A game that warns you right off the bat that there will be no waypoints or mapmarkers indicating where you should go is a bold opening. True to this core aspect, you have to figure out the path forwards on your own. The loose story relates to a man returning to his hometown to discover the fate of his family, but the stories he uncovers along that journey are overall more impactful than his own. This game is more of a “journey before destination” story than most I’ve partaken in, and it won’t resonate with everyone because of it.

You are Remi, a man on a mission to reunite with his family in a war-torn country. The civil war between the Palomans and Sabinians has no regard for the lives of innocents and war crimes are committed on both fronts. Immediately, the statement of there being “no good guys” is evident. Pits of bodies, families tortured in their homes and soldiers that relish violence litter the world. Remi is in the middle of it all, but neither side sees his presence as anything other than a bystander. He’s more a vessel to experience the world, rather than a character in his own right. He does have moments of true emotion, but they’re too far between to be of much impact. What does leave an impact are the residents of the world.

You can choose to help refugees and prisoners of war to obtain future rewards. The rewards can be helpful, however, I didn’t assist these people because I was seeking them. I genuinely wanted to. The stories they tell and the pure desperation of their needs pulled at my heartstrings. One features a man cradling his dead child, mentioning that he wished he had a possession of hers to bury with her (for religious reasons). I felt immediately obligated to assist this grieving father and husband, so I helped him and received his thanks, which was enough for me. The game, however, does give you rewards for these, once you unlock the npc. It felt a bit off-putting to help these people for rewards, but it is a game at the end of the day. Initially, when you don’t have access to the rewards, it felt simply like the right thing to do. This type of story is common in a land ravaged by war, so be prepared to hear about some truly malicious events.

The game takes place in an interrogation room, technically, as Remi recounts his actions to a strange man with the ugliest face you’ve ever seen. From this angle, the game seems to remove much of Remi’s character. He’s mentioned as being sociopathic, coming across as unemotional. This is heard in his dialogue with residents of the country. I’m unsure if this is because he’s recounting the events and removing his own emotions from it, or if he truly is unemotional. There are moments where he does show passion, but they’re only when he’s pushed to a breaking point. These were the times I really connected with him, but overall he’s standoffish as a main character. I couldn’t be persuaded to care about him or his family drama, but the intrigue of the setting was enough.

On top of the war, beings of emotion, called Hollows, have appeared. These are what a secret society was trying to prevent, but obviously failed, however they have a failsafe and only you can end the calamity. It seems unnecessary as a plot device initially, but the lore surrounding the region and the beings themselves is a solid setup for the game overall. It gives Remi a more important mission that intertwines with the war itself. Are these being responsible for the war or are they a byproduct of the pain? It’s a question that remained in my mind for the entire game, while I was being assaulted by their manifestations.

Terror, Grief, Rage and Ecstasy guide these beings, but most just want to kill you. Early on, you come across weapons made of the same material as them, which you can use to kill them. Otherwise, they’re invulnerable. Yes, there’s combat in a game about war, but there are no guns. You’ll use axes, polearms, swords and greatswords to dispatch your enemies. The weapons are somewhat customizable, as you can imbue them with an emotion and utilize glyphs for abilities. Each weapon can hold three glyphs and these can be used with the press of a button. I used a glyph for my rage axes called “rage spike” that shot an exploding bolt at enemies from afar, a grapple that pulled enemies toward me and another that entered me into a bloodlust state. For my secondary weapon, I had an ecstasy sword that had a wave clear ability for close proximity. Another layer to the combat involves a drone that accompanies you throughout the game. It has four ability slots on its own, and these can help you a ton in fights as well. The combat involves using these abilities in combination with basic attacks, dodging and blocking to dispatch foes. You gain energy to use abilities from hitting enemies with basic attacks and a perfect parry can stagger the enemy, so you can deliver a one-shot follow-up. Also, any time after your attacks land, you can press a button at a specific time to absorb the essence of your damage to heal yourself. It takes time to get used to, but makes it so you don’t have to use healing items at all if you are able to land hits. These layers and options for tackling combat scenarios can make them interesting at first. The main issue with it is the enemy variety. There are three types (one being ranged which is the most annoying) that aren’t too different from one another. Some contain a core-like entity that comes out, which you have to destroy before you can beat the main body. If this is in a group, they can all be linked to the same entity, making them all invulnerable until it is destroyed. There are the emotion-based enemies, and their attacks differ based on that. For instance, rage enemies will throw out a constant volley of attacks while a grief core will flop around for a bit and sometimes stop moving entirely. This is the extent of variety. It wouldn’t be much of an issue if combat weren’t such a huge part of the game, but it’s truly around every corner. If you run into a group of enemies in an enclosed space, it all falls apart. You can easily get overwhelmed and it’s severely frustrating. I found myself avoiding combat as much as possible later into the experience because of how frustratingly dull it became. (I would suggest turning in your good deed as soon as possible, because glyph variety may help with this, but ultimately it may not be enough.)

