Montreal-based Rogue Factor’s upcoming action-adventure Hell Is Us came to me in bits and pieces.
When I first saw the title revealed back in September last year during Sony’s State of Play, like many others, the things that caught my eye were the beautifully eerie atmosphere, the protagonist walking (very) deliberately therein, and the sense of mystery around it. The latter was something I felt both in terms of how mysterious the world looked, but also in a sense of how little it gave away as to what it was all about. An intriguing prospect, but one that was quickly relegated to the back of my mind over the coming months.
It came up again a couple of times in conversations with friends over the past couple of months as we would scan the horizon for new releases, but it was only recently when the developers began to talk about it a little more that a few things caught my attention. First, was the fact that this was not to be a Soulslike title (even if it shares some characteristics of the same); so even if we didn’t quite know what it was, there were hints to what it was not. Next was the fact that the game’s creative director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête had previously served as the art director for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and its sequel, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. A rather solid foundation to go on.
But perhaps most importantly (at least for me), it was Jacques-Belletête’s mention of the inspiration behind the title in an interview — Jeff VanderMeer’s weird sci-fi horror, the Southern Reach Series. A trilogy of books (all three published in 2014) until recently, when a new one was added to it just last year, it’s been one of my favourites (for the most part) for many a year. Many would be perhaps more familiar with its first part, Annihilation, which was adapted into a (rather good) film by none other than Alex Garland, starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Oscar Isaac.
The pieces had finally fallen into place, and to top it all, a demo for the game was live. If the Southern Reach connection had me curious, the opening splash screen of said demo had my attention.
But before we go any further — which won’t be much because it’s a short demo — a few things to note: Demos are inherently designed to put the game’s best foot forward. The idea is to not only give the player a sense of what to expect from the title, but also show it in its best light. Pretty basic, right? The issue arises when the rest doesn’t quite match up to the uber-polished trial bits. In so many words — a demo is hardly a benchmark to pass any judgements on the still-unreleased final product. So with our sceptical hats on and a fistful of salt in hand, what have we got here?
You play as Rémi, a United Nations (ON here, instead of UN) peacekeeper, who abandons his post and ventures into the isolated country of Hadea to find his parents, only to discover that the region is ravaged by a civil war and infested with supernatural beings following a mysterious calamity.
After a short exposition dump, you begin your journey through a dense forest in this semi-open world, but quickly the promise of that opening splash screen seems to be fading. Maybe it’s the nature of the demo, but a clear path is laid out rather plainly for the player to follow as you run into your first NPC. The game is built around a system of investigation and “datum”, which basically translates to information or data, found around the world in many forms, from letters to artifacts. The more datum you have, the better you can converse with the NPCs and further your investigation. Pretty standard affair. But while the game doesn’t reinvent the conversational wheel, it makes it one of its centrepieces. And it works reasonably well given how little you, the player, know about this strange world.
A run-in with another NPC and a fetch quest later, you are introduced to the other side of the proceedings — puzzle-solving, melee combat and of course, the supernatural. The demo (which one can safely assume doubles as the tutorial in the full game) only trusts you with a couple of pedestrian (environmental) puzzles, and when it comes to the combat, while you are taught a number of offensive and defensive manoeuvres, some hack and slash does the job just as well. Apart from a standard health bar, you have one with stamina which, not unlike Soulslike games, depletes with each move you make and needs active management. But unlike those games, you can regenerate your health infinitely(?) if you time a button-press right, and the enemies you have killed already do not respawn if you die. And did I mention you have a drone that follows you around and helps you take on adversaries?
You also have a Fallout-esque designed tablet which works as a hub for managing everything from your investigation, gear, inventory and drone. And speaking of design… well, it’s a mixed bag. There is a lot drawn from a variety of sources, whether that’s The Legend of Zelda or the aforementioned Annihilation, with hints of Death Stranding and Soulslike games, and while various elements look interesting enough in isolation, they don’t always gel together.
The demo introduces only one kind of creature (and a couple of variations of the same), and even in a short interval things begin to get repetitive and a bit dull. For a demo, it lacks a bit of polish, which is a little concerning. But having said all that, when you put it all together, there is a weirdly undeniable appeal to it, much like the secrets of Southern Reach. While it’s rough around the edges, you still feel compelled to keep going with an almost urgent urge to find out what’s behind the next door, to uncover the world’s mysteries and figure out what the eff is going on? And that’s exactly where a game like this wants you to be.
It’s been a year of unexpected titles swinging hard, and Hell Is Us just might be the next in line. Or will it be a case of too many cooks with their broad strokes in design and concepts? We’ll find out on September 4.
Demo played on PlayStation 5
All images via screen grabs from the game
