Hell is Us: One of the most interesting games from 2025

Hell is Us may be one of the best games of 2025 that very few people play or even know much about, or at the very least one of the most interesting ones.

So what makes it so deserving of your attention?

The first reason is one of the biggest. No mission markers, no traditional map, no hand-holding. And that’s just the start, because the world this takes place in is something else entirely. It also starts to make sense once you discover that the lead on this game was the art director for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided.

Hell is Us has this fascinating setting, with very dark themes around war and its atrocities, and it really isn’t shy about really digging into some of the rough aspects that surround it – especially since the fictional location it’s set in might feel a little familiar to what you’re seeing on the news these days.

And it’s not just the concepts, but the overall vibe and visual style of the game as well.

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If you’re picking up on shades of other famous games, you’re not wrong.

It’s got this Kojima-like feel and aesthetic, especially where tech and some of the weirder concepts are concerned, and then somehow mixes it with the supernatural-like post-war vibes of a game like Stalker.

So that’s the general concept, but when it comes to what kind of game this is, you might be quite surprised.

Because despite what it looks like, this isn’t a Souls clone.

While it may look quite like a type of Souls-like, it isn’t. It’s more forgiving than that, and plays more like an action game with role-playing elements. Not only that, it’s got the kind of old-school puzzles that you’d usually only find in old PC adventure games or Japanese horror games like Slient Hill.

And as promised earlier, no hand-holding, mini-maps, beacons, highlighted objectives, or characters around you blurting out the solutions to the puzzles you’re trying to solve. Hell is Us still gives you everything you need, just not in the brain-dead way you’re used to. It encourages you to look around, investigate, talk to people, and go over the info on your datapad.

And this is where the magic really clicks.

The result of this is actually more special than I thought, because after a while I realised that I felt so engaged with the world – so in touch.

You’re noticing details, you’re learning your way around some of the large and intriguing areas, because you’re not following a marker, you’re following information.

It helps that it has stunning art direction to help your eyes know what they’re looking at, and despite it being a world full of horrors and atrocities, they’re really great looking horrors and atrocities, running smoothly at 60fps in performance mode as you battle sculpture-like enemies that feel like they belong in an art gallery as much as they do at the end of your giant sword.

And speaking of swords…

Combat, items and skill trees very much mimic what you might expect from fantasy games in this genre, except that it’s mostly tech where magic would usually be – so while it isn’t the strongest part of the experience, it’s still solid and very much serviceable.

But where the game really flexes its uniqueness is with its puzzles.

The old-school proper puzzles ask you to actually use your brain, and do a good job of rounding out gameplay that then includes a mixture of combat, exploration and investigation.

It’s when you put all of this together that Hell is Us really stands out.

Individual elements of the game have been done before, but this mix of old and new, and in some cases a cross of game mechanics that you don’t usually see together, is what makes this so unique – especially when combined with an approach that keeps you so focused on the world and your surroundings.

Add a fascinating setting, visual style and dark theme, and Hell is Us really is something that I feel the need to tell more people about.

And yet, here’s the problem.

With the current state of gaming, where game releases are abundant, and everyone has a backlog the size of Mount Everest, I fear that Hell is Us is really going to go under the radar of many people who might really appreciate what it is.

I also get it, not only are there a gajillion games, but games are expensive and you don’t exactly need to run out to buy a new one right now.

But trust me, this is one to keep on your radar.

So what I will say is that I want you to keep your eye out for it, whether it goes on sale, on a subscription service in future… or maybe when you’re eventually just looking for something to play. And if you didn’t know, there’s a demo available that you can try for yourself.

Make sure you look into this, because I think Hell is Us deserves your (and our) support.

It’s doing a lot of what us gamers have been asking for. The developers at Rogue Factor have listened, so it would be a shame if we left them hanging.