Hell is Us

I'm sorry, I really tried to get into this and I thought the negative reviewers were just being silly... but damn it's true the combat in this game drags it down to levels of just about unplayable. Which is a damn shame because the writing, graphics and everything just look incredible. But I feel so unbelievably frustrated. And I get this game is meant to be hands off... but like you need to introduce the world better. You start out and are constantly going "wtf is going on?!". I love the hands off approach.. but like you need to first of all set us up for the world. Instead of completely fumbling in the dark for a light switch. So sadly I don't recommend this. Maybe i'll try it another time, but for now... it's such a shame because the world and story look so interesting!

combat is awful

A história, a estética, tudo é maravilhoso, exceto a exploração e a quantidade de puzzles. Exageraram na quantidade e a exploração é cansativa e complicada demais

Игра супер. Атмосферная. Местами приходится думать и абсолютно всё читать. Начинать сразу можно на максимальной сложности, мобы очень слабые, да и разновидностей немного. Вся суть в исследовании, решение головоломок, поиске подсказок. Местами приходится думать и абсолютно всё читать.

Many Souls-like games focus on combat and bosses. Hell is Us has serviceable enough combat and barely any bosses. However, it remembers the other part of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls games that made them so unique and enjoyable: exploration, mysteries and secrets. Really, exploring Hadea, uncovering secrets and piecing together the history and truth of places and their people is the best part of the game. At the beginning there is a message warning you there is no map or typical handholding, and it is true. You could easily miss out of interesting finds because you ran past a corner, weren't paying attention to the environment, or didn't help an NPC in time and now he's dead. There is also an extra satisfaction from uncovering the lore and helping people you meet on your journey. The game also tackles some very heavy and serious topics, but unlike most that try to do so and end up reveling in graphical details of violent acts bordering on pornographic, Hell is Us does it with maturity that is so rare in videogames. It also refrains from taking sides and making clear moral judgements or forcing the worldview on the player. Instead, they focus on how screwed the whole situation is, how different people act and change in the face of tragedy, how old conflicts could be reignited and spiral into insanity, and how humanity keeps being the architect of its own demise. It is a shame the game's ending was so abrupt and seemingly rushed; it felt like there should be at least one more story act to give a satisfying closure to Remi and his quest.

For me this was an amazing game and experience. I was reluctant for a long while and did not buy it or (once I had it) actually start it. The reviews and comments made it seem like a vastly confusing game with serious gameplay flaws. Then, two weeks ago, I finally decided to just give it a try and see for myself. At least for an hour, so I could decide on whether to continue or not. And the game initially tried its hardest to persuade me not to play it. With most graphics settings, the game just hard crashed in the intro or after taking a few steps in the world. I am playing on Linux with an NVIDIA graphics card, so I figured it is just "one of those games" and put it away. The next few days I tinkered a little bit and tried, until I find the settings that were stable: everything on "high", no DLSS and no other shenanigans. And honestly, the game still looks pretty and with smooth framerates even at 4K, I got over not playing with "ultra" settings pretty quickly, because... The atmosphere, the music, the vibe, the mystery -- damn, this was so perfect from the get go. The first few areas introduced everything, from the mechanics, the civil war setting, the entities, the combat, the timeloops, and all that time, the atmosphere was dragging me deeper and deeper into the game. I found the lack of a map and the iconeritis of AAA open world games refreshing and enticing. Rather than focusing my attention on 1/20th of the screen and walking from icon to icon, I explored freely, even took some notes and immersed myself fully. [i]Gothic[/i] does not have a map (well, it did, but not a good one). [i]Dark Souls[/i] does not have a map. I even played [i]Witcher 3[/i] on its hardest difficulty without the radar, just to learn the places and help the immersion and exploration. So [i]Hell Is Us[/i] did not, in fact, seem confusing at all. On the contrary, I found the level design to be excellent overall, with all areas bringing something unique and being full of nooks and crannies with something to find. Of the ~28 hours of my playthrough, at least half of it was spent exploring places without following the main story. Combat is functional. This is not [i]Dark Souls[/i]. It does not want to be [i]Dark Souls[/i], even if elements of the gameplay and combat are obviously inspired by it. [i]Hell Is Us[/i], first and foremost, wants to tell a story and for the player to experience its atmosphere and its all-too-real, grim side stories about the atrocities in war ("hell is us", get it?). So combat and enemy variety are not the focus. Despite that, I was never bored of combat at any point. I figured out a strong combination of weapons and gadgets quite early on, then by the midpoint I was a tank with a power fantasy and even until the very late game, most enemy encounters were me just "Havel'ing" my way through enemy after enemy, any damage taken rerouted into damage or healing. I think there are other ways to play the game, more agile, more gadget-focused, etc. But I was not looking for combat variety, I was fine with being efficient and roleplaying as a walking weapon that eradicates all the entities (even got the rarest achievement, woohoo!). It was fun. It is not revolutionary combat by any stretch of the imagination, but it is fun and perfectly fine for this type of game. At last, the story and characters. I found the side quests and NPCs mostly interesting and "enjoyed" talking to them. I did not enjoy what these characters went through. Current world events are as grim as I can imagine in my 45 years alive, and [i]Hell Is Us[/i] pulls absolutely no punches showing or implicating what war and raging people can do to each other. Mild spoiler warning, but it needs to be said: This game contains mention, strong implication or visual evidence of torture, child deaths, rape, mass murder and worse atrocities. The otherworldly entities may look and sound alien and monstrous, but the real terror comes from seeing what humans have done (both in distant past and current events of the story) to each other. You cannot take sides in the civil war and you don't want to. I am a hopeless idealist, so mentally I side with the innocent and the weak 100% of the time, but aside from a few "good deeds" you cannot change or impact the war. You cannot fight or attack humans, even the vilest of scum that you know have just raped or murdered. The game does not want you to take sides, it wants to show you that both sides have the full range of characters: from innocent victim to evil piece of ♥♥♥♥. No, your job is to understand, fight and stop the otherworldly threat, as that will, hopefully, bring at least some peace to a country with a bloody history that rivals real-world situations in complexity. Suffice it to say, this part of the game is hard to stomach at times, at least for naive, empathetic little goody-two-shoes like me. So, after 28 hours, what is my verdict? I think this is a masterpiece. I don't really anticipate me wanting to replay it anytime soon or likely ever, but that's alright. Not every game needs to be replayed. Sometimes you can just be amazed and happy that you have experienced a game and [i]Hell Is Us[/i] is one of those for me.

