There is some pain and mostly pleasure in this game, but it ultimately sets its sights in the right place.

Revival recreates the Cenobites almost as 1:1 carbon copies of their original film counterparts and, at least as far as I can tell, commits itself to Barker's vision. Unlike Undying or whatever Jericho was, Hellraiser has existed across multiple forms of media for well over forty years. While I haven't read The Hellbound Heart, the novella the franchise is based on, I have seen the first two films like most people and enjoyed them a fair bit. I also don't mind Inferno (amusingly enough, happens to be the game's codename) or the 2022 remake. Considering how spectacularly mediocre Hellraiser media can become, perhaps this isn't the highest praise imaginable, but Revival is comfortably the best piece of Hellraiser media released in a very long time.

Doug Bradley returns as Pinhead, and the game preserves both his and the other Cenobites' mystical, imposing yet strangely serene presence. You never truly engage the Cenobites in direct confrontation (as you clearly should not). They primarily appear during key narrative beats to push the story forward, alongside a handful of labyrinth sequences where you're forced to evade Chatterer. That's about the extent of their gameplay presence. Instead, the primary antagonistic force throughout the game is a cult devoted to the Cenobites.

Using a cult as the main enemy isn't exactly novel, and you can probably imagine the sort of role they fulfill. I can't say I found them particularly compelling, but I mostly viewed them as an excuse to populate the survival horror formula with enemies and bosses. Even if they're largely functional rather than memorable, they perform that role adequately.

The Genesis Configuration, which initially summons the Cenobites and drags you into the story, also serves as one of the player's primary gameplay tools. Throughout the labyrinth sections, you'll frequently use it to carve your own path through shifting environments. Towards the end of the game, it also allows you to manipulate environmental traps, making it a breeze to dismantle large enemy groups.

This is where I have to repeat a criticism I've made about quite a few games lately. Developers seem to align with the idea saving their coolest mechanics for the final hours. Had Hellraiser built more of its combat encounters around trap-filled arenas from the beginning, the gameplay would've been twice as engaging. Instead, those ideas are mostly reserved for the last third. Perhaps the developers didn't want to overwhelm players with large enemy encounters too early or compromise the shooting mechanics they've built.

At its core, Revival is very much Resident Evil-adjacent, and that's generally a good thing. During the first couple of hours (which are heavily melee-focused) you don't get much value out of the game's mechanics. At that point it had me worried as it almost reminded me of Outlast or Succubus.

The melee combat has considerably more in common with Condemned. Neither the firearms nor the melee weapons are groundbreaking, but their fundamentals are solid. Inventory management may leave you breaking into a cold sweat during the opening hours, but it gradually becomes much more manageable. Thankfully, key items don't take up space.

The game doesn't truly reveal itself until you unlock the Tenekinesis and Pyrokinesis. From that point onward, combat evolves into something far more enjoyable, encouraging greater interaction with the environment while borrowing a bit from Dead Space, letting you search for objects you can launch at enemies.

The puzzles similarly follow the old-school 1990s survival horrors, embracing classic lock-and-key progression. If I had to compare it to more modern titles, Village is probably the closest reference, although Revival remains noticeably more linear and never really introduces a central hub. Instead, it alternates between narrow corridors and relatively open environments filled with shortcuts. You do have a merchant you can buy from and sell to.

The oppression itself is somewhat more complicated to evaluate.

Mechanically, the difficulty settings contribute quite a bit. Playing on Hard disables autosaves, while the Hellraiser difficulty even limits the number of save slots you have. Since I wasn't particularly interested in dealing with that, my experience remained a fairly conventional survival horror affair.

Narratively, however, things become more mixed. One of Hellraiser's defining themes —pain and pleasure, indivisible— struggles to find the place it deserves within Revival's storytelling. The concept works well as a thematic backdrop, to the point where enemies react to the pain you inflict on them with pleasure. And the story itself is perfectly serviceable and easy to digest with a nice little swerve, but it rarely feels particularly nuanced.

The environmental storytelling leans heavily into grotesque set pieces. This may just be me, but I tend to habituatize to violence once it reaches a certain level, something I often experience with Eli Roth and Rob Zombie films. After decades of horror media, it's just Tuesday. Barker, however, approaches death with reverence.

