforgettable atmospheric experience that’s unfortunately marred by frustrating combat mechanics. After spending over 25 hours exploring the war-torn nation of Hadea and battling through its supernatural mysteries, we’ve uncovered a game that succeeds brilliantly in some areas while stumbles significantly in others.

Developed by Rogue Factor and published by Nacon, this third-person action-adventure challenges conventional game design by completely removing maps, quest markers, and traditional guidance systems. The result is a uniquely immersive experience that demands your full attention—but also tests your patience with clunky combat and navigation frustrations.

Key Takeaways

• Hell is Us excels in atmospheric world-building and environmental storytelling but suffers from repetitive, unresponsive combat
• The “no hand-holding” design creates genuine discovery moments but can become tedious without proper note-taking
• PC players need high-end hardware for optimal performance, with RTX 4090 recommended for 4K gaming
• Best suited for patient gamers who prioritize exploration and atmosphere over tight combat mechanics
• Our final score: 7.5/10 – A flawed masterpiece worth experiencing despite its shortcomings

What is Hell is Us?

Hell is Us is a semi-open world action-adventure game that combines investigation, exploration, and melee combat in a supernatural horror setting. You play as Rémi, a mysterious protagonist exploring the isolated nation of Hadea, which has been devastated by a supernatural event called “The Calamity.”

The game’s most distinctive feature is its complete absence of traditional UI elements—no minimap, no quest markers, no compass. Instead, you must rely on environmental cues, NPC dialogue, and your own notes to navigate the world and solve its mysteries. Think of it as a blend of Dark Souls’ challenging combat with the investigative elements of games like Outer Wilds.

From our extensive testing, the core gameplay loop involves exploring atmospheric locations, engaging in melee combat against supernatural enemies called Hollow Walkers, and piecing together the game’s complex lore through environmental storytelling and collectible documents.

Hell is Us: Release Date, Platforms, and Price

The Verdict: Our Complete Assessment

Hell is Us earns a 7.5/10 for its exceptional world-building and atmospheric design, significantly hampered by shallow combat mechanics and occasional design frustrations.

The Good

• Masterful atmosphere and environmental storytelling
• Genuinely rewarding exploration without hand-holding
• Excellent sound design and musical score
• Unique drone companion mechanics
• Rich lore and world-building

The Bad

• Repetitive and clunky combat system
• Slow character movement speed
• Frustrating UI and menu navigation
• Limited enemy variety
• Steep learning curve for navigation

Play It If: You prioritize atmospheric storytelling, enjoy methodical exploration, and can tolerate combat weaknesses for the sake of a unique experience.

Avoid It If: You demand tight, responsive combat mechanics or prefer games with clear objective markers and traditional progression systems.

Atmosphere and World Design: The Game’s Greatest Strength

Hell is Us creates one of the most oppressive and immersive game worlds we’ve experienced in 2025. The war-torn nation of Hadea feels genuinely haunted, with every location telling a story through visual details, audio cues, and environmental design.

Visual and Audio Excellence

The game’s Unreal Engine 5 implementation showcases stunning lighting effects that perfectly complement the supernatural horror aesthetic. Fog rolls through abandoned villages, creating an ever-present sense of unease that keeps you constantly on edge.

Stephane Primeau’s musical score deserves particular praise. The composer creates a soundscape that’s both beautiful and deeply unsettling, with orchestral pieces that swell during moments of discovery and fade to oppressive silence during tense exploration sequences.

From our testing, the directional audio system proves crucial for navigation. Since there’s no minimap, you’ll often rely on subtle audio cues—distant conversations, mechanical sounds, or environmental noise—to guide your exploration.

Environmental Storytelling Mastery

Rogue Factor’s background in tactical strategy games shines through in their approach to world-building. Every location feels purposeful, with visual storytelling that rivals the best environmental narrative design we’ve seen.

Abandoned research facilities tell stories through scattered documents and equipment placement. Village ruins reveal the horror of The Calamity through carefully positioned skeletal remains and destroyed buildings. This attention to detail creates a sense of place that makes exploration genuinely rewarding.

Combat System: The Major Weakness

Hell is Us features a melee-focused combat system that feels outdated and frustrating compared to modern action games. After extensive testing across all weapon types, we consistently encountered issues with responsiveness, animation quality, and overall mechanical depth.

Core Combat Mechanics

The fighting system revolves around stamina management, parrying, and the unique Healing Pulse mechanic. When you successfully land attacks, white particle effects appear around your character. Pressing the heal button (R1/RB) during this window restores health based on damage dealt.

