Third-person action-adventure game Hell is Us, from publisher NACON, shared its first gameplay trailer at yesterday’s PlayStation State of Play event. The open world game sees players exploring a country ravaged by civil war where supernatural entities have begun to appear. Using weapons created to combat these supernatural beings, you are charged with investigating the appearance of these entities.
The most intriguing part of Hell is Us is its approach to exploration, opting for a design approach the developers call “player-plattering”, which means that Hell is Us will not include traditional wayfinding aids like detailed maps, quest markers, or compasses. Instead, players will be asked to rely on their own intuition and deductive reasoning to progress through the story and solve environmental puzzles. You can read more about this system in a new PlayStation Blog post, but to me, it sounds like it takes cues from the immersive design of Elden Ring, at least in some sense. Speaking of cues, it’s okay, you can say it – Hell is Us appears to have a little Death Stranding in it too.
I’m keen to learn more about this one, and if you are too, NACON plans to share more about the game on September 30th over on its YouTube channel.