That said, exploration will expose you to no shortage of flayed corpses, mutilated bodies, "butterflied" cadavers and people fed through industrial grinders. None of these are particularly shocking within the context of the cult, but because Revival throws you directly into the middle of the chaos from the very beginning, you never quite get the slow escalation of violence and suspense that I personally enjoy in survival horror. The overall atmosphere don't evolve nearly as much between the opening and closing hours.

The labyrinth sections make excellent use of modern technology, with environments constantly reshaping themselves in real time. You'll frequently have to improvise your route, manipulate the Genesis Configuration to create new pathways, and avoid environmental hazards. The Chatterer chase sequences are effective, largely due to the obvious audio cues he does give. Mechanically, however, they don't introduce many fresh ideas.

There is also an encounter involving Leviathan, and I genuinely respect the developers for attempting to incorporate such an abstract concept into gameplay. Had someone pitched the idea to me beforehand, I honestly wouldn't have known how to visualize it. Unfortunately, perhaps unsurprisingly, that sequence also ends up feeling somewhat shallow.

For those unfamiliar with it, Leviathan is eldritch-like entity taking the form of a massive floating diamond-like geometric structure. It governs human desire and suffering, projecting its Black Beam to force people to relive and confront their sins. Within the novella, you could probably write pages upon pages of psychological horror around this concept.

In the game, however, the mechanic boils down to creating cover with the Genesis Configuration to avoid the Black Beam. Failing to do so triggers flashbacks from your character's past. It's lore-accurate, certainly, but I'm not convinced it's particularly exciting on its own to anyone who were unaware.

Stretching a Hellraiser story across eight to ten hours instead of a ninety-minute film is no small. feat To capture the descriptive power Barker's work is known for, Revival leans on environmental storytelling, and thankfully it succeeds more often than not. From the notes, to puzzles with sexual themes, even to its 69 achievements (nice), there's a sense of the theme.

It took 15 hours to %100 and the modest price point deserves recognition, too. While Revival doesn't always tick my survival horror box, it's a sicko I happened to develop a soft spot for.


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RESONANT is simply too large a game to fully discuss within the confines of a Steam review, so I'll have to cut corners here. You may visit here for the thoughts on the story[thertn.substack.com]

Less than a year ago, RESONANT made its debut with a TGA trailer that was impossible to ignore. Gamescom followed, then the launch, each accompanied by Remedy's pioneer screwball imagery and a selection of songs that's fitting and rocking every time. One hit after another. I have the most immense respect. For a studio that's been around for 3 decades, it somehow feels as though they're only just beginning their ascent.

Full production on RESONANT seemingly only began by February '25. Here, 38 hours later, having rolled the credits with 100% completion, I can proudly claim that Remedy is a <compliant assembly/well-calibrated machine> that continues to punch absurdly above its weight. Considering the budgets and development timelines their games receive compared to many of their contemporaries, what they consistently accomplish borders on the numinous.

Despite the popular sentiment that they simply obfuscate their stories for the sake of mystery, I've always found their narratives to be deliberate. Which brings me to my first point: The absence of Sam Lake flair is felt throughout.

It's clear that Alan Wake is his <prodigy/favored>, and I'd argue it has now become the primary pillar of the Remedy Connected Universe until that story reaches its conclusion. Remedy went all-in on AW2 and will almost certainly do the same again whenever the third iteration arrives. RESONANT, despite being the largest game Remedy has ever produced and the work of its biggest design team to date, feels comparatively restrained. Almost as though certain corners were consciously rounded because Lake wasn't as intimately involved. That's me speculating but I found it to be tame and pale compared to their usual stuff.

Darling and Trench's mistakes cast a recognizable shadow over everything that unfolds both in Bureau and in Manhattan. You witness firsthand how they shaped Dylan, while Dylan himself, despite his sweet apologetic demeanor and desire for redemption, is viewed in terror and disgust by many of the embittered FBC agents you encounter in the field. They constantly remind you of the sins committed before. It's ultimately a more streamlined atonement story. Dylan shoulders a herculean burden to stop the Patterning consuming Manhattan and reunite with Jesse.

The Fault sequences —where Dylan searches for Jesse while gradually unlocking new traversal abilities— are among the game's strongest narrative moments told through the environment.

