What a bizarre journey Hellraiser has taken over the last 40 years. From its book beginnings to the breakout movie to the somehow nine (!) sequels and one pretty unconvincing reboot that followed, it’s been more falling than raising for Clive Barker’s pointy baby boy. Even as a fan of the 1987 adaptation, I wouldn’t think of it first for a modern horror game tie-in, let alone one that’s brave enough to swerve the played-out asymmetric scene in favour of a narrative-driven single-player offering.
The good news is that Hellraiser: Revival is the best thing to come out of the Hellraiser IP since that first movie. The fact that it’s unflinchingly brutal and has more floppies than an IT desk in the 90s certainly helps.
Hellraiser: Revival is like eight different games in one. It’s got the ugliness of Condemned, the merchant and inventory system of Resident Evil 4, the chase sequences of Outlast, the hide-and-seek from Alien: Isolation, the soggy powers of BioShock, the body horror that you’d come to expect from the franchise, and, erm, the random crafting and repairing systems of most games of the last ten years? And, somehow, it works. Not always smoothly, but you won’t walk away from it without something to say.
The game follows Aidan Lynch after he and his partner, Sunny, mess around with the Genesis Configuration in one of the most brutal openings ever seen in a horror game. I’m not sure I can even describe what happens to her, modern advertising standards being what they are. Let’s just say Sunny is “Cheesestringed” by Pinhead and his merry gang of lovable freaks, and you’ve got to figure out how to get her back. But is it worth it?
The story here is actually quite captivating, as trope-y as some of its storytelling methods are. Lots of inner thoughts are manifested in random wall writings and there’s plenty capital-T Trauma to unpack, but I actually came to care about Aidan and his singularly focused mission. As much as he may look like the love interest from the cover of the books your mum would read post-watershed, he isn’t your typical protagonist and is quite clearly flawed beyond the point of him ever being considered even remotely heroic. Xalavier Nelson Jr. brings a lot of the same lovesick exhaustion that he did to James Savage in the absolutely wonderful El Paso, Elsewhere. Meanwhile, Doug Bradley gets another chance to shine as Pinhead, though it’s Deep Throat who actually gets the most time to make you feel a bit weird here.
If this were a horror game made ten years ago, Aidan would be just hiding in lockers from the cenobites and the screen would shake every time they came near him. The screen would probably also get very vignette-y. Luckily, we’re in a post-RE7 world, so he also has a shotgun. Oh, and an AK-47. Has anyone tried shooting Freddy and/or Jason with one of those yet? While not exactly Battlefield, Revival’s combat is pretty solid (especially because nobody ever said Hellraiser is the John Wick of horror). Heads blow all the way up and limbs go flying, with there being just enough enemy variety to keep things fun. The cultists of the Scarlet Church represent a human threat where positioning and aim are most important, whereas The Unworthy are the freakazoids against whom you just start swinging and/or blasting. The ability to slide is also objectively a bit funny, but also importantly just adds to the fun.
It’s not tactical as such, but Revival does make you think in combat quite often. Some enemies are armoured, so you have to beat them with bats in order to destroy their outerwear. Don’t think about the logic too much. You’ve also got your exploding lads that you have to deal with from a distance, your fast lads who make you feel every one of your 34 years when your crosshair travels to them in 3.5 weeks, and more nipple covers than even Madonna would know what to do with. Nothing particularly innovative, but a decent gallery of weirdos to batter for 10 hours.
What keeps things feeling a little different is the Genesis Configuration itself, which basically becomes a stand-in for plasmids. You’re able to use the dastardly, sexy cube to chuck sharp objects at enemies, throw fire, and even call upon a load of chains to rip baddies limb from limb. These powers require “Suffering,” which basically involves you jankily harvesting enemies once they’re near death. This is where Revival’s AA scale is most obvious, as enemies just go limp while looking like they’re trying to ski. Other instances of budget constraints include being chased three times by the same cenobite and having to fight the same mini-boss four times. For no real reason. It’s like Saber Interactive had to have Something before the next room, so in comes the same evil Midget Gems to flail around at you.
Apart from some repetition, it’s quite marvellous how far Saber made the budget go here, but having some truly stellar art direction helps. This is a seriously good-looking game with some of the best lighting I can remember. Everything feels like it was lifted directly from the world of Hellraiser, but Revival does have its own interesting spins on the twisted Labyrinth. Revival has some nice pacing between the puzzle-heavy Labyrinth and the combat of the real world, a little like how DOOM Eternal often had you just climbing walls for a bit of a breather. It’s never scary as such, as the game always gives you the perfect amount of resources on normal difficulty and restarting upon death is pretty forgiving, but there’s plenty of tension throughout. You never know what truly not nice imagery Saber will throw at you next. Or just how stupid twisting a little cube around will make you feel.
A game like Hellraiser: Revival would die a thousand deaths based on all the little complaints you could look for. The crafting system is a bit superfluous if not outright distracting. One of the puzzles asks you to find a key for a van so you can open its back doors and then climb through its front window…brother: just climb on top? The Big Bad is really just a bit bad. But this is a starkly gruesome horror game that might even turn the stomach of genre fans, with so much love for the source material that Halloween at that office is probably not going to be for the faint of heart — or loin.
And there isn’t a Battle Pass in sight.
A deluxe edition key was provided by PR for the purposes of this review.
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