Hellraiser: Revival drops gamers into the world of Clive Barker’s cult horror franchise, as developer Saber Interactive goals to carry a devoted Hellraiser expertise that does not maintain again on making you uncomfortable. GameSpot was in a position to go hands-on at Gamescom, and our play session with Revival positively delivered rigidity and unease, in addition to an thrilling new gameplay aspect.
Hellraiser: Revival is a first-person action-horror recreation that places you within the sneakers of Aidan Lynch, who has made the error of toying with one among Hellraiser’s iconic puzzle containers, the supernatural dice designed to open a gateway to hell. Aidan’s girlfriend is taken by Hellraiser’s Cenobites, the torture-loving demons from a hellish dimension referred to as the Labyrinth. Aidan makes a pact with Hellraiser’s most notorious Cenobite, Pinhead, with the intention to rescue his girlfriend. There is no means this deal goes to finish nicely for him.
When it comes to gameplay, Hellraiser: Revival performs equally to a conventional Resident Evil recreation, offering obstacles equivalent to locked doorways, an abundance of puzzles, and loads of creeps making an attempt to kill you. You will have entry to weapons for fight, however ammo was exhausting to come back by throughout our playthrough, whereas melee weapons have been extra considerable. Nevertheless, the developer did clarify that you do not actually battle Pinhead and the opposite Cenobites head-on; as an alternative, the threats are a mixture of tortured souls and the human fanboys of the Cenobites, whom the developer calls the Cult of the Scarlet Church.
The fight is typical for a first-person motion recreation, however the motion nonetheless feels brutal. The threats we confronted in our time with the demo have been principally the BDSM-styled human cultists, however even these customary enemy sorts felt highly effective, and it did not take many hits from them to die. The dodge button in Revival is your buddy.
Probably the most distinct a part of Aidan’s arsenal is the puzzle field. The most typical puzzle field in Hellraiser lore is the Lament Configuration, which is the dice designed to open the gateway to hell, however Saber Interactive defined the studio created a wholly new puzzle field known as the Genesis Configuration.
This new Genesis field can summon the Cenobites, nevertheless it was particularly made for a unique function that the developer did not wish to spoil. It can be utilized in fight in opposition to the enemies within the recreation, in addition to manipulate the world round you. Within the demo, we might pull gadgets like noticed blades towards us, then launch them, dismembering the enemies in our path akin to the gravity gun in Half-Life 2. The developer additionally teased that Aidan will uncover extra methods to make use of the Genesis Configuration as the sport progresses.
My favourite a part of the play session was a puzzle room the place you wanted to make use of the puzzle field to rotate components of a tunnel and create a platform with the intention to progress. This section did not have any fight, and the developer mentioned utilizing puzzles as breaks from fight is intentional, however the rigidity by no means left me even in these quieter moments.
Not less than two hours of Revival takes place within the precise Labyrinth hell dimension. There is no fight on this space of the sport, and the Genesis Configuration works as each a key a part of the story and a software for manipulating the Labyrinth.
The place Revival actually stands out is within the general aesthetics and the best way the world at all times carries rigidity. Revival options no scarcity of violence, dismemberment, and torture. Even when limbs aren’t being sawed off, the environment at all times reminds you that hell is simply across the nook. Typically, the sport forces you into closed areas, with slender interiors and tiny rooms to discover. In a single part of the demo, you are led down a hallway that transforms equally to that of PT, the teaser for the canceled Silent Hills recreation, the place it feels infinite and panic-inducing as you rush to flee.
All of the discomfort is one thing the studio did not wish to compromise on, even for the sake of scores.
“We knew how dissatisfied Hellraiser followers can be if we did compromise, so it was simply by no means actually on the desk,” defined narrative director Anthony de Fault.
Our playthrough was solely a small piece of Revival, however the providing positively captured the tone of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, and the story is canon to the franchise. That gives an additional incentive for franchise followers to test it out, however the excessive gore and rigidity supply one thing even in case you aren’t already invested in Clive Barker’s hellish nightmare world.
Hellraiser: Revival is coming simply in time for Halloween, releasing on October 8 for PC, Xbox Collection X, PlayStation 5, and Change 2.
