In this week's Fully Ramblomatic on Second Wind, Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw reviews Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival and comes away unconvinced. His short version: once the gore stops shocking you, the game mostly swings between silly and dull.
That's a sharper verdict than the game's pitch would suggest, so it's worth separating what the game is from what Yahtzee thinks of it.
What the game is
According to Saber Interactive's release-date announcement, published on Game Developer, Hellraiser: Revival is developed by Boss Team Games and published by Saber, and was set for release on October 8 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam, with the Standard Edition at $39.99. Your love has been taken by the Cenobites, you descend to rescue them, and you use a puzzle box called the Genesis Configuration for powers like telekinesis and the Hell Chains. Doug Bradley voices Pinhead.
On paper, that's a reasonable foundation. Hellraiser's whole appeal is the idea that pain and temptation come packaged in something beautiful, and a puzzle box that doubles as your weapon is a neat way to put that in the player's hands. The question any review has to answer is whether the game builds something of its own on top of the licence, or just borrows the furniture.
What Yahtzee makes of it
Yahtzee opens with affection for the idea of Hellraiser and less for what the film series became, then places the game in Clive Barker's patchy history with games, name-checking Undying and Jericho. From there he sets up the story: you play Aidan Lynch, rescuing a socialite named Sunny, a character he finds about as unsympathetic as damsels get.
He then walks through the structure, which shuttles you between the Labyrinth and the real world. It's here that the review turns, and from this point on there's far more criticism than praise.
His harshest words are for the cultists and the stealth. He finds the hiding spots inconsistent and singles out a forced stealth boss fight as tedious. He wraps up by noting how little of the game is actually given to Pinhead, then delivers the verdict: desensitised to the body horror, he's left with silliness, dullness and characters he doesn't like.
What the comments say
The comment section, up to six hours after upload, is part review and part reunion. A lot of viewers are delighted to hear Yahtzee on a Clive Barker game again, with jokes about how many times the man's name appears in the title. Some think $40 is a fair price for a focused single-player horror game and say they liked it more than it technically deserves; others mention Doug Bradley's return as a plus for fans of the films. Mood, not evidence, but it suggests the game has a friendlier audience than this review.
The verdict
My read is that Yahtzee is describing a familiar licensed-game problem: a property with a strong identity, attached to a game that doesn't build enough of its own. If what you want is Hellraiser imagery and Doug Bradley's voice for $40, his review won't stop you, and the comments suggest some players are happy with exactly that. If you were hoping for a horror game that stands next to the series it borrows from, Yahtzee's take is a clear signal to wait for a sale.
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