One of your first questions regarding Hell is Us may be: Is it a soulsike? Well no, it's not. It's a soulsish. It has a dark and powerful atmosphere, healing items are rare, you need to work hard to fully unravel the story, and combat usually means going toe-to-toe with unnerving enemies through a combination of melee weapons, blocks, parries, special abilities, and nervousness. However, death is not a part of the fundamental gameplay loop here. It is – get this – something that you're encouraged to view as undesirable rather than inevitable.
Prominent in the marketing for Hell is Us has been the lack of hand-holding. There are no waypoints, no interactive maps, and you'll never even be given any kind of explicit instruction. This is all explained and justified rather neatly by the premise. Your character, Remi, was smuggled out of the war-torn country of Hadea when he was just five years old. He sneaks back in as an adult as a military deserter with nothing more than the name of his birthplace, his father's occupation, and a mysterious necklace. Of course he doesn't know where anything is or how to get there.
