It isn't every day that a brand-new IP shows up in the gaming space, smashes through expectations, and then, forces you to rethink what you thought you knew about open-world games, but Rogue Factor's Hell is Us did just that for me. Hell is Us brings together the best parts of the most incredible open-world games we know, all while giving them its own unique treatment that leaves the player in a place of awe, as it did for me.

While it's a AA game built by Montreal studio Rogue Factor, Hell is Us punches significantly above its weight, with fantastic elements that have me itching for a second playthrough the same week as I finished the first one. A unique, refreshing, and frankly, necessary new game for the industry, Hell is Us has enthralled me completely with every single one of its game mechanics, and for that, I sincerely believe the game deserves a Game of The Year award nomination, at the very least.

It's a new and much-needed iteration of the open-world format

Hell is Us's Hadea is punishing, brutal, and it does not hold your hand

When it comes to its open-world map and the player's exploration of it, Hell is Us has clearly taken a page out of the Elden Ring handbook. Honestly, that's the best game to learn from, and Rogue Factor does it perfectly. The game's marketing has emphasized several times how Hell is Us is not the kind of game that 'holds your hand', and it definitely delivers on that.

The in-game country of Hadea presents vast locations, towns, and villages for you to explore, but when you reach them, you get nothing. No objective markers, no map, and no idea what to do. You must figure out your next step all by yourself, whether that comes in the form of interacting with the world around you, or talking to the NPCs you meet.

Similarly, side quests in the game aren't fetch quests or requests that NPCs make. Hadeans are a curious bunch — they'll mention something they might need in passing, and sometimes, they don't. It's up to you, the player, to gauge whether or not you could find something in this vast world to help an NPC, and in turn get rewarded for it.

This sense of being completely alone and on my own, in 2025? It was a wonderful breath of fresh air, and it's a bold design choice that has clearly worked in the game's favor. This is masterful game design, and I'm here for it.

Backtracking has never been more fun

Every square inch of Hadea is worth revisiting

Something you'll notice with a lot of open-world games (almost all of them, in fact) is how they turn old areas redundant when it's time to move on to the next. Hell is Us, however, does the exact opposite, and it achieves that by keeping you on your toes throughout. Something you come across in your first hour might eventually become a revelation by hour ten, because you've gained a lot more knowledge and resources over the course of the story.

The game does an incredible job of reminding you at every turn that you barely know a thing or two about this strange new land you're in. As such, it rewards you for being curious about anything you see or pick up, so that hours later, if something clicks, you know immediately where to go back to either unlock new rewards, items, or information about this remarkably dense and deep world that Rogue Factor has created.

It's an old-school game in the modern day

Hell is Us demands investment from you, the player

This, in my opinion, is the aspect about Hell is Us that might be make-or-break for you. See, during my entire playtime with the game, I wrote about 10 pages in my notebook, scribbling symbols, notes, and making physical reminders about what I saw that I could interact with, but either didn't understand yet, or simply didn't have the ability to get to.

Each new area in the game comes packed to the brim with ancient artifacts and structures, all of which are genuinely and impressively interwoven into the game's lore. As such, the game demands two-fold investment from you outside of merely holding the controller. First, it asks that you keep your eyes and ears open at every turn and explore every inch of Hadea, so that you may know what this country and its people need.

Secondly, it also demands this sort of pen-and-paper approach that genuinely left me feeling giddy, because the child in me who used to write cheat codes on paper felt recognized once again. It's this sense of active participation that has been so intoxicating for me, and I don't think I'd be able to recall the last time a modern game made me feel so personally invested in unraveling its mysteries.

In fact, it even demands a third kind of investment, which sort of ties into the first one. The game's puzzles are definitely intriguing and tough at the same time, and you will have to do a considerable amount of thinking the entire time to figure them out. There's no companion here to give you hints, either, and that, too, is where this game excels.

The lore in Hell is Us is incredible, and will leave you impressed

The writing team deserves more praise for crafting an incredible world

At its very best, the lore in Hell is Us reminded me of Elden Ring, again. I remember being amazed at just how incredibly dense George R.R. Martin and Hidetaka Miyazaki had made the world of Elden Ring with its ancient gods, lineages, tense sociopolitical issues, and warring factions, all of which felt so real and lent credibility to the 'realness' of The Lands Between.

So much of Elden Ring's larger story had already happened, and you only heard about it or came to learn about it through others, all while being a mere traveler in this land of gods, monsters, and men. Those are the lines along which Hell is Us treads, too. There is an incredible amount of lore to be discovered here in the country of Hadea, through NPC interactions, treasure chests, unlocking ancient structures with wall paintings and glyphs revealing more of the history of this country, and it all ties brilliantly into the modern-day plot about the war-torn country ravaged by civil tensions. When the title finally makes sense, it will be a heart-rending realization, and the narrative of Hell is Us alone deserves recognition.

None of this would've mattered had the setting itself not been immensely fascinating, making you want to know more about the ancient religions that have split this country and how they began. Thankfully, Hell is Us's in-game country of Hadea's architecture, people, and social lives, all make sure that you're never disinterested in anything that's going on.

It actually performs impressively for a modern UE5 title

I didn't even need Frame Gen for this one

There's certainly something to be said about modern titles on the Unreal Engine 5 and their optimization, or lack thereof. We've got titles like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater not being able to hit a solid 60fps without DLSS on PC on the most powerful of hardware, and even on consoles, for example.

Hell is Us, on the other hand, has been running perfectly, and to make things even sweeter, the game is gorgeous. Even at medium preset, the game looks good, with swampy marshes, mud-soaked roads and villages, and crumbling ancient structures. In fact, it also performs great on last-gen hardware, with my 4070ti giving me a stable 130fps on the Very High preset with Frame Generation on 2x. Even at Ultra with everything maxed out, the game never dipped below 105 throughout its entire runtime.

Hell is Us definitely deserves a GOTY nomination

See, it's important for Rogue Factor's new title to get a Game of the Year nomination — we know Clair Obscur is going to be on that nominee list, and that, too, is a AA game. Now, I've said before and still maintain that Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is my best bet for winning that prestigious award this year, but at the very least, Hell is Us should be on that list to let AA devs and publishers know that there's no barrier of entry to a GOTY nomination outside of merit alone.

Hell is Us deserves that nomination so it can reach more people for whom it might have gone under the radar, and it clearly has. At the time of writing this, just five days after release, the game has less than a thousand viewers on Twitch, which is an absolute shame. In a nutshell, Rogue Factor's Hell is Us is worth celebrating as one of 2025's boldest achievements.