Game Review : Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival

Hellraiser : Revival might be the most M rated game I’ve played in some time. Its also a prime example of that AA budget single player experience that fans should gather for.

Full of graphic extreme violence, detailed characters, and a world that is dark and gritty we are thrown into something that truly feels like it would be a film in the Hellraiser series. Our protagonist, Aidan Lynch, not by his own accord summons the Cenobites while up to some very XXX activities with his partner Sunny, who is flayed alive in a quite gruesome manner, while Aidan is kidnapped by a Cenobite-worshipping BDSM cult. To save Sunny, Lynch makes his way through the headquarters of these cultists, who create rotting sculptures out of human meat and praise acts of sadomasochism, summoning our beloved Cenobites in the process.

The game plays very much so like a newer version of Condemned, the 360 horror hit. Its a first person survival horror game that is also very combat focused. You’ll make your way through rooms and hallways fighting or attempting to stealth kill enemies while having periods of fighting, or better yet, running from the Cenobites.

Thankfully the game doesn’t overdo or downplay the Cenobites either. They are mostly kept at a distance and are terrifying when seen. The Chatterer here plays like a Resident Evil boss when you have chase sequences against him with the only goal to not let him get close to you.

Sadly though the biggest downfall here is the combat. It is very simple melee combat and bare basic gun play. You do gain the Genesis Configuration which can throw fireballs, objects, or perform brutal executions but it becomes bland quickly. The fire needs a place to grab it from and it isn’t every object you can grab, instead only marked ones. It makes it comes across like a C rate Bioshock at times. The game even throws you in wave like combat sections almost which just throw the pacing off greatly. Weapons and ammo themselves aren’t always around leading to some fights where I drained all health packs simply because enemies were too spongy and my weapons broke.

In the end though the downfalls don’t hurt this much. Its a very adult themed, brutal, graphic, dark single player horror time. While feeling old in some ways it never took much away from the enjoyment of spending time in a world where Cenobites exist.

Score :

4/5

Review code provided by the publisher