New soulslike open-world game Hell is Us wants to make dungeons memorable again

I first got to play Hell is Us at Gamescom last year and was immediately drawn into its blend of Stalker's wartorn, apocalyptic European aesthetics and Death Stranding style sci-fi. As immediately imposing as the talk of 'player plattering' and a hands-off approach to progression is, you quickly realize that developer Rogue Factor is just playing in the grounds of games like Elden Ring and Dark Souls. Nevertheless, that's clearly a popular format right now, and a new preview gives us a fresh glimpse into one of its most interesting aspects, the dungeons.

While Elden Ring is unquestionably one of the best open-world games in recent years, Fromsoftware makes some concessions to help players along. Rogue Factor wants you to take the lead in Hell is Us, keeping hand holding to an absolute minimum and offering you just a simple record of how the information you've collected so far ties together. While the overworld is naturally more open-ended, however, its dungeons promise to offer more classic-style challenges, putting your skills with soulslikes and your ability to think to the test across weaving networks akin to those seen in Elden Ring's tombs or Bloodborne's chalices.

"We didn't design these dungeons as mere set pieces," creative director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête explains, "we built them like old-school videogame challenges: tight, crafted, deliberate. Every corner, every obstacle, every encounter is there for a reason." It's a sentiment I certainly felt in action during the opening hours, navigating my way through tight spaces and making careful use of my drone's abilities to keep any potential assailants where I was best able to take them on.

"If you miss the days where exploring a dungeon was memorable, this is for you." While I'll caveat that my memory is usually quite good, I still remember fairly intricate details about both the underground network I explored and the winding forest before it, almost a full year on, while I have to refresh Bloodborne's chalice dungeons in my mind with each replay. So far, Rogue Factor appears to be achieving its goals.

"Each dungeon has its own identity, its own history," Jacques-Belletête continues. "We wanted them to feel alive and wonderful to discover; the kind of places that leave an impression even after you have left." Expect plenty of puzzles that require you to understand the location and its environments, and encourage you to observe, prod, and experiment. The team is eager to have you fail, then "come back with a fresh idea that will solve it all."

"When it clicks, that's when you will feel it - that little rush," Jacques-Belletête whispers. "Not because the game told you what to do, but because you figured it out on your own. That's what we're after." Of course, you'll also have plenty of enemies to deal with. "Some of the fights you will face might stick with you; not because they are brutally hard, that's not the kind of game we're making, but because they hit differently. They happen at the right moment, at the right place, and they carry weight in your journey."

Hell is Us launches Thursday September 4. The deluxe edition also includes three days of early access ahead of the full release. You can preorder it now or add it to your Steam wishlist. The trailer once again leaves off with a final tease, a warping, spiked anomaly, and I'm once again eager to pick up the controls myself.

If you're eager to discover Rogue Factor's world for yourself, be sure to check the Hell is Us system requirements to make sure you're ready for day one. Until then, take a look through the best action games in 2025.

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