After leaving Eidos Montréal in 2019, Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, artistic director on Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, joined Rogue Factor to develop Hell is Us. A seemingly classic action-adventure game, but one that actually hides more than one singularity. And it starts with its overall approach, which encourages reflection and the player's thirst for discovery instead of constantly taking them by the hand. With that alone, the title piqued our curiosity at Gamescom 2024. But now, with what we've learned from the creative and artistic director, and our hands-on experience, it has our full attention. It could well be one of the biggest video game surprises of 2025.
Returning to the basics of adventure games
Hell is Us is not intended to copy the many AAA productions of recent years, which tend to often resemble each other with gigantic, overly guided open worlds, or maps saturated with frequently redundant points of interest. "There's a certain open world fatigue, me first and foremost. So I wanted to make sure it wasn't an open world," reveals Jonathan Jacques-Belletête. The idea with this game, which is therefore a completely original license, was to offer an approach described as "Player-Plattering" by its creative director. An experience that removes traditional forms of assistance to trust the player, his ability to explore on his own, to follow his instinct by observing everything around him to progress.
" I'd been turning this over in my head for years, I was just waiting for the opportunity to put it in a game. [...] I always wanted to let the player discover what there is to do. A bit like in real life, you know, or a bit like in stories," Jonathan told us. Our interviewee notably took the example of Berserk and the unfolding of Guts' search for the God Hand, where he learns things as he goes along. "The fundamental idea was to bring back the joy of discovery and exploration. People often ask me, 'I can't figure out what your game really is. How would you describe it?' Well, it's like a good adventure game like we used to make. We created a universe, we created a mystery, there was a combat system, you went exploring. Well, basically, that's it." A good old-fashioned adventure game like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, which is one of the rare references claimed outright by the creative director. Of course, this represented a challenge for the team, which had to carry out a whole series of prototyping, but very quickly, the developers realized that they were going in the right direction.
And to return to a result similar to those adventure games of yesteryear, Rogue Factor had to make a radical decision that would make many video game industry executives sweat profusely. Here, there are no markers or quest logs detailing exactly what to do. There are obviously points of interest and secrets to discover, but they are revealed through exploration. And I admit that I was a little disoriented, especially in a context where the time to form an opinion was clearly limited. Because it's worth saying it right away, by its approach, Hell is Us requires time. If only to soak up this philosophy of not being constantly held by the hand. This may sound frustrating, but it seems to be one of the game's greatest strengths right now.
To move forward, you have to glean clues by talking to the NPCs you encounter, like the old man who tells you that you'll need a vehicle to reach a certain area, and that you'll have to follow the sound of chimes in the forest to find it. By conveying this kind of information through dialogue or natural settings, rather than through instructions or yellow paint on the environment, the studio wants to return to a more organic exploration where memory is required and note-taking is strongly recommended. You have to pay attention to everything, including the encounters you might have. Without this, the player's progress could be blocked, and it will even be possible to skip side quests. Despite our generous session, we haven't seen anything yet, but for now, it seems to be working very well. We only wanted one thing: to be at home, in peace, to discover the extent of this promise.
The universe of Hell is Us already fascinates
If Hell is Us has captivated us, and this has already been the case since a few trailers, it is thanks to what its world building, its story, its universe in general, suggest. The game takes place in the fictional country of Hadea, a sort of withdrawn state that no one normally enters or leaves, torn apart by a civil war. We play as Rémi, a peacekeeper, who was taken away from this region by his parents when he was five years old. He has thus lived most of his life being moved from one foster family to another and not always in good conditions. He then developed a trauma linked to this "abandonment," which was decided by his mother to give him the chance to have a better life, and now that he's an adult, he wants to confront his parents and learn more about his past.
Rather heavy topics and context that could almost make you think of a psychological horror game like Silent Hill. And we wanted to know more about how to approach all of this. "Is it lighter than Silent Hill? I don't know, but it's less personal. That's for sure. In a Silent Hill, it's very personal to the main character, then to the direct experience of what the player has to do, what they have to live through. We're more of a backdrop. The game takes place during the Civil War. We rub shoulders with people, we encounter the horrible events that happened, but there's not much we can do about it." Enough to leave us, once again, extremely curious. Especially since Hell is Us manages to intrigue us from the very first cutscene.
A sequence where our hero, who has returned illegally to Hadea, is grilled by a strange character who injects him with a truth serum. A protagonist who would have been right at home in Dune and who is very impressive with his character design. We don't know who he is, what his relationship to Hadea is, but the introduction puts us in the mood by distilling the right dose of mystery. And the game will not lack mystery, because the scenario will be open to interpretation.
On the main quest, we still provide good elements of understanding. But they're not all there on purpose. Throughout the game, there are a lot of pieces of the puzzle, but we probably also deliberately removed some to leave room for discussion and interpretation. I don't want to spoil too much, but we meet a very important character who follows us throughout the game. There are things we can do with him, and he ends up connecting a lot of dots. He gives us a lot of information about everything that's happening in the country. [...] We can end up elucidating a good part of the mystery, but it's always a bit of a storytelling kind of way: "Is this really it? Is this the real truth?"
