Since its initial reveal, Hell is Us has always had a hold on me. Built around exploration that doesn’t hold the player’s hand. It takes the discovery aspect of point-and-click adventure games and adds an action-based combat system to create the type of game I’ve always wanted. With a world full of characters and hidden items that help push the player towards discovering secrets that another player could easily miss, developer Rogue Factor looks to create a living world worth exploring.

Just because I’m excited doesn’t mean there still aren’t a few red flags to look out for. I remember the questions people had when the game was first revealed. Is it a Souls-like game? Is it a Kojima-inspired game? BREATH OF THE WILD?! With so many inspirations, it makes you wonder if the game will be able to find its own personality. It’s like that expression, “too many cooks.” If Kojima comes into the kitchen and starts making a soup, more than likely that soup is going to be delicious, but if Hidetaka Miyazaki comes in and decides he’d rather have a banana split, well, now we’ve got a confused dish. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a classic banana soup, but not everyone is…

Thankfully, I’ve got three great reviews to help guide us towards knowing if Hell is Us is a gift from heaven or a trip straight to hell… or a bowl of banana soup.

Review Round-Up:

Hell is Us is equal parts intriguing and frustrating, with some impressive design choices that force you to think and plan your path through Hadea. The idea behind player-pattering is refreshing in a time where many games leave the sense of mystery out of their plans from the beginning, and the combat forces you to think about how to deal with wildly unpredictable enemies that feel and sound like they’re from another world. In the nearly 50 hours you’ll spend in this meticulously planned-out world, there’s very little filler to worry about, with some often engaging stories dealing with a great mix of very real scenarios of civil war mixed with some impressive, ethereal, otherworldly dangers. – Bobby Pashalidis, Console Creatures.

It’s rare for a game to feel this confident in its design. Rarer still for it to be this successful at executing it. Hell is Us trusts its players in ways most games don’t. Especially one with such a small team that does everything in-house. It believes that ambiguity can be beautiful. That pain can be instructive. That silence can say more than exposition ever could.

And maybe more importantly, it believes that every player should walk a different path. That some secrets will only be found when players start talking to each other, piecing things together long after the credits roll. Not because the game told them to. But because it meant something. – Adrian Ruiz, But Why Tho?

Last but certainly not least, if you liked what you’ve read and watched, then, by all means, head on over to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Marketplace, or Steam to pick up Hell is Us. All you need to do is click the image below, and you will be taken to the store of your choosing. Also, I lied. One final, final thing, thank you for checking out the site. If you like this type of content, the Thinks of a Thoughter Games Release Radar will be doing this for every interesting game released this year.