Hell is Us is Planning to One Up the Foundation Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Elden Ring Built

Rogue Factor’s Hell is Us (HiU) made quite an impression at Sony’s recent State of Play with a gameplay loop from Rogue Factor that is very interesting in terms of the experience it is poised to deliver to action-adventure fans.

Backed up by a narrative that tackles a ton of mature themes like the granular effects of conflict on societies alongside civil war and human emotions, Hell is Us promises its players a harrowing, grim world that they explore.

With no assistance from its in-game systems in a novel approach that takes inspiration from titles that came before it, I am excited to dive into HiU when it launches in 2025.

Titles That Trust Their Players to Enjoy Them

Rogue Factor’s new game design philosophy may not be all that alien to fans of Hidetaka Miyazaki’s work. From Software’s legendary director has often created worlds in which his players are left to discover its mechanics, narrative, and secrets for themselves with only vague clues guiding their path.

Elden Ring was the pinnacle of his approach, combining an open-world action RPG with his signature style to create an experience in which a player could explore the Lands Between for hours without ever finding new story threads, guided only by a ray of light at its many Sites of Grace that gave them a direction to follow.

Yet, Elden Ring came with a detailed map that sharp-eyed players could use to find points of interest, a process that became easier as the game progressed and players learned exactly what to look out for as they entered new areas of the Lands Between.

Yet, with every NPC encountered having something interesting to say and dishing out information on potentially interesting storylines to pursue, Elden Ring’s map could only serve to give its players a sense of where to go while they were still in the dark about what they would find there.

From the looks of it, Rogue Factor seems to take things up a notch, removing the map altogether along with branching paths on various narrative beats that depend on how the player interacts with the world it has built for them in an approach the developers call “Player-Plattering“.

Hell is Us Aims for A Benchmark in Player Immersion

I believe that Hell is Us looks to build on what Miyazaki’s worlds have to offer in a way that may make him sit up and take notice of Rogue Factor’s ambitious approach.

I’m excited at the possibilities that a game in which an opaque storyline with multiple paths to its resolution can bring to the table, creating an experience in which its players’ immersion is not taken for granted but is a prerequisite to them making progress in the game.

It’s an approach that shares a lot of similarities with Miyazaki’s magnum opus while managing to stand out on its own considering how the latter’s title featured storylines that could only end one way despite how obtuse they were to find and resolve.

Moreover, it could be a game-changer for the genre considering how the environment and narrative could work in tandem to create an experience that puts its players at the center of it all, getting them to embody their protagonist instead of merely guiding them from point A to point B.

It could very well translate to a title that tests both the physical and intellectual prowess of its players in order to create an immersive gameplay loop that could keep them coming back for more with immense replay value thrown into the mix as is the case in games where various missions could end differently based on the player’s actions.

I’m especially intrigued by the possibility that many of those narrative beats could be left to the player’s own interpretation – a feat that only Miyazaki has managed to implement satisfactorily up until this point in titles like Bloodborne and Elden Ring which have resulted in entire communities built around their abstract lore.

It’s an interesting time for modern gaming considering that a relatively new studio like Rogue Factor is taking such a bold approach to its upcoming title even as Sony plays it safe, offering up a remaster of a highly successful title from its library of exclusives in lieu of a more daring approach to console exclusivity.

I cannot wait to experience Rogue Factor’s new world for myself when Hell is Us makes its way to its players in 2025 and to dive into what is shaping up to be an unforgettable narrative that is sure to stay with me long after the credits have rolled on its story.

Are you as excited for Rogue Factor’s upcoming title as we are? Let us know what you think of its new approach in the comments below!