In our experience, this healing system represents the combat’s only genuinely innovative element. It encourages aggressive play and creates interesting risk-reward decisions during encounters.

Major Combat Problems

Slow Animation System: Attack animations feel sluggish and lack proper canceling options. Once committed to a heavy attack, you’re locked into the full animation, making combat feel unresponsive.

Limited Enemy Variety: The majority of encounters involve Hollow Walkers—humanoid supernatural enemies with predictable attack patterns. Even after 25+ hours, we encountered fewer than six distinct enemy types.

Poor Hit Detection: We frequently experienced issues with attacks not registering properly, particularly during fast-paced encounters with multiple enemies.

Weapon Types and Variety

From our testing, Hell is Us offers four main weapon categories:

• Swords: Balanced speed and damage, good for beginners
• Greatswords: High damage but slow attack speed
• Dual Axes: Fast attacks with lower individual damage
• Polearms: Long reach but requires precise timing

While weapon variety exists on paper, the shallow combat system means most weapons feel similar in practice. The Glyph modification system allows for some customization, but it doesn’t fundamentally address the underlying mechanical issues.

Exploration and “No Hand-Holding” Design

The complete absence of traditional UI guidance creates Hell is Us’s most polarizing feature. This design choice produces moments of genuine discovery but also significant frustration, depending on your gaming preferences and patience level.

How Navigation Actually Works

Rogue Factor calls their approach “player plattering”—forcing players to actively engage with the world rather than following objective markers. In practice, this means:

Environmental Cues: Road signs, architectural landmarks, and natural features serve as navigation aids
NPC Dialogue: Characters provide verbal directions that you must remember or write down
Document Collection: Letters, maps, and research notes contain crucial location information
Audio Guidance: Sound design helps identify points of interest and story locations

The Note-Taking Reality

From our extensive testing, physical note-taking becomes practically mandatory for effective progression. The in-game UI provides minimal organization tools for managing clues, locations, and quest information.

We strongly recommend keeping a notebook nearby when playing Hell is Us. Our notes included:
• Character names and their locations
• Key story revelations and connections
• Important geographical landmarks
• Weapon and upgrade locations
• Puzzle solutions and access codes

When the System Works vs. When It Fails

Positive Moments: Discovering hidden locations through careful observation feels genuinely rewarding. Successfully piecing together story elements from environmental clues creates a satisfaction that traditional quest systems can’t match.

Negative Moments: Backtracking becomes tedious when you can’t remember specific locations. Important NPCs sometimes blend into the environment, making them difficult to relocate. The slow character movement speed exacerbates navigation frustrations.

Gameplay Systems Deep Dive

Hell is Us features several interconnected systems that add depth to the core exploration and combat loop. Understanding these mechanics is crucial for effective progression and enjoyment.

Drone Companion Abilities

Your drone companion serves multiple functions beyond basic exploration assistance:

Distract Module: Draws enemy attention, allowing for stealth approaches or tactical positioning
Forward Charge: Damages enemies and can interrupt their attacks
Surge Step: Provides a short-distance teleportation ability for traversal
Entropic Field: Creates a protective barrier that absorbs incoming damage

From our testing, the drone system represents one of the game’s most successful mechanical innovations. Unlike the clunky melee combat, drone abilities feel responsive and offer genuine tactical options.

Crafting and Upgrade Systems

Character progression revolves around finding and upgrading equipment rather than traditional experience points. The Blacksmith character, Victor, serves as your primary upgrade vendor once discovered.

Weapon Enhancement: Requires Lymbic manuals and crafting materials found throughout Hadea
Glyph System: Socketed items that provide passive abilities and stat bonuses
Equipment Durability: Weapons degrade with use and require maintenance

The crafting system feels underdeveloped compared to similar games. Material gathering lacks the satisfying loop found in games like Elden Ring or The Witcher 3.

Character Abilities and Skills

Unlike traditional RPGs, Hell is Us doesn’t feature a skill tree or character levels. Instead, progression comes through:

• Equipment mastery (learning optimal timing for different weapon types)
• Drone module unlocks (discovering new abilities through exploration)
• Environmental knowledge (memorizing locations and navigation routes)

This approach aligns with the game’s philosophy of player-driven progression but may disappoint players expecting traditional character advancement.

PC System Requirements and Performance

Hell is Us demands significant hardware resources for optimal performance, particularly at higher resolutions and detail settings. Our extensive testing across multiple PC configurations reveals both impressive visual fidelity and concerning optimization issues.

