Hell Is Us: Gameplay Systems Explained (Is It a Soulslike?)

Hell Is Us has released to advanced access via its Deluxe Edition, and boy is the game full of surprises. For one, it's proving to be remarkably scalable and performant across a wide range of machines both slow and fast, but it's also handling its subject matter incredibly well. We'll get to the game's lore in due time, of course, but in the interim, there's the issue of what kind of game this is, to begin with. Specifically, due to the way it's structured, Hell Is Us certainly seems like a proper Soulslike at a glance, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

Confused yet? Don't be! It's actually all rather simple: Hell Is Us defies expectations in most ways, and its gameplay and progression loops absolutely fall under that same umbrella. Let us explain!

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Is Hell Is Us a Soulslike?

Though you absolutely can crank the difficulty in Hell Is Us to make things tough on yourself, the game doesn't force you into a challenging combat loop in the same way as a modern Soulslike might. In fact, if you wanted an Elden Ring type of experience, we're sorry to report that you won't get it in Hell Is Us.

Instead, Hell Is Us can be every bit as easy or, indeed, difficult as you want it to be. Tucked into its settings menu is a highly scalable enemy health and damage output option, and you can even disable the vast majority of respawning enemies and/or any loss of items and currency upon death. That's not very Soulslike of it, is it now?

Here are the key gameplay differences between a true Soulslike and Hell Is Us, summarized:

• No "Souls"- type resource to hoard and stock up on.
• Almost entirely free-form exploration and progression.
• A fairly simple and straightforward combat system.
• Heavier focus on character progression and dialogue, with heaps of puzzle-solving.
• Easy respawn systems, with the ability to permanently remove enemies from a given region.
• Few unique enemies and weapon types.

There's more, of course, but that's the gist of it. Hell Is Us is absolutely its own thing, rather than being yet another in a long line of Soulslike retreads. This means not everyone's going to be keen on what it's got to offer, but that's okay. Hell Is Us is for you if you enjoy New Weird games (and this might be strongest contender in the niche yet, believe it or not) such as Control, and if you're extremely interested in its narrative and anti-war themes. There's lots to like here, but Hell Is Us ain't no Soulslike.

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