New open-world game fusing soulslikes with Stalker’s apocalypse might one-up Elden Ring’s dungeons

I first got to play Hell is Us at Gamescom last year and was immediately drawn into its blend of Stalker's wartorn, apocalyptic European aesthetics and Death Stranding style sci-fi.

While Elden Ring is unquestionably one of the best open-world games in recent years, Fromsoftware makes some concessions to help players along. Rogue Factor wants you to take the lead in Hell is Us, keeping hand holding to an absolute minimum and offering you just a simple record of how the information you've collected so far ties together. While the overworld is naturally more open-ended, however, its dungeons promise to offer more classic-style challenges, putting your skills with soulslikes and your ability to think to the test across weaving networks akin to those seen in Elden Ring's tombs or Bloodborne's chalices.

"We didn't design these dungeons as mere set pieces," creative director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête explains, "we built them like old-school videogame challenges: tight, crafted, deliberate. Every corner, every obstacle, every encounter is there for a reason."

"When it clicks, that's when you will feel it - that little rush," Jacques-Belletête whispers. "Not because the game told you what to do, but because you figured it out on your own. That's what we're after." Of course, you'll also have plenty of enemies to deal with. "Some of the fights you will face might stick with you; not because they are brutally hard, that's not the kind of game we're making, but because they hit differently. They happen at the right moment, at the right place, and they carry weight in your journey."

I was under the impression that Hell Is Us is not really a soulslike though, is it? Barely heard anything of the game tbh