Complete PC Specifications Table

Real-World Performance Testing

From our benchmark testing using an RTX 4080 and Intel i7-13700K system:

1080p High Settings: Consistent 75-90 fps with occasional drops during particle-heavy combat sequences
1440p High Settings: 55-70 fps average, with noticeable frame drops in dense forest areas
4K Medium Settings: 30-45 fps, requiring DLSS/FSR for stable performance

For detailed analysis of graphics card performance benchmarks, we recommend checking our comprehensive GPU reviews.

Console Performance Analysis

PlayStation 5: Offers Performance Mode (1440p/60fps) and Quality Mode (4K/30fps). We experienced occasional frame drops during intense combat sequences in both modes.

PlayStation 5 Pro: Enhanced with PSSR upscaling technology, delivering more stable frame rates and improved visual quality. The Pro version represents the optimal console experience.

Xbox Series X: Similar performance to standard PS5, with slightly better loading times due to the Velocity Architecture.

If you’re experiencing performance issues, our guide on how to fix PS5 controller drift might help with related console problems.

Story and Characters Analysis

Hell is Us presents a complex narrative that requires active engagement and careful attention to environmental storytelling. The game’s approach to plot delivery reflects its overall philosophy of player agency over guided experience.

Main Narrative Structure

Rémi’s journey through Hadea unfolds through multiple narrative layers:

Personal Mystery: Understanding your character’s connection to the supernatural events
Political Conflict: The war between Palomists and Sabinians religious factions
Supernatural Horror: The nature of The Calamity and its ongoing effects
Environmental Tragedy: How warfare and supernatural forces have devastated the land

Character Development and Voice Acting

Elias Toufexis (known for Deus Ex’s Adam Jensen) delivers a compelling performance as Rémi. His gravelly, world-weary delivery perfectly matches the game’s oppressive atmosphere.

Supporting characters feel less developed, with dialogue that sometimes falls into exposition-heavy territory. The game’s strength lies in environmental storytelling rather than traditional character interactions.

Narrative Pacing Issues

From our complete playthrough, Hell is Us suffers from uneven story pacing. The opening hours feel slow and confusing, while the final third rushes through major revelations without adequate buildup.

The lack of traditional quest structure means important story beats can be easily missed if you don’t thoroughly explore specific areas or collect certain documents.

Should You Buy Hell is Us?

Hell is Us represents a fascinating but flawed experiment in modern game design. Your enjoyment will largely depend on your priorities as a gamer and tolerance for mechanical imperfections.

Buy Hell is Us If You:

• Prioritize atmospheric storytelling over mechanical perfection
• Enjoy methodical exploration and environmental puzzle-solving
• Appreciate unique design philosophies even when they create friction
• Have patience for learning unconventional systems
• Value world-building and lore over fast-paced action

Skip Hell is Us If You:

• Demand responsive, polished combat mechanics
• Prefer clear objective markers and guidance systems
• Get frustrated by slow-paced exploration
• Want traditional RPG progression systems
• Expect consistent technical performance

Price and Value Consideration

At $59.99, Hell is Us offers a substantial 20-30 hour experience for players who connect with its unique design philosophy. However, the technical issues and combat problems make it difficult to recommend at full price for most gamers.

Wait for a sale if you’re interested but not completely sold on the concept. The game will likely be more enjoyable once post-launch patches address some of the mechanical and performance issues.

For comparison with other recent releases, check our Baldur’s Gate 3 release date coverage to see how other ambitious RPGs have launched.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Hell is Us stands as a bold but imperfect experiment in modern game design. Rogue Factor has created a genuinely unique experience that prioritizes atmospheric storytelling and player agency over conventional mechanics and guidance systems.

The game succeeds magnificently in world-building, environmental storytelling, and creating a sense of place that few games achieve. The decision to remove traditional UI elements creates moments of genuine discovery that feel increasingly rare in modern gaming.

However, these strengths can’t fully compensate for significant mechanical shortcomings. The combat system feels dated and unrefined, while the navigation challenges sometimes cross from engaging into frustrating territory.

Our final recommendation: Hell is Us deserves recognition for its ambitious design philosophy and exceptional atmospheric achievement. Patient gamers who prioritize exploration and storytelling over mechanical perfection will find a memorable experience worth the investment.

For others, waiting for post-launch improvements or a price reduction represents the safer choice. Hell is Us is a flawed masterpiece that needed more development time to fully realize its potential.

Carlos "Lobo" Silva

Carlos is our lead Action-Adventure and Shooter game analyst, with a past in competitive FPS leagues. He has a keen instinct for what makes gunplay feel responsive and level design engaging. His reviews and guides deconstruct the core mechanics of action games to help players master movement and aim.