Hell Is Us Explained – Inspirations, Innovations, and Imperfections

We love New Weird and Weird in general here at 2Game. This specific niche of speculative fiction prides itself on its insistence not to explain everything away, relying instead on vibes and existential horror to sometimes nudge the story forward. Control, for example, is a Weird game, and so is Alan Wake 2 just to tick off that mandatory Remedyverse namedrop. And hey, it turns out that the upcoming horror Soulslike Hell Is Us fits into that niche as well!

As sources report, Hell Is Us has actually been directly inspired by one of the genre greats! Jeff Vandermeer, whose Annihilation/Area X serves as a kind of a lighthouse (ha-ha) for New Weird and Weird at large, and Hell Is Us specifically wishes to tackle "inner chaos as much as external threats," as the Creative Director creative director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête puts it.

Obviously, Hell Is Us is paving its own path forward in the Weird niche, and in many ways it sits in stark contrast with Area X's environmentalist slant. Yet, the fact that Jacques-Belletête specifically singled out such a prominent example of Weird is very telling, and today we'd like to discuss what exactly does that mean.

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Where does Hell Is Us draw inspiration from?

Abject weirdness and grim, looming distress are two crucial aspects of Weird, in a broad enough sense. Often a total subversion of the classic, standardized science-fiction genre, Weird is often described as a mode of literature rather than a genre, as it can take a frankly ridiculous range of shapes, forms, and ideas. This is what makes Weird such an interesting option for horror media, and why Hell Is Us, in particular, sits firmly in the niche as well.

Hell Is Us is a game about warfare and war crimes, on the face of things. Taking place in the country of Hadea following a mysterious Calamity, players take control over an AWOL UN peace-keeper, Rémi, who wants to find his missing parents. This task quickly complicates as Rémi discovers strange Hollow Walker creatures roaming the landscape. The tricky bit about Hollow Walkers is that they seems to be entirely impervious to ranged weapon damage, forcing Rémi to jump headfirst into melee combat with what are, from the look of it, literal eldritch horrors.

All of this is to say that Hell Is Us doesn't follow real-world logic. Instead, it's more along the lines of magical realism and whatnot, where dream logic often takes over to make an effect, statement, or underline a particular aspect of the grander atmosphere. We're going to be really surprised if Hell Is Us ends up explaining all of its lore right off the bat, because the best of New Weird has players asking questions still, even after all is said and done.

To get a good sense of what Hell Is Us is going to feel like, we recommend playing through Alan Wake 2, Control, Death Stranding, Disco Elysium, and Returnal, just to list a few! Darkwood, too, seems to have been a major inspiration, and let's not forget about the phenomenal mood delivered by STALKER and STALKER 2 titles, either.

What genre is Hell Is Us?

Setting sheer vibes aside for a little bit, you're probably wondering what kind of game Hell Is Us actually is, both in regard to its content and in regard to its mechanics. That, at least, is easy! Hell Is Us is supposed to be an honest-to-goodness horror Soulslike with puzzle and adventure game mechanics, which means it's going to try to do a fair bit more than we're used to out of this niche.

In fact, if you're even remotely interested in Hell Is Us - be it because of its premise or because of its gameplay - we recommend giving the official Steam demo a fair shake. This is a rather excellent vertical slice of the full experience, which is due to release on September 4 of this year. Should give you plenty to think about as we approach the official release window!

Do stay tuned for more Hell Is Us content, too. We're only just kicking off our official coverage of the game, and you can expect both pre- and post-release guides accordingly.

Pre-order Hell Is Us via 2Game today to score unique early bird goodies!