Hell is Us is set on the island of Hadea, a land scarred by a brutal civil war known as the Calamity, which shattered its society decades ago. The conflict’s origins lie in ideological and territorial disputes, though specifics remain deliberately vague, revealed through environmental storytelling and fragmented lore. One look at this game and you’d swear it was a soulslike due to its bleak setting, stamina bar, and mapless gameplay.
In the Calamity’s wake, monsters emerge. These physical embodiments of the conflict’s trauma, rage, and despair blend human and otherworldly elements into unsettling forms. Remi was one of the few people who escaped Hadea as a child, but now returns as an adult driven by unresolved questions about his mother’s fate and his own fragmented memories.
Just what the hell is happening in Hadea? Where did these monsters come from? What is going on with all of these different factions? Is this a soulslike, or are we in hell? Find out in our Hell is Us review!
Hell is Us
Developer: Rogue Factor
Publisher: Nacon
Platforms: Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 (reviewed)
Release Date: September 4, 2025
Price: $49.99
Remi’s homecoming to Hadea prompts him to reconcile his past with broader mysteries about the Calamity’s origins and the supernatural taint plaguing the land. Most of the adventure involves deciphering cryptic artifacts, confronting grotesque creatures that reflect the war’s horrors, and unraveling connections between Rémi’s memories and Hadea’s societal collapse.
Everywhere you look, there are echoes of battles and wrecked families. Indications of uprisings and factions turning on each other are deftly ingrained in the environmental design. Signs of sex crimes in derelict homes and orphaned children wandering settlements, all the while, milky-white, faceless monsters roam the lands.
Hell is Us‘ visual style draws heavily from post-apocalyptic and war-inspired aesthetics, echoing films like Come and See or Tarkovsky’s Stalker in its unflinching portrayal of desolation and human cost. The surreal, trauma-born monsters crib from Silent Hill’s psychological horror, where enemies reflect inner turmoil.
The visuals, story, and atmosphere are Hell is Us’ strongest assets. Its meditative and pensive tone is not like any other action game around. The fact that it succumbs to being a very conventional dodge-and-parry hack-and-slash with lock-on targeting is downright disappointing.
Combat revolves around a core loop of light and heavy attacks, parries, and dodges. Light attacks are quick and chainable, suited for smaller enemies, while heavy attacks deliver slower, high-damage strikes effective against tougher foes. Like in most soulslikes, Remi’s stamina is limited, though he can run infinitely.
The melee-focused battling feels visceral, and the monsters put up a hell of a fight. There aren’t that many types of foes, but once in a while, some will have what can best be described as an abstract Jojo stand that can jump from enemy to enemy.
These things are unbelievably annoying and must be dealt with before dispatching their host, as they effectively serve as a barrier and hit hard and fast. They feel like a designer’s crutch to make up for the lack of variety.
Enemies range from humanoid abominations with jerky, unsettling movements to larger, abstract monstrosities resembling Silent Hill monsters if they were designed by the Apple corporation. Early encounters are intense, with monsters’ grotesque designs amplifying tension, but their attack patterns grow repetitive, relying on predictable lunges or swipes.
Healing items are surprisingly rare, and the best way to keep Remi kicking is to master Hell is Us’ iteration of the rally mechanic from Bloodborne. It’s a lot more convoluted and harder to pull off, but the idea is to press triangle in time with a ring that appears around Remi. It isn’t as simple as it sounds. Sometimes you’ll barely recover anything, and other times he’ll recover everything.
This is one of the more confusing aspects of the game, and it isn’t well-explained in the tutorials. You’ll need to master this because Remi’s max HP and stamina reduce with the damage he takes, and the stupid ring system is how it gets restored. It’s a good idea that needs better execution.
There are barely any boss fights, and keeping in line with the lack of variety are the sparse weapon choices. Sword, polearm, twin axes, and greatswords have their obvious classes associated with them.
Where the game tries to give the illusion of variety is the upgrade system, where players use materials to upgrade them down an upgrade path. It’s a glorified element system that comes with some perks, but is otherwise more shallow than it appears.
Remi’s drone can be deployed for distractions, environmental interactions, low-powered ranged attacks, and even a wild spin-attack.
As cool as that sounds, it’s not as practical as you’d hope since the cool-down for these abilities is absurdly long, and you’ll need to use items to quicken it. It’s another example of a solution being made for a deliberate problem. They should have made the cool-downs shorter and not bothered with the consumables.
After a while, I just couldn’t care to engage with the dull combat and dropped the difficulty to easy because I wanted to explore and learn more about the story. Hell is Us doesn’t punish you for this at all, and you can freely change the difficulty to anything at any point. Perhaps the developers expected this and didn’t want to waste all their efforts crafting an imaginative and original setting.
I stopped caring about my weapons and didn’t bother to grind for materials, and then I found myself having more fun. The puzzles and level design are genuinely interesting, bordering on something out of a Myst game and sometimes like a Silent Hill. The network of catacombs that runs underground throughout Hadea connects to other areas in surprising ways, drawing you deeper into the world.
Hell is Us is a diamond in the rough. There are some great ideas buried underneath mediocre combat. When not slapping faceless monsters with a fury-infused greatsword, the game is at its most compelling. The puzzles, visuals, world, and characters are what kept me enthralled. I couldn’t be more bored when having to fight the same few foes over and over.
Hell is Us was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a code provided by Nacon. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. Hell is Us is now available for Windows PC (via STEAM), Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.
