Hellraiser: Revival’s gloopy sex nightmare stole my Gamescom
As I pick up the controller at my Hellraiser: Revival appointment, a few things begin to cut through the noise of Gamescom. I’m looking down the hallway of a stylish nightclub, albeit one that’s seen better days. The floors are strewn with condoms and a litany of sexual paraphernalia, while trails of blood paint a darker picture. It’s a brief respite from the Labyrinth, where Pinhead and the Cenobites wait to peel my flesh with a smile.
I can practically smell the filth and despair that wait ahead. As a developer duo with Clive Barker’s blessing, I can tell you that Saber Interactive and Boss Team Games aren’t holding back. This isn’t Hellraiser-lite. Out of all the new Switch games I tried at Gamescom this year, it’s safe to say that Hellraiser: Revival is undeniably the most twisted and outright chilling. But it isn’t just for shock tactics, and that’s where the game’s strengths really shine.
Playing as a new original character, Aidan Lynch, we’re on a mission to save his girlfriend, Sunny, from the perils of the Labyrinth. Armed with the Genesis Configuration, Lynch is coming to grips with his own personal demons in the process. Part of that process is uncovering exactly what otherworldly abilities this puzzle cube offers when leather-clad sadists are trying to plug my skin with bullets, knives, and anything else they fancy. The other side of it is a journey of finding yourself; something that narrative director Antony de Fault expresses in our post-demo chat.
“It was very liberating, and it prompts a lot of self-discovery, I think, genuinely. I think if you’re working on a new IP or something, it’s quite hard to justify the inclusion of such heavy and mature themes,” he tells me when I ask about approaching the game’s subject matter. At the heart of the Hellraiser series, there’s a more complex, cerebral side to it than just the lines between pain and pleasure.
Fault expresses that Hellraiser: Revival aims to be a “philosophical game,” which has allowed the team to be “set free” in a meaningful way. He iterates that “we’re not just trying to shock you. It was important that they all came from a position of truth. From something that was a lived experience for at least one person on the team.”
To get there, he adds that the team “had a lot of conversations, where you have to really dig deep and channel a dark part of yourself that you don’t really allow out in polite society, and definitely not in a professional context under normal circumstances.” These experiences are giving rise to impactful connections within the team, which Fault attributes to the horror genre itself.
“I very much see art generally, especially horror, as a safe place for people to explore topics and process things. That’s the function of why I think we’re motivated to spend time with horror, as if it’s like to inoculate ourselves against those things, so if we ever encounter them in our real life, we’re better prepared to handle them.”
While my demo has me engaging with action mechanics from the best Resident Evil games, it’s the crumbs of lore and focus on playing with your mind that ensnare me. One Labyrinth puzzle forces me to challenge my perspective in a literal sense, as I shift the environment around with the thumbsticks to create a path ahead.
However, the true highlight of this Hellraiser: Revival demo is when it leans on the thrills of Hideo Kojima’s ill-fated P.T. Trapped within a crueller version of Lynch’s home, it becomes a way to connect with his struggles. The thing about the Hellraiser series is that beneath the violence, human beings are trying to find some semblance of emotion through connection.
In trying to find that, the boundaries of pleasure are the crux. You can tell there are remnants of yearning and need between Aidan and Sunny in their home. Boss Team Games visualises it through framed paintings of intimate moments or sexts on Aidan’s early 2000s Nokia-inspired cellphone. These messages, while comical, dress their relationship with shades of relatability. Hellraiser: Revival revels in a personable touch in that regard. It doesn’t shame the subject matter it approaches, but helps you understand it.
Yet beyond that, this is Hellraiser after all, and the surroundings of Lynch’s path are a gloopy sex nightmare. Cenobites appear infrequently in my demo, saturating the air with fear when you least expect it. This is easily the most polished demo at this year’s Gamescom. Environments are lit impeccably, soaking the world in crushing shadows and rich colors that bleed with the influence of Hellraiser cinematographer Robin Vidgeon. It proudly screams authenticity, rather than flashiness.
Weapons feel appropriately like a struggle, as Lynch isn’t a soldier or killing machine. In the hands of Lynch, firing submachine guns or handguns finds that balance between a complete amateur and a person driven to pursue survival at all costs. Enemies emphasize that by punishing Lynch with hard-to-break armour or making it virtually impossible to kill them at all. Sometimes a bullet doesn’t cut it, and the best option is just to run away.
There’s some crafting to be done, too, but it isn’t something I experimented with too much. Getting past the terrors of the Labyrinth became the priority. It leads to a climactic image that quickly dominated the discussion between other journalists and me long after my appointment had concluded. Saber Interactive and Boss Team Games really aren’t pulling any punches. At the end of it, I’m left wondering one thing: will these appeal to non-Hellraiser heads?
It’s an incredibly niche IP to build a game around, despite its iconography. There’s already an inbuilt audience in that regard, with cinephiles and horror fans chomping at the bit. I think Hellraiser: Revival is a great spot for newcomers, too. I’ll admit, it’s been quite some time since I rewatched the movies, so I was worried about whether I’d understand what’s going on here. My concerns were ill-founded.
Hellraiser: Revival doesn’t beat you over the head, but so far, it gives you enough pieces to know what this world is all about. If you’re a big fan of Resident Evil: Biohazard, I think you’ll find a lot to like here. I’m completely surprised by just how brilliant Hellraiser: Revival is shaping up to be, as it’s completely stolen Gamescom for me. October can’t come soon enough.
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