“Hell is Us isn’t about saving the world. It’s about finding meaning in a world that’s already broken,” said creative director Jonathan Jacques Belletete while describing the game. And I remembered this quote when I first sat down to play. Honestly, that stuck with me. And after spending a few hours in the haunting world of Hell is Us provided by the demo, I understood what he meant.
This isn’t your typical open-world action-adventure RPG. It’s moody, mysterious, and strange in all the right ways. It trusts you. It confuses you. But most importantly, it respects your curiosity. Hell is Us plays like the kind of game you boot up with no instructions and just… explore. Let’s unravel this tale together as I tell you about it all in my Hell is Us demo first impressions.
Hell Is Beautiful Kind of Bleak
Let’s get this out of the way: Hell is Us is absolutely stunning. Not in the usual, “this looks like real life” kind of way. Instead of that, the beauty is in that eerie, otherworldly, almost painterly style that makes every screenshot feel like a dream half-remembered. Well, the first thing that dropped my jaw was the water quality; coming from a debut studio, I did not expect such detail in visuals. And of course, that’s not all.
The game takes place in Hadea, a fictional Eastern European country torn apart by civil war and something much stranger. The environments mix grounded realism with cryptic ruins and otherworldly architecture. And let me be clear, there’s tons of it in every corner you turn into. Rolling hills, sleepy villages, bloodied fields, and alien dungeons blend into one bleak but captivating vision of a country crumbling under internal and external pressure.
It’s not just about pretty vistas, either. Everything in the environment seems handcrafted to tell a story or hold a secret. You won’t find hundreds of pointless collectibles or checklist-style map icons. What you will find is visual storytelling. A broken monument in the forest. A wind chime trail leading through the trees. A mysterious statue that just feels like it’s watching you.
Belletete’s background as the art director on Deus Ex: Human Revolution is clear here—every space in Hell is Us has meaning. You’re meant to look closely, follow hunches, and trust your instincts. That alone sets it apart from most open-world games today.
Exploration That Feels Like Exploration
What I love about Hell is Us is that it doesn’t tell you what to do. At all. There’s no glowing arrow pointing to your next objective. No minimap shouting “go here.” When an NPC tells you to follow wind chimes north to find a crashed APC, that’s precisely what you must do. Find north. Listen for chimes. Pay attention.
It feels bold and a little nostalgic. It reminded me of playing games as a kid before GPS-style guidance was baked into everything. That sense of figuring it out for yourself is so rare now, and Hell is Us captures it beautifully. Thankfully, you at least have a GPS to assist you.
Even when you talk to characters, they don’t just dump exposition. Conversations are investigations. You ask questions, follow leads, gather bits of info, and build out a flowchart that tracks what you know about different people, places, and mysteries. It’s a light detective system that pulls you deeper into the world rather than pulling you out with menus and prompts.
Every session involves finding a new quest for you. And sometimes, even side quests. You won’t even know when you are starting one. For example, in one of the locations, you will find a gold watch with a name engraved on it: Otis. That tiny clue opens up a breadcrumb trail of interactions that eventually spirals into a full side quest. These “Good Deeds” are peppered throughout the game, offering small, human stories in a landscape otherwise filled with chaos.
Dungeons from Another Dimension
Hell is Us is more than a massive open-world game. It has large hub areas filled with secrets, side stories, and dungeons. The dungeons are a hidden highlight, and these aren’t your typical cave-with-boss layouts. The enemy aliens look straight out of some horror movies, surreal, and often feel like you’ve stumbled into another reality. They aren’t just creepy, they haunt you with their movements and eerie way of dealing damage.
The developers have built dungeons that feel like something out of a fantasy film, especially how hidden they are as a secret across the map. These moments are rare in modern games, where “hidden” usually just means “slightly off the main path.” Here, they feel like buried treasure.
In Hell is Us, puzzles are the main focus. Some are simple, like figuring out a symbol combination on a door. Others are layered, requiring observation and memory. According to Belletete, some of the hardest ones are so complex that the studio labels them “Reddit-tier,” assuming the community will need to work together to solve them post-launch.
What’s great is that the puzzles don’t feel tacked on. They’re part of the world. The clues are visual, embedded in architecture, or hinted at through NPC dialogue. There’s very little hand-holding, and it makes each success feel earned.
Hell-ish Combat That Surprises You
Combat in Hell is Us might look Soulslike at a glance with a mash of hack-n-slash, but it’s a different beast. It’s more deliberate, more methodical, and honestly… a little weird. You’re not dodging through combos or parrying with perfect frames. You’re reading tells, committing to attacks, and making smart use of a stamina bar.
The weapons are melee-focused, which includes swords, polearms, dual axes, and each has its own flow. I gravitated toward the axes for their wild, spin-heavy attacks. There’s a rhythm to combat, and it rewards players who play patiently.
Especially the aesthetics of the axes reminded me of swinging like Kratos in God of War Ragnarok. The combat takes heavy inspiration from Elden Ring but throws it to Dante from DMC.
What really threw me was the “healing ring” system. When you land a successful hit, a white ring appears around Remi. Tap a button in that moment, and you can regain some lost health. It’s like a reverse reload mechanic from Gears of War, and it adds a fun bit of risk-reward timing in the middle of fights.
And given that all enemies are bizarre in Hell is Us, combat doesn’t need to make sense. Most enemies look like half-finished sculptures made of milk-white flesh, with missing faces or gaping holes where a body should be. Some spawn shrieking energy creatures that look like glass art brought to life. It’s unsettling in a way I didn’t expect, but it fits the game’s tone perfectly.
You also have a drone companion that feels appropriately sci-fi for a game set in a weird alternate 1990s. In combat, it distracts enemies so you can flank or regroup. Outside battle, it lights up dark places and scans objects to help with puzzles. It’s low-key, but super useful.
Hell Is Upon Some Systems
One thing that might bite the game back is its performance optimizations. While Hell is Us ran smoothly on my R5 3600 CPU + 1650 Super combo, I had to play it on medium settings for a balance of visuals and FPS. Now, keep in mind that my system is below the recommended specs. So, it should seem like an optimized game.
However, some systems with even higher specs are struggling to run the game at a decent frame rate. This might be because of the game’s demo state. I will still not criticize Hell is Us regarding performance, as the game ran fine on my average PC. But if the crash reports are true on the internet, the developers might have some puzzles on their hands to fix before the game launches.
Hell Is Us Still Lingers On My Head
By the end of my hands-on, I wasn’t rushing to see how it ended—I was already thinking about what I missed. That hidden cave. That cryptic line from a villager. That statue that felt… important. Hell is Us doesn’t grab you with bombastic set pieces or constant dopamine hits. Instead, it worms into your brain and sets up shop.
Belletete said he wants Hell is Us to be the kind of game you think about even after turning it off. From what I’ve played so far, it succeeds. It’s weird, personal, and confident in what it wants to be. You’re not saving the world—you’re uncovering truths, both about Hadea and yourself. And sometimes, that’s more than enough.
Overall, Hell is Us is shaping up to be something rare: a visually stunning action-adventure that dares to trust its players. With a unique blend of exploration, light detective work, mysterious storytelling, and tense melee combat, it carves its own path in a genre that’s often too afraid to let players get lost. In one sentence, Hell is Us is a bold, atmospheric action-adventure that blends Soulslike combat, Zelda-style exploration, and deep investigative gameplay.
If you’re tired of games holding your hand and pointing you toward the next objective, this might be your next obsession. Hell is Us launches September 4, 2025, for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. And I’m already itching to dive back in.
