"In this manner of willful bewilderment, Hell Is Us evokes Hidetaka Miyazaki's constellation of soulsborne hits. Like those games, notably Elden Ring, here beckons a world of esoteric symbols, puzzles, and inscrutably complex history. Combat also apes the cadence of quintessential Miyazaki titles: stamina drains with each thunderous strike, recuperating only in moments of panicked or planned retreat. Yet that's where the FromSoftware comparisons end."
"The opening hours of Hell Is Us are brilliantly confusing. The game tasks you with getting up to speed on a complicated civil war between the Palomists and Sabinians. A deluge of proper nouns is unleashed: Lymbic weaponry, Guardian Detectors, and more. But the clearest way the game communicates that you should feel utterly dumbfounded is through the cryptic stone panels scattered amid its ravaged, Eastern Europe-coded setting; you're unable to actually read the text engraved in these tablets."
Hell Is Us opens with deliberately confounding worldbuilding centered on a civil war between the Palomists and Sabinians, filled with unfamiliar terms and unreadable stone panels. The setting evokes a ravaged, Eastern Europe-coded landscape that includes a dank forest and a fetid bog. Combat follows a soulslike rhythm with stamina management that punishes reckless strikes. Investigation plays a central role through a chunky retrofuturistic datapad, in-game encyclopedia entries, and spider-diagram leads. The game blends melee action with detective work and complex puzzles. The overall experience is uneven, combining inspired design moments with confusing exposition and pacing issues.
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