Not all who wander need a waypoint
By Paul Hunter
Hell Is Us, made by Rogue Factor and published by Nacon, offers an immersive experience that isn’t interested in holding your hand. You arrive in Hadea, a country that’s been torn apart, and the game basically says: look, listen, remember. That’s the whole vibe.
What that means in practice is you’ll rely on Investigations and Good Deeds, not map pins and waypoints. NPC lines, notes and the places you walk through are your clues. I ended up writing things down dozens of tines, and when a scattered detail finally clicked it felt satisfying in a way a waypoint never does. Puzzles and Mysteries reward that kind of patience, and combat backs it up with a system that asks for timing, stamina management and the right weapon for the moment.
On PS5 the lighting and audio lean hard into the sombre mood, so wandering around feels creepy and utterly facinating. Yes, you’ll hit moments where you’re stuck, but the payoff from a multi-part solution makes that tedium worthwhile.
So, are you ready to step into Hadea, take on its Investigations and see if this way of playing suits you? Let's find out!
I went into Hell Is Us thinking it would be about Remi finding his family. He's a former soldier who returns to Hadea after a long absence, despatatey looking for his mother and father. It's true that a family reunion seems ultimare outcome, but the search quickly turned into something much, much bigger. Remi sneaks back into Hadea under the guise of being a peacekeeper, but what he really finds is a country split by faith and scarred by war, with strange pale enemies linked to an old calamity.
The way the story is told is the thing that stood out most. There aren’t long expository scenes handing you facts. You pick up bits and pieces—old letters, carved tablets, overheard lines—and slowly build a picture. I kept a notebook and it paid off; remembering a priest’s line about a runaway child led to a small but meaningful moment hours later. Those tiny wins added up.
Hadea itself does a lot of the heavy lifting. Villages look like evidence boards: burnt-out houses, mass graves, a playground that tells you something awful happened here. People in town give different takes on events, so the history becomes messy and real. That made exploring feel more like digging through someone’s life than clearing a checklist.
Remi isn’t the most expressive guide. He’s driven but pretty flat in delivery. Oddly, that works—because the world is so full of detail it becomes the main draw. Talking to locals, reading artifacts and tracing conflicting accounts kept me curious even when the main plot became a bit hazy.
Bottom line: the story rewards patience and plenty of note-taking. It can be heavy and at times uncomfortable, but those moments are also what make the mysteries worth solving.
Combat in Hell Is Us makes you feel like each hit counts. You’ll pick from four weapon types—dual axes, a sword, a polearm and a greatsword—and learn each of their strengths and weaknesses. Stamina matters and the timing window for the white-particle heal turned me into a more aggressive fighter than I expected. Land hits, watch the particles, then press R1 to patch yourself up mid-brawl. It's a really sayisfying gameplay loop.
You can customise weapons with Glyphs and slot runes at the blacksmith. I tweaked setups depending on whether I wanted more damage or crowd control. The drone became a favourite gadget: it distracts, lifts you for a falling smash and can propel you into a dash attack that opens a combo.
There’s a small cast of demon types, plus memorable bosses. That limited roster meant I learned attack patterns quickly. Some attacks glow red, letting you parry at the right beat and follow up with a stun or execution. It’s satisfying when it clicks.
Investigation is the other half of the loop. They often involve puzzles ranging from aligning symbols in the correct order to stepping on the correct pressure plates to multi-area mysteries that reward backtracking.
Enemies don’t respawn (as long as you don't move to another map area), so cleared enemies stay dead, and if you die you simply return to your last save with your items intact. Skills use Lymbic resources, which accumulates as your fight, so you can’t spam everything without thinking. The systems push you toward attention and timing rather than brute force.
The Hollow Walker enemy list could be broader, but weapon variety, runes and the drone kept combat lively. The investigative quests and puzzles provided steady reasons to explore, and those connected wins made the all notetaking worthwhile.
Visually Hell Is Us does both bleak and oddly beautiful all at the same time. One minute you’re trudging through a town that still smells like smoke, the next you’re staring at a calm lake fringed with flowers. That shift kept me interested in every new area I found.
Character models look solid. NPCs show the kind of wear and tear you’d expect from a war zone. Voice acting was a big help—accents and delivery made conversations believable. Remi’s voice is pretty flat at times, but that strangely fits his mission-focused role.
Those Hollow Walkers move in ways that made me stop and watch. Their jittery motion is almost graceful, which only made them more alarming.
Lighting and sound are where the game really pulled me in. Firelight, fog and shadows mix in ways that make ruined places read as lived-in. On PS5 the performance is great—the game loads quickly and runs smoothly. Audio layers small things into the world: distant drums, low drones and whispers that make quiet corridors feel heavy. Then the soundtrack cuts in for a big moment and it lands.
Some scenes stuck with me: a cavern filled with bone, a playground that felt frozen in a terrible story, and a church surrounded by headstones. Those were the moments the game used visuals and audio to make me ponder with what I’d found. Overall, the presentation made exploring feel meaningful and sometimes unsettling in a good way.
Final Score: 8.5/10 - Great
Developer: Rogue Factor
Publisher: Nacon
Genre: Action Adventure
Modes: Single-player
A key was provided by the publisher.
By Paul Hunter
Hell Is Us, made by Rogue Factor and published by Nacon, offers an immersive experience that isn’t interested in holding your hand. You arrive in Hadea, a country that’s been torn apart, and the game basically says: look, listen, remember. That’s the whole vibe.
