Hell is Us

A horror soulslike from the makers of Mordheim and Necromonda: Underhive Wars – Hell is Us developer Rogue Factor know their way around horror and dystopian settings.

If you thought the soulslike genre of games had reached the deepest diabolical reaches of dystopian game world, along comes Hell is Us. The third person action-adventure from Rogue Factor and Nacon shows its reverence to the genre classics in its melee gameplay, but the setting that mixes in postapocalyptic human military and science-fiction monsters evokes its own unique athmosphere of terror. The game world‘s level design, described as semi-open world, is therefore more akin to the Dark Souls titles than the truly open world Elden Ring. An advantage if done right, seeing as the intersected routes and places of those titles are hailed as their biggest strength today.

And indeed, apart from the impressive monster design and oppressive ambience, the game world is the center factor of Nacon‘s marketing efforts for Hell is Us. With almost no navigational tools, the player is still supposed to find their way to the next goal and the secrets along the way. Building levels so clever that a player‘s curiosity and instinct are enough to find their fun and the way back is a highly underrated skill and one many games struggle with, even great ones like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 recently. However, Rogue Factor have plenty of practice building compelling game worlds, albeit from different perspectives, in their Warhammer tactical RPGs Necromunda: Underhive Wars and Mordheim: City of the Damned. We‘ll see if these skills are transferable.

Hell is Us releases on 4 September for PlayStation, Xbox and PC.