Первый раз играл в игру подобного рода, зацепил визуал и сюжетная составляющая [h3]Общее впечатление[/h3] В целом игра очень атмосферная, она буквально с самого начала увлекает достаточно интригующим сюжетом, локации интересные, враги не просто болванчики, а действительно хорошие соперники, причем есть тюнинг сложности в настройках для тех, кто любит пожестче [h3]Не понравилось[/h3] Я, залетевший первый раз в игру souls like типа не знаком с жанром полноценно, соответственно от игры ждешь в этом плане разъяснений и правилах жанра и специфики местной, ибо всегда кто-то привносит что-то своё Игра хоть и подает обучающие подсказки на раннем этапе, вводит обучающие бои и прочее, но многие механики по ходу игры просто забываются, а игра не напоминает Кольца, усилители, элементы, апгрейды и прочее: забываешь какую роль они играют, приходится лезть в рюкзак, чтобы вчитаться в описание и вспомнить на что же это повлияет [b]По боёвке:[/b] та же самая история, изначально обучили, тут всё окей, но потом враги начинают делать что-то невероятно невменяемое, против чего ты даже не знаешь как выстоять, особенно на высокой сложности, часто даже об маленьких белых болванов с дыркой черепушке разбиваешься в щепки лишь потому, что как на ринге пропускаешь пару левых хуков в челюсть Как бы потом всё равно понимаешь, что они умеют и как примерно нужно защищаться от этого, но уже ценой подохшести персонажа несколько раз за файт [b]Левер дизайн и карты:[/b] очень странная система запретов и отсутствие прыжка, если последнее можно пережить, то другое местами сделано настолько странно, лишь бы не дать игроку быстро пройти из точки A в B, причем ладно бы игра ещё этот путь покрывала врагами, интересными диалогами или ещё чем-то, что занимает, но этого не просходит Ты буквально бегаешь как кобылушка в полях Казахстана, чтоб добраться от БТР до точки назначения, правда игра потом немного эволюционирует в том плане, что подвозит ближе к каким-то точка по сюжету, но все же [b]Задания и квесты:[/b] сгорел с сучьего ребенка в подвалах, игра не накладывает ограничения на время квестов, но сообщает об этом особым образом, получив задание и бабки налить в пластиковые соски немного мивка, ты идешь исследовать мир, ибо это сайд квест, как говорится, потом выполню, да, бабка говорит, шо вот он мол ОЧЕНЬ ХААНГРИИ, ну и ревет Забыл про ребенка этого, дальше отправляешься по задачам и потом вспоминаешь, что надо бы туда занести, чтоб закрыть эту ветку, но как только приходишь, бабка сидит качает труп и говорит, что оно ему больше не нужно Снести кабину ей очень хотелось, но жаль игра не позволяет Кстати, про снести кабину: в игре нет разрушений как таковых от твоего влияния, все скриптованное, то есть если перед тобой стеклянная дверь аптеки, то ты не сможешь разбить его своим двух метровых ху... мечом, ты проиграл бой стеклянной двери Местами тебе просто заваливают какой-либо проход, либо не дают перелезть перила, выбить хлипкую деревянную дверь, разбить окно, то есть ты делаешь лютые петли, потому что левел дизайнеры не придумали ничего лучше, чем вот это, местами есть дырки в стенах и ещё в чем-то, ты не можешь в них зайти просто потому что, игра считает это вполне себе резонной причиной В целом, квесты и задания типичные, сходи туда, принеси/забери/унеси/упади и прочее, но правда и тут есть своя фишечка: квесты раскиданы иногда, то есть чтобы завершить квест, тебе нужно о нём вспомнить, когда ты находишь вещицу где-либо в другой локации, игра хоть и намекает, но не всегда, поэтому чтобы раскрыть тайну, будь готов отправиться из одной локации в другую, чтоб открыть в ней сундучок с какой-нибудь безделушкой, о которой тебе в БТР расскажет местный пират Отдельно хочется высказаться про "открытый мир", его по сути нет, есть обычные средние по размерам локации, которые ограничены нелепыми заборами или какой-то иной оградкой, которую в реальной жизни ты бы перепрыгнул, ах да, тут ты не можешь прыгать Побродить по ним ты можешь, но местами это делать негде из-за крайне небольшой площади Плюсом игра говорит, что ты волен проходить игру в том порядке, в котором хочешь, но при этом на карте есть скриптованные конструкции, где без выполнения определенного действия с персонажем или ещё чем-то, ты не сможешь ничего сделать [h3]Вывод[/h3] Игра прикольная, со своими минусами, но больше интересная, чем нет, возможно захочется от битвы с некоторыми боссами разъ***ть себе монитор, клавиатуру или мышь, но рекомендую отойти от неё на время, попить чего-либо (можно даже покрепче) и только потом возвращаться на следующую итерацию