To approach the theme of war, Jonathan Jacques-Belletête and Mathieu Lariviere, the main screenwriter, read a lot of books on sadly significant events like the Rwandan genocide or the Bosnian War. But there's also a cosmic horror dimension that comes along with it. "There's nothing Lovecraftian, but there's this aspect of the concept of cosmic horror, things that are probably explainable by science, but that we don't understand yet." And it's this mix that fascinates us as we write these lines. There seems to be a lot of work put into world building and artistic direction, even though we have the impression that it's "a bit all over the place."
We have the feeling of being in front of an almost "futuristic" work of science fiction, but with older references that, at times, even seem literally from another planet. And this may be the case since the country we will explore is struck by an enigmatic calamity. For example, what is this inexplicable large black ball of extraterrestrial origin in the middle of a field that bears the scars of war? I saw an element that could have put me on the right track, but I didn't go any further. What are these white creatures with gaping holes in their heads and chests that want us dead? We have lots of questions. In many ways, Hell is Us is truly captivating and makes us want to discover it. So far, it's a great promise in terms of the overall approach, the universe and the narration, but what about the gameplay? The "action" part of this action-adventure game, which represents 50% of the experience while the other 50% is devoted to exploration, is not there for show. Quite the opposite.
Demanding but non-punitive combat
Here again, the title seems to want to differentiate itself and surprised me, despite its almost obvious kinship with Soulsborne. Especially since the studio claims to be new to this field of third-person action. " We had no experience in third-person melee combat. "It had to be built from scratch, which took time. But we've wanted this for a long time, we've wanted to develop expertise in this area at Rogue Factor," Jonathan Jacques-Belletête explains to me. However, what I've experienced is much more advanced than it seems. Basically, it's classic, with different bladed weapons available to kill creatures. Each one has its advantages, for example, greater damage in exchange for a lower attack speed. Throughout the adventure, you can also insert glyphs or relics to access a whole host of active and passive skills.
We also find all the basics with simple and charged attacks, dodges, counters and a slightly unusual stamina management. Here, stamina and health are one and the same and are therefore dependent on each other. Rémi's maximum stamina will therefore be conditioned by the health level at the moment T. In addition, our character can also enter a state of exhaustion, due to a lack of sufficient stamina, which slows down his movements. You must therefore think and be constantly on the alert to avoid taking bad blows. In the event of significant damage, however, it is possible to regain health after hitting an enemy. When the blow hits its target, an explosion of white particles floats around our hero. At this point, you must press R1 at the right moment. But be careful, if you wait too long or take damage in the meantime, this health recovery window will be wiped out.
And in Hell is Us, like in a demanding game like Dark Souls and the like, you can die quickly. The creatures won't give you anything and won't fall as easily, even if the difficulty doesn't seem as high as in FromSoftware productions. This may even decrease until release, since it's a point that's still being balanced. The health-related mechanics encourage you to get into the enemies' bacon, rather than dodging, for example, and also to really use the counter, which proves particularly effective. We haven't fully grasped the rhythm yet, but parrying enemy attacks can lead to a special counter to take down the creatures in one fell swoop. When you get there, there's bound to be a sense of satisfaction, especially since you get a little animation to show off the execution.
Overall, the combat in Hell is Us is solid, and we can't wait to see the diversity of the bestiary, because the simple white creatures we see in the trailers aren't the only ones who want us dead. Some are actually connected to another entity that must first be neutralized. Until that's done, it's impossible to reduce the standard enemy's health. Each of these bizarre entities, reminiscent of certain opponents in Control, will have different behaviors, with a focus on ranged attacks, for example. The fights are therefore deeper than one might think, with good sensations, especially since a drone accompanies us for an additional dose of strategy and help.
At first, it has basic uses like distracting opponents or preventing them from attacking by holding them back, but as we progress, we can also expand the functionalities with modules. And even these lambda functionalities can be of great help, especially against enemies that are connected to another. Thanks to this, we can block the white creature to focus first on the entity that offers it a shield. It is also very useful for crowd control. The entire action part therefore seems complete enough not to disappoint fans of the genre... except those who expect to be able to customize the main character. Unfortunately, all the customization is only through weapons. During this intense session, I was also able to discover a dungeon. An underground location made up of multiple corridors, with shortcuts to unlock, enemies to eliminate, and at least one puzzle to solve. It wasn't very complicated, but it requires attention and remembering what you read, for example. Due to lack of time, I couldn't complete it, but I hope these environments will hold their share of surprises.
We're waiting for Hell is Us... as one of our biggest expectations of 2025
Even after this second hands-on, it's impossible to truly judge the potential of Hell is Us. It's a game that requires time and investment, but which should reward the player in the end. With its artistic direction that promises to be quite crazy, its cryptic universe that makes you want to be uncovered, its organic exploration, and its solid combat, Rogue Factor's title has some serious arguments to make. A surprising and promising proposition compared to the usual mass that I can't wait to discover quietly, hoping that the execution is up to par...
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