Have you ever wanted to experience life beyond the limits of pain and pleasure? Now you can in Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival from Saber Interactive which recently launched on major consoles. Experience the Cenobites first hand and see just how much torture one man can experience in the name of love. The return of horror cult classic Pinhead and his merry band of multilated extradimensional sadomasochists (what a mouthful) hit consoles this month at the shockingly good price of £34.99. We decided to give it a go to see whether it lived up to expectations.
Trigger warning for violence, body horror and a boat load of blood.
When in doubt chains… and pain… and murder I guess?
Gameplay
The very top level of the story for Hellraiser: Revival is that you play as Aiden Lynch, ex-drug addict and member of a biker gang, as he does everything to save his girlfriend Sunny. Nothing is too far for Aiden, including but not limited to promising your soul away to the Cenobites. Predominently, Revival takes place between the labrynth and a series of areas that are overrun by a BDSM cult who worship the Cenobites.
Initialy, it felt like Hellraiser: Revival wasn’t sure what type of horror game it wanted to be. For the first hour or so, it felt like the game was trying to go down the Outlast route with a focus on stealth and a limited means of protecting yourself. It shifts gear quite quickly after though and plays closer to a game like Resident Evil: Biohazard. Aiden Lynch is a man who apparently acts first and asks questions later. His girlfriend is pulled apart in front of him, he’s dragged away naked by some weird kinky cult and there’s a magic box and a man with pins in his head. It would be enough to make most people cry but not Aiden Lynch! He’s too busy sticking his hand in a hole in the wall and hoping for the best.
Resident Evil who?
Throughout my playthrough, I couldn’t stop likening the game to Resident Evil. As mentioned, it felt very similar to my first playthrough of Biohazard which is definitely a positive for Hellraiser: Revival. You can choose whether you want to be sneaky or whether you want to run in guns blazing or knife swinging.
Combat is later affected by the introduction of the Genesis Configuration which allows you to drag metal elemens in the environment and the launch them at members of the cult or the outcasts – the experiments rejected by the Cenobites.
Realistically, I know that this comparison mainly just comes from the fact Hellraiser: Revival is a first person POV horror game but I don’t think it’s a bad comparison to make.
Graphics & Audio
It feels odd to call a game like Hellraiser: Revival beautiful considering all the dead bodies and the gore. The issue is that I can’t think of any other way to describe it. The body horror genuinely makes you squeamish and some of the more brutal scenes made me look away. Hellraiser’s intense horror is perfectly recreated by the story of Hellraiser: Revival. It’s gruesome and bloody and just perfect. The audio elements of the game tell a similar story. It’s pretty viceral at times.
One of my favourite things in this game was the sound of the Chatterer as he chased you repeatedly through the game. I’m probably a little bit biased cause Chatterer is my favourite of the Cenobite gang. However, the volume increase as Chatterer closes the distance is so well done.
Longevity
The main story of Hellraiser: Revival takes between 8-12 hours on normal difficulty if you explore every nook and cranny of the game. If you’re powering through to see how quickly you can finish the game then you’re probably looking at closer to 7 hours for completion. I’m working through getting all of the trophies at the moment and there’s nothing crazy or any ridiculous difficulty so I’m hoping that won’t take longer than 20 hours because I am bad at aiming those damn stones.
Final Thoughts
In a world where developers are happy to slap an £80 price tag on a new release, it was a breath of fresh air to see that Hellraiser: Revival was launching for £34.99. I really did enjoy Revival once it got into the story. It felt like it took a while to actually get to the Hellraiser of it all. Even with the slight tutorial to the box at the very begining of the game it felt slow. Ultimately, Hellraiser: Revival is a really really good game and, as mentioned, I fully intend on getting that platinum trophy.
I’m giving Hellraiser: Revival the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
Trailer contains flashing lights/images
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