HELL IS US (III)

in

Finished last night with a twinge of disappointment. After all the build-up, all the questing, all of the beautifully aimless wandering around ingeniously deceptively unopen open worlds, it just sort of... ended. Sure: threads were wrapped up, there was some solidly maddening end-boss combat, but it felt like only two acts of the game ended and that the third act was a quick rush through, a return with the elixir in a shotglass barely passed around. Didn't make me love the game as a game any less or dampen my desire to replay it at some point but still, damn. Remains a deeply flawed masterpiece of game art; closest I can approximate to it would be LA NOIRE, all those years ago: a ridiculously accomplished swing for the fences from gameworld luminaries that left me wanting more. Taking a break for a palette-cleansing brainless romp through something else (I really need to use that Switch 2 for more than MARIO KART WORLD and BALATRO: recs welcome) before deciding whether to go SILENT HILL F or wait another week for GHOST OF YOTEI.

HELL IS US (II)

in

For all of its beauty, frustration (controls, combat, inability to jump), and excellence, it's the emotional sucker punch of failing to do a good deed in time that hits hardest. In other games, these inevitable failures were oversights met with a shrug or mere frustration at not getting that bonus; in this, it's human, and with consequence: dead babies, lynched musicians, burnt bodies - I'm sorry I didn't find the milk in time! I'm sorry I couldn't find new sheet music! I'm sorry I didn't know what the fuck to do with those signal flares! I'm sorry I couldn't find your camp before because I couldn't figure out which part of the snake your leader was talking about...

HELL IS US (I)

Impressions at this point, maybe a quarter(?) through the game: a flawed masterpiece. Loathe the combat as it's the least interesting part of the game: this is the first time I've lowered a difficulty level to the easiest because it was getting in the way of the interesting part: uncovering and revealing the world.

Note: doing this is my first recommendation to anyone considering playing HELL IS US. That being said, "Lenient" is a bit too easy and repetitive; the midway, "Balanced," is anything but. A middle ground between the two would be most welcome if future updates don't tweak the combat. In a future replay, I might bump it to balanced since I won't be as occupied with learning the ins and outs of the world.

And it's a game definitely screaming replay: I love its mapless, goal-less, open enough world. My heartbreaking failure to get around to good deeds in time. Best level design I've seen in ages: Hadea has soul to it - not surprising, considering the main reason I bought the game new was that it's the creative director debut of DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION / MANKIND DIVIDED's art director, Jonathan Jacques-Belletete.

It may not be perfect but it is, so far, something special and new.

currently_2025jul28

in

End of summer break inbound; whereas everyday felt, for the last eight weeks, like Saturday, now they feel like Sunday. And so it goes, through the next few weeks. Things in process:

  • Final Shed transition from writing space with tools to full-on industrial art workshop. Metal and pictures and words oh my.

  • Moving rocks around nuPond. New footpath in the works for optimal gill-baby viewing.

  • Drawing little things for a zine, maybe. Words eventually, again.

  • Reading: WE ARE WATCHING, by Alison Gaylin; LOWER THAN THE ANGELS: A HISTORY OF SEX AND CHRISTIANITY, by Diarmaid MacCullough

  • Watching: PARADISE, season one.

  • LISTENING: On a BRMC binge.

  • PLAYING: ROBOCOP: ROGUE CITY replay on PS5 because my brain can handle only wanton awesomeness and occasional quirk; BALATRO and MARIO KART WORLD on the Switch 2.

  • Toying around with new metal ideas, though I might wait for the blazing heat to fuck off to work on something bigger.