Hell is Us

Geniales Storyteling und World-Building.

Hell is Us is a great game with an incredibly immersive world. The graphics are brutal and chilling and the world building and environmental storytelling are done very well. There is a ton of lore you can stumble upon and I found myself actually reading every journal entry because I wanted to know more about what the world had to offer. The lore is deep and you can tell there was a lot of care put into the continent of Hadea. It was a very solid experience until Act III. From completing Act II, it took less than an hour to complete the final act and finish the game. The ending seemed rushed and it didn't seem like the final area had any answers to questions posed earlier in the game. The combat is pretty middle of the road. I used all of the weapons before sticking with the twin axes with terror runes, it was fun, but it did get stale after a while. The enemy variety is minimal, but I appreciate them getting new moves when moving up in tiers. It was a solid challenge on normal difficulty, but I died more times to the environment in Acasa Marshes than I did from enemies. The puzzles are tough and most of the time they're fun. I personally love the idea of no minimap and needing to memorize the areas you've already been to. Some of the smaller "good deeds" puzzles can be infuriating due to needing to find a small knick-knack and then lookout for an NPC to give it to. Most of which span different areas and it can be hours before you find the item a person is looking for depending on which order you tackle the keystones. The time loops stop being a "puzzle" once you get the item that tells you where the guardians are, and just needing a "amine prism" of the right tier to close them is anticlimactic. I would've preferred if the item you needed to close the time loop was related to the events inside, but it's just an item you collect randomly throughout the environment. All in all a solid experience that I would like to see a sequel to.