New Hell Is Us Deep Dive Shows You How The Game Refuses To Hold Your Hand

2021’s Nacon Connect event unveiled a variety of intriguing announcements, including expansions for Lovecraftian horror and RoboCop: Rogue City, but what truly caught my attention was a detailed demonstration of Hell Is Us, a creation by developer Rogue Factor. This title is set in a semi-open world environment, where players navigate a territory under attack by supernatural entities. The main appeal lies in its focus on engaging combat and exploration, as Rogue Factor intends to make the process of discovering new locations rewarding by omitting maps, compasses, and quest markers from the game.

According to Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, creative director of Hell Is Us, combat is just half of the gaming experience. The other half revolves around exploration, discovery, and the delight associated with these elements, which significantly influence your journey. Unlike most games that use quest markers or a predefined path, Hell Is Us doesn’t provide such guidance. Instead, it lets you trust your intuition, uncover clues naturally, and map out your own adventure without relying on a magical compass or a quest journal with a list of tasks to complete in a specific order.

In other words, following this method, players will have to be attentive, collect hints, and navigate the game environment on their own accord. Jacques-Belletête mentioned that this experience is intended to seem effortless, and aside from a few major secrets hidden within the game, discovering new locations should feel natural if you trust your intuition and the knowledge you’ve acquired along the way.

In contrast to many contemporary open-world games which often provide numerous systems to help players navigate their virtual worlds and avoid getting lost, this game takes a different approach. Games like Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok have faced criticism in the past for being overly guiding, but post-release updates have allowed for a substantial reduction in explicit guidance.

Hell is Us will launch for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S on September 4.

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2025-03-06 22:16