I can recommend it because the game has a lot going for it: ✅ Graphics ✅ Creature and world design ✅ The combat system, especially the rally-style healing mechanic that rewards aggressive play, much like in Bloodborne ✅ The music and sound design. At times they're almost too good and realistic ✅ Lore BUT... it also has some absolutely infuriating moments that had me raging with the fury of a thousand suns: ❌ The story. It’s just as bad as the game’s world and visual design are cool ❌ The war sound effects trigger some seriously intense PTSD ❌ The NPC side quest system is complete ass. The items NPCs are looking for are often found in completely different locations, and by the time you stumble across them, you’ve already forgotten who even wanted them ❌ Some quests can also just break. You fail to find the required item, progress further in the main story, and then the NPC dies. The only way to discover this is by going back to them, finding their corpse, and only then does the game tell you that the quest failed. But the biggest issue is that the NPCs don’t affect anything at all. ❌ The lack of a map, quest markers, or object markers absolutely kills my motivation to do quests. I liked the idea of not having any of that, but I simply don’t have the energy to keep everything in my head when I launch the game after work. I spend 15 minutes trying to remember where I am, what I was doing, and where I’m supposed to go, while desperately resisting the urge to just close the game and uninstall it. ❌ The difficulty. I played on the default difficulty. Once you upgrade your weapon to the maximum level, regular enemies become made of cardboard. At the same time, I had absolutely no desire to increase the difficulty. I just didn’t feel like spending more time beating the ♥♥♥♥ out of the same enemies. ❌ The level design and the sphere-cleansing system are frustratingly implemented. You can go through a long, narrow tunnel all the way to a sphere, enter it, and only then discover that you don’t have the item required to close it. That means leaving the entire location, coming back later, and killing all the enemies again. One time, this demotivated me so badly that I immediately closed the game. ❌ Quest rewards are almost completely worthless. The same applies to most of the loot scattered around the world. It’s mostly just consumables. Once you find a weapon that feels comfortable, you can basically use it for the entire game. I literally used only two perks throughout my whole playthrough: the drone stun and the weapon stun. ❌ The problem with the lore is that you simply don’t need it. Yes, there’s a civil war. Yes, there’s an ancient hatred between different groups of people. Yes, it’s connected to the lore and explains what is happening. But none of it affects anything. Had I been able to choose who to help and who to abandon, with the information I gathered throughout the world influencing those decisions, then the lore would have actually mattered.