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You are thrown into a world scarred by hatred and despair. No concrete instructions no map and no blinking dot on the horizon to guide you the way. Only the sound of distant suffering and the cold wind sweeping through the ruins of a land tearing itself apart. This is the feeling with which Hell is Us welcomes the player to the civil war torn nation of Hadea. It is not a feeling of power or clear purpose but one of profound disorientation. It is an action role-playing adventure hybrid that demands cognitive skills and challenges conventional notions with its audiovisual design choices. Hell is Us is for me one of the best games of the year and I can only recommend it to a narrow target audience.
Here we see our protagonist and a journalist friend who is surely inspired by the real Marie Colvin. The characters in Hell is Us seem pretty grounded.
Confusing at first glance
Opinions will be divided on Hell is Us because it lumps together elements that initially seem incompatible. In a futuristic room our protagonist Rémi is being interrogated by a dubious man. Then the scene jumps to Rémi's perspective and you end up in the middle of the civil war in the fictional country of Hadea. The middle-aged man is there searching for his parents whom he hasn't seen since the childhood after being smuggled out of the country as a child. The most devastating attacks have just taken a place and you see grief and suffering. But then I enter an underground facility that looks as if it were built in the Middle Ages complete with creatures with a strangely surreal design somewhere between ghosts angels and techno monsters. What previously played like an adventure suddenly takes on a slightly Soulslike feel.When I suddenly found myself in a medieval dungeon in the prologue and despite the modern era I was a bit surprised. As the role-playing elements overwhelm me I reach the exit and land in a trench reminiscent of the First World War only to hijack a futuristic looking vehicle a few meters further on. Mind you a state-of-the-art drone called KAPI flies with me the whole time it's something that shouldn't have existed in the 90s. While the opening sequence is accompanied by mosaic like images and a powerful synthesizer sound I'm utterly confused. Many hours later this feeling changes and everything falls seamlessly into place. I'm certain of one thing: Hell is Us is an unusual masterpiece.
The environmental storytelling is very successful. It's easy to see what stories have unfolded in the surrounding area without having to waste words on them.
This is a cocktail of genres
The genre category action-adventure probably best describes it and this work of the Canadian studio Rogue Factor combines a variety of elements into a genre cocktail. The adventure part makes up the majority of the game where you explore various areas and complete tasks for characters. Most of these characters are people who have found themselves in desperate straits due to the War: They need medical help searching for relatives or have lost important items or are simply missing crucial information. This entire aspect of the civil war struck me personally as quite a shock as the developers clearly based the game on European conflicts of the 1990s and despite the fictional scenarios. This kid hides in a ruin after losing his entire family in an attack. The game makes it unmistakably clear: War sucks. I have to give the games designers high praise. They take a clear stance against war but also avoid the trap of one-sided perspectives.
Many scenes don't involve any fighting. In this flower field you have to find the entrance to an underground facility.
The art of losing yourself
I hesitate to call the areas are open world because they very expansive and often lead deep underground and they're separated from each other. You access the areas via an overview map and can then drive to them using the aforementioned futuristic looking vehicle.You can hand over found objects to the journalist and have her research the information. Some of it just expands the world because others are more important.
Every now and then you collect a map with handwritten notes from an NPC but we don't have a map ourselves that we can interact with much. There are also no quest markers or other clues. Instead I have to pay attention during conversations and read notes carefully to discover important locations.
The fight against the calamity
The second biggest aspect of Hell is Us is the fighting. The civil war was interrupted by the appearance of strange creatures that cannot be defeated with normal firearms. They are called Hollow Walkers or Hollows and they are part of a supernatural phenomenon known as the Calamity. Their outward appearance resembles mannequins with large holes instead of faces and bellies but these holes contain extreme human emotions such as anger and grief. These feelings manifest as surreal symmetrical-geometric shapes that also attack Rémi. If these emotional entities emerge from the Hollows bodies you must attack them first and the host remains invulnerable until they are.The Hollows appear surreal and grotesque especially through their screams and dance like movements.
Mid-Core statt Hardcore
At the beginning I described a certain Soulslike feel to the combat. The developers themselves describe the combat style as mid-core challenging but not overly punishing. Yup I think that description fits. The slight hint of challenge comes primarily from the focus on a careful handling of slashing weapons such as lances swords or axes. I can certainly do a bit of button mashing with the latter but with the others you need to be a bit patient before throwing strikes. Especially when charging up an attack you don't want it to go to waste. Parrying at the right moment and always keeping an eye on your stamina are absolutely the key strategies.A special feature is the stamina is directly linked to health that is you more damage you take the less stamina you have available. The drone KAPI also supports you. It can for example distract the enemy or spin Rémi around so he can perform a powerful spin attack. The drone and weapons can be upgraded with a selection of passive and active abilities typical of role-playing games. For me the Soulslike feeling diminished as the campaign progressed which lasts at least 30 hours and is closer to 50. And while Rémi is agile he doesn't have as many attacks as in a character driven action game. Besides the stamina bar positioning is also crucial here. And if the enemies are too strong you can run away is also a valid option. If the fights are too difficult for you you can individually adjust aspects such as damage taken or the aggressiveness of the creatures in the options menu. This should be helpful for players who want to focus more on the adventure part.
When I lost myself for a while in a medieval underground vault such images of destruction brings me back to the present.