The game also has some boss encounters. To be honest, these are terrible. They are themed around the emotions they represent and the terror one had potential, but it was just annoying. I would have liked to see an exploration of the human psyche in these, maybe relating the fights back to the war or having them be puzzles or tests.

Speaking of puzzles, there are many of them throughout the game. Each can be solved without too much difficulty though. The npcs alluding to things may go over some people’s heads, but I found them to be relatively straightforward requests. You may not have what they need right then, but if you remember them later on when you find something that might fit, you’ll feel like a genius. One of these involved a baby that needed some milk, and I felt like I had a revelation when I remembered where some milk was. It rewards those that pay attention to words and the world, making them very well-done. One area involved the tomb of a long dead king that you needed to get into. It featured a door with a bunch of symbols which represent certain aspects and you needed to figure out the code to open it. The puzzle involves going to other burial sites, to obtain clues through lore and inputting the symbols in the correct order. Again, if you pay attention these are rewarding and engaging, way more than picking up a page, not reading it at all, and having a popup tell you the solution. Most of the puzzles are well-designed, but the blood queen’s tomb puzzle really got under my skin. It involves sacrificing your blood to raise cages to levers, which you need to do multiple times across various floors. On top of being tedious, it was unclear and made me feel like a complete idiot when I realized the gimmick. I hadn’t used any medkits at this point and by the time I figured out what I was doing wrong, I was down to only a couple. To not spoil, but ensure you don’t face the same frustration, I’ll say, just pay attention to the cages when you step on the switches. Overall though, they are satisfying to resolve, but there are just a bit too many for my liking.

The game’s environments are beautiful and relatively unique. There are quite a bit of underground catacombs (but this makes sense for a land with a history as deep as this one), however each area has an identity all its own. This helps with backtracking as you’ll be able to vaguely remember locations and landmarks because of the varied level design. The town of Jova is a swampy land, while Talju is a city on fire. It makes each memorable in its own way, and I appreciate their different themes.

I was immediately interested in the world of Hell Is Us. It felt like this game had something to say through its depiction of a war torn country. The monsters and secret society notwithstanding, it felt grounded in reality. The stories told are meaningful and the dense lore of the world is interesting to dive into. It’s only that way because the game requires attention. Without quest markers and solutions displayed on the screen for you, you have to figure out the puzzles through absorption of the material. If more games took this design philosophy of discovery over handholding, gaming would be better as a whole. Unfortunately, the combat keeps this game from being as revolutionary as it could be. The depth at which you can customize the way your tackle encounters and the varied tools at your disposal seem superlative as the enemies don’t require the usage or optimization of them. The boss fights are experimental, but none come to any satisfying conclusion, which is a perfect way to describe the game as a whole. It introduces some fantastic design elements, forcing the player to actually participate, but the ending doesn’t make them add up to a satisfying conclusion. This, I think, is intentional. Again, it’s definitely a journey-based story, not a destination one. Still, I couldn’t help but wish I got some closure at the end of the experience. Despite the end, I still enjoyed the experience overall and If you’re a fan of being absorbed into worlds full of rich lore and have the attention span for it, Hell Is Us will resonate with you as well.