So today Valve sends me an email; apparently a game on my wishlist is
on sale. I click through and find that, indeed, a game called "Hell Is
Us" is on discount, and at fairly decent 60% off too. I briefly look
over its store page: it's got a horror them and some nice visuals, and
I go so far as to add it to my cart before I stop and ask myself:
"Wait a second, what the heck is this game anyway?" Because I can't
remember a damn thing about it or why it initially looked attractive
enough to me to add it to my wishlist in the first place.
So I do a bit more reading on the store page, and the main thing I get
from there is that "Hell Is Us" doesn't feature an in-game map. An
intriguing idea but not really anything that makes me want to buy the
game (I /like/ maps!). So next I watch an hour's worth of somebody
doing a Long-Play of the game on YouTube, and am equally bemused by
what attracted me to the game. It's not that "Hell Is Us" looks bad,
but it seems to be an odd mix of "Dark Souls" and "Resident Evil"; I
don't dislike either game but neither am I so beloved of either title
that this would get a game added to the wish-list.
So the TL;DR is: why did this game catch my eye? I have no idea.
Was it in the news recently? Is it developed by somebody who's made
other games I've enjoyed? Is there something special about its
gameplay? Is it single-handedly funding the Ukrainian war? Did
somebody here recommend it?
Has anyone played "Hell Is Us"? Has anyone heard anything about this
game? Should I buy it? It's not that I'm opposed to owning/playing
this game, but even at its 60% discount it seems a bit pricey for a
game that I don't understand why it looked cool to me in the first
place. Should I just let it pass or should I grab it quickly before it
goes up in price?
On mine too. I have no idea why I added it either :-) But I keep
looking at it.
On mine too. I have no idea why I added it either :-) But I keepOh good, it's not just me. ;-)
looking at it.
On Fri, 15 May 2026 11:43:52 -0600, PW <noneused@noneused.net> said
this thing:
On mine too. I have no idea why I added it either :-) But I keep
looking at it.
Oh good, it's not just me. ;-)
I assume it appeared in the news some time ago (apparently I added it
to my wishlist back in September?) which is why it attracted notice.
The game itself doesn't look too bad, but it's not really in a genre I
enjoy. Watching that YouTube longplay, if anything it reminded me of
"The Callisto Protocol". Not because of its mechanics or setting, but
because it felt like a generic take-off of a better known game. In
"Callisto Protocol's" case, it imitated "Dead Space". With "Hell Is
Us", it was "Dark Souls". In both cases, the games were good but not
great, lacking that level of polish and originality that make for a
classic.
I'd still grab "Hell Is Us" and even give it a try... but even with a
60% discount, it's a bit more than I'd like to pay for a game that's
not really in a genre I favor. So it will stay in my wishlist for a
while longer, I guess.
In addition to tons of puzzles (which is the main reason I am quitting >playing Crimson Desert - non-stop puzzles with lousy dialog and
desrriptions of what to do - no doubt a translation issue), terrible
controls (dittoes for CD), this review is making me not buy it (I only
copied and pasted part of it). CD is really just puzzle game.
On Sat, 16 May 2026 11:02:35 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, 15 May 2026 11:43:52 -0600, PW <noneused@noneused.net> said
this thing:
On mine too. I have no idea why I added it either :-) But I keep
looking at it.
Oh good, it's not just me. ;-)
I assume it appeared in the news some time ago (apparently I added it
to my wishlist back in September?) which is why it attracted notice.
The game itself doesn't look too bad, but it's not really in a genre I
enjoy. Watching that YouTube longplay, if anything it reminded me of
"The Callisto Protocol". Not because of its mechanics or setting, but
because it felt like a generic take-off of a better known game. In
"Callisto Protocol's" case, it imitated "Dead Space". With "Hell Is
Us", it was "Dark Souls". In both cases, the games were good but not
great, lacking that level of polish and originality that make for a
classic.
I'd still grab "Hell Is Us" and even give it a try... but even with a
60% discount, it's a bit more than I'd like to pay for a game that's
not really in a genre I favor. So it will stay in my wishlist for a
while longer, I guess.