What that means in practice is you’ll rely on Investigations and Good Deeds, not map pins and waypoints. NPC lines, notes and the places you walk through are your clues. I ended up writing things down dozens of tines, and when a scattered detail finally clicked it felt satisfying in a way a waypoint never does. Puzzles and Mysteries reward that kind of patience, and combat backs it up with a system that asks for timing, stamina management and the right weapon for the moment.
On PS5 the lighting and audio lean hard into the sombre mood, so wandering around feels creepy and utterly facinating. Yes, you’ll hit moments where you’re stuck, but the payoff from a multi-part solution makes that tedium worthwhile.
So, are you ready to step into Hadea, take on its Investigations and see if this way of playing suits you? Let's find out!
I went into Hell Is Us thinking it would be about Remi finding his family. He's a former soldier who returns to Hadea after a long absence, despatatey looking for his mother and father. It's true that a family reunion seems ultimare outcome, but the search quickly turned into something much, much bigger. Remi sneaks back into Hadea under the guise of being a peacekeeper, but what he really finds is a country split by faith and scarred by war, with strange pale enemies linked to an old calamity.
The way the story is told is the thing that stood out most. There aren’t long expository scenes handing you facts. You pick up bits and pieces—old letters, carved tablets, overheard lines—and slowly build a picture. I kept a notebook and it paid off; remembering a priest’s line about a runaway child led to a small but meaningful moment hours later. Those tiny wins added up.
Hadea itself does a lot of the heavy lifting. Villages look like evidence boards: burnt-out houses, mass graves, a playground that tells you something awful happened here. People in town give different takes on events, so the history becomes messy and real. That made exploring feel more like digging through someone’s life than clearing a checklist.
Remi isn’t the most expressive guide. He’s driven but pretty flat in delivery. Oddly, that works—because the world is so full of detail it becomes the main draw. Talking to locals, reading artifacts and tracing conflicting accounts kept me curious even when the main plot became a bit hazy.
Bottom line: the story rewards patience and plenty of note-taking. It can be heavy and at times uncomfortable, but those moments are also what make the mysteries worth solving.
Combat in Hell Is Us makes you feel like each hit counts. You’ll pick from four weapon types—dual axes, a sword, a polearm and a greatsword—and learn each of their strengths and weaknesses. Stamina matters and the timing window for the white-particle heal turned me into a more aggressive fighter than I expected. Land hits, watch the particles, then press R1 to patch yourself up mid-brawl. It's a really sayisfying gameplay loop.
You can customise weapons with Glyphs and slot runes at the blacksmith. I tweaked setups depending on whether I wanted more damage or crowd control. The drone became a favourite gadget: it distracts, lifts you for a falling smash and can propel you into a dash attack that opens a combo.
There’s a small cast of demon types, plus memorable bosses. That limited roster meant I learned attack patterns quickly. Some attacks glow red, letting you parry at the right beat and follow up with a stun or execution. It’s satisfying when it clicks.
Investigation is the other half of the loop. They often involve puzzles ranging from aligning symbols in the correct order to stepping on the correct pressure plates to multi-area mysteries that reward backtracking.
Enemies don’t respawn (as long as you don't move to another map area), so cleared enemies stay dead, and if you die you simply return to your last save with your items intact. Skills use Lymbic resources, which accumulates as your fight, so you can’t spam everything without thinking. The systems push you toward attention and timing rather than brute force.
The Hollow Walker enemy list could be broader, but weapon variety, runes and the drone kept combat lively. The investigative quests and puzzles provided steady reasons to explore, and those connected wins made the all notetaking worthwhile.
Visually Hell Is Us does both bleak and oddly beautiful all at the same time. One minute you’re trudging through a town that still smells like smoke, the next you’re staring at a calm lake fringed with flowers. That shift kept me interested in every new area I found.
Character models look solid. NPCs show the kind of wear and tear you’d expect from a war zone. Voice acting was a big help—accents and delivery made conversations believable. Remi’s voice is pretty flat at times, but that strangely fits his mission-focused role.
Those Hollow Walkers move in ways that made me stop and watch. Their jittery motion is almost graceful, which only made them more alarming.
Lighting and sound are where the game really pulled me in. Firelight, fog and shadows mix in ways that make ruined places read as lived-in. On PS5 the performance is great—the game loads quickly and runs smoothly. Audio layers small things into the world: distant drums, low drones and whispers that make quiet corridors feel heavy. Then the soundtrack cuts in for a big moment and it lands.
Some scenes stuck with me: a cavern filled with bone, a playground that felt frozen in a terrible story, and a church surrounded by headstones. Those were the moments the game used visuals and audio to make me ponder with what I’d found. Overall, the presentation made exploring feel meaningful and sometimes unsettling in a good way.
The Verdict
Hell Is Us makes investigation feel like craft. I kept notes, followed odd clues and got real satisfaction from fixing small injustices. Combat felt great once I learned the timing trick and started experimenting with runes and the drone. The world looks and sounds like it’s steeped in history, and the PS5 runs it smoothly. The enemy variety isn’t huge and Remi can seem a bit flat, but honestly the whole package left me with a ton of memorable moments. If you like digging deep into puzzles and lore, this one’s worth every minute.Final Score: 8.5/10 - Great
Hell Is Us details
Platform: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PCDeveloper: Rogue Factor
Publisher: Nacon
Genre: Action Adventure
Modes: Single-player
A key was provided by the publisher.