I'd be lying if I claimed the opening hours weren't rough. Things improve considerably, although some issues remain.

Combat is initially chaotic to the point of being overwhelming. I strongly recommend enabling Assist Mode and turning on Enhanced Magnetism, which dramatically improves your aerial mobility. Likewise, spend your surplus resources. Even if you're convinced you'll never use certain abilities, upgrade them anyway. I stubbornly focused only on the Aberrant and abilities I actively intended to use, only to discover much later that Aberrant Strength scales from the entire upgrade pool rather than individual selections. Overlooking something that simple turned every encounter into an exhausting button-mashing contest. It's an unusual progression system, thankfully you can easily max out at least two aberrants in single completionist playthrough.

Truthfully, I'm not sure I'd even recommend playing RESONANT any other way. The endgame becomes significantly more demanding if you've skipped too much optional content, since leveling regions directly translates into additional talent levels and each resonant that is killed increases the zone's difficulty.

The camera sits relatively far from Dylan. It conveys speed exceptionally well and allows the traversal mechanics to shine while constantly showcasing surroundings in great detail. During combat, however, that distance remains unchanged. RESONANT frequently pits you against massive bosses alongside airborne enemies. Getting clipped by projectiles from completely off-screen happens more often than I'd like. I also wish the combat had a bit more impact and visual heft, though it's certainly no worse than the original Control. To my liking, it's actually far more enjoyable, though I can understand why some people might find it tiresome. It's important to distinguish between the two. In both games you're required to stay aware of your surroundings, but in Control you have enough breathing room to precise your shots and scan the environment for objects to hurl at enemies. Here, on the other hand, you're constantly overwhelmed by dense groups of enemies and are expected to make efficient use of your entire toolkit to dish out quick bursts of damage. The Hiss's new VFX also make them considerably less readable.

Manhattan initially appears familiar, like any dense urban area from inFAMOUS or Prototype. The downtown district is impressive enough, but the West Incursion Zone, once you've unlocked the required traversal tools, showcases the level design team at its absolute best. My completely arbitrary "perfect trifecta" of world design is also satisfied: lower, middle and upper layers existing simultaneously. The Underpass comes closest to recapturing the brutalist majesty of the Oldest House. Later you'll explore an inverted Manhattan orbited by floating islands.

There's plenty of AW2 assets, repurposed. It's an intelligent way of maximizing resources, even if locations inevitably begin repeating themselves frequently in RESONANT too. Budget realities are budget realities, and Remedy at least finds witty narrative excuses to mask them.

The side content is enjoyable, though undeniably built around familiar open-world checklists. One for each zone. Threshold testing facilities provide little fun puzzles without overstaying their welcome. Hideouts —typically disguised as storefronts— contain caches protected by instruction-based riddles that are fun to solve as well. Taxi Thresholds are the anomaly hunts where you must find the odd one out. The Altered Item questline is easily the strongest of the bunch.

However, it also highlights another missed opportunity. The original Control excelled at visualizing its worldbuilding. Even objects that served no gameplay function often existed physically within the Bureau. RESONANT, despite containing an overwhelming number of collectibles detailing events across Manhattan, rarely gives those stories equivalent visual representation. Dunno if it's too much to ask but I wouldn't if I believed Control wasn't capable of more.

This game desperately could have benefited from the presence of a true rival organization (aka Chester Bless). Paracriminals are known to exist, yet to be actualized. Every gifted parautilatiran remains either a protagonist or a former director. Rogue paracriminals, splinter factions, renegade FBC agents. There was so much room to expand the universe beyond. Nothing against haunted taxis and abnormal dogs, though. Committing to an aRPG demands more than dialogue trees whose choices barely ripple beyond the next conversation.

There's also a problem of Remedy missing a golden opportunity to flesh out the histories of resonants. And tucked the most important one (both in gameplay and narrative) behind a side quest. Not hard to miss but still. What could have been.

I admittedly soften whenever Remedy is involved, perhaps I'm more forgiving. Frustrations aside, freely falling through Manhattan while inverting gravity never stopped being exhilarating. I thoroughly enjoyed my four-day marathon, and I hope everyone finds as much to love as I did.


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