In addition to tons of puzzles (which is the main reason I am quitting playing Crimson Desert - non-stop puzzles with lousy dialog and
desrriptions of what to do - no doubt a translation issue), terrible
controls (dittoes for CD), this review is making me not buy it (I only
copied and pasted part of it). CD is really just puzzle game.
"
Not Recommended
11.1 hrs on record (10.5 hrs at review time)
POSTED: MAY 4
"Low effort" the game, it is filled with time wasting for no reason.
The perfect moment to explain this is when, you climb a ladder, then
another, you reach a locked gate, you sigh and go back down the
ladders, run a bit further down the original passage, come across
another bigger ladder, you sigh, climb the ladder there is another
gate, this one has a lever, you pull it, the gate opens to nothing but
a long drop, you SIGH AGAIN, you go back down the ??????? ladder, you
look up, the lever has also opened the original gate as well, FINALLY
you found the way, you climb the two ladders you run through the gate,
there is an item, its just another damn healing item, the path ahead
loops around to a small drop back on the original path.
This game is full of this garbage time wasting design"
-pw
On Sat, 16 May 2026 19:01:28 -0600, PW <noneused@noneused.net> said
this thing:
In addition to tons of puzzles (which is the main reason I am quitting >>playing Crimson Desert - non-stop puzzles with lousy dialog and >>desrriptions of what to do - no doubt a translation issue), terrible >>controls (dittoes for CD), this review is making me not buy it (I only >>copied and pasted part of it). CD is really just puzzle game.
Yeah, that's why I called "Hell Is Us" a cross between a Souls-game
and Resident Evil. The puzzle elements are very obviously cribbed from
the gating in Capcom's seminal series. While I myself am not overly
fond of the mechanic, neither am I quite as down on them as the quoted >reviewer (or yourself). It's one of the things that sets "Hell Is Us"
apart from other Souls-games.
The puzzles are also used to help expand the game's setting, as they
infodump history and world-detail on you through their mechanics and
style. They aren't just there to gate the different parts of the game;
the puzzles are intrinsic to the story-telling. Since the combat
gameplay is fairly humdrum (many say the reason to play the game is
for the story and world-building), this gives those puzzles an
outsized importance to the game.
Is it a good way of developing a game? That's debatable. Certainly
people more interested in the combat would find the puzzles (and,
indeed, the story) a less enjoyable part of the experience. But it one
of the things that gives "Hell Is Us" its own unique character.
Without them, the game would just be a fairly unexciting souls-clone,
I think.
On Sun, 17 May 2026 11:12:56 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson ><spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
On Sat, 16 May 2026 19:01:28 -0600, PW <noneused@noneused.net> said
this thing:
In addition to tons of puzzles (which is the main reason I am quitting >>>playing Crimson Desert - non-stop puzzles with lousy dialog and >>>desrriptions of what to do - no doubt a translation issue), terrible >>>controls (dittoes for CD), this review is making me not buy it (I only >>>copied and pasted part of it). CD is really just puzzle game.
Yeah, that's why I called "Hell Is Us" a cross between a Souls-game
and Resident Evil. The puzzle elements are very obviously cribbed from
the gating in Capcom's seminal series. While I myself am not overly
fond of the mechanic, neither am I quite as down on them as the quoted >>reviewer (or yourself). It's one of the things that sets "Hell Is Us"
apart from other Souls-games.
The puzzles are also used to help expand the game's setting, as they >>infodump history and world-detail on you through their mechanics and
style. They aren't just there to gate the different parts of the game;
the puzzles are intrinsic to the story-telling. Since the combat
gameplay is fairly humdrum (many say the reason to play the game is
for the story and world-building), this gives those puzzles an
outsized importance to the game.
Is it a good way of developing a game? That's debatable. Certainly
people more interested in the combat would find the puzzles (and,
indeed, the story) a less enjoyable part of the experience. But it one
of the things that gives "Hell Is Us" its own unique character.
Without them, the game would just be a fairly unexciting souls-clone,
I think.
*--
Well, I think you should buy it and let us know how it actually is,
before the sale is over please!
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