[0:01] Let us begin.
[0:05] >> I got to play Clive Barker's Hellraiser
[0:07] Revival again because this guy played at
[0:10] Gamescom last year and I still have
[0:13] absolutely no idea how they're getting
[0:15] away with an M rating because it's got a
[0:19] lot.
[0:20] >> You know nothing.
[0:22] >> Brought to you by Xbox. So, thankfully
[0:25] today I saw something completely
[0:26] different from what I saw at Gamescom.
[0:28] If you haven't seen that, I highly
[0:30] recommend you go and check that video
[0:31] out because I was very excited about it.
[0:33] And after playing today's Little Chunk,
[0:35] I am still very excited about it. Now,
[0:38] what's different this time around is I
[0:40] got to see the game play a little
[0:41] further. Lower specifically introducing
[0:43] stuff like genitalia and like guts, lots
[0:46] of sex stuff. It's what everybody loves,
[0:49] sex, blood, poop. So, here are the three
[0:51] major takeaways from this hands-on. One
[0:54] is the lament configuration, also known
[0:57] as a cube. It's I actually got to use
[0:59] it. I actually got to see how it works
[1:00] in combat and it's pretty damn cool.
[1:03] We'll get more into it. The second thing
[1:05] I want to talk about are the enemies.
[1:07] Now, I got to fight a few of them back
[1:09] in the day, but this time I was put into
[1:12] an arena. And the enemies are
[1:14] fascinating because they talk to you,
[1:17] they antagonize you, and they talk to
[1:19] each other in a way in a way that feels
[1:20] very organic and almost even more
[1:23] terrifying. And the third thing I want
[1:25] to talk about is player expression
[1:26] because this game actually has a lot
[1:28] more going for in terms of letting you
[1:30] approach a situation exactly how you
[1:32] want. Now to start at the top, this was
[1:35] a little later in the game, so a lot of
[1:36] things weren't really tutorialized for
[1:38] me well. I was kind of thrown into the
[1:39] deep end where the first hands-on I did
[1:41] was a little bit more narrative driven
[1:42] and kind of set up the scene of the main
[1:44] characters and the conflict and the
[1:46] situation. This was really just a chance
[1:48] to show full force combat. In this
[1:51] arena, I was pitted against human
[1:53] player, like human enemies, because
[1:54] there are going to be monsters and
[1:56] zombie like things. And what's so
[1:58] fascinating about the way the enemies
[2:02] work is if you if you choose to sneak
[2:05] around, you get to listen to their
[2:06] conversations and they give you context
[2:08] and they name drop other characters
[2:09] names, other enemies names. And it feels
[2:12] like for a game where the enemies are
[2:14] these ruthless killers who get all their
[2:18] pleasure and kink out of hurting each
[2:20] other and hurting others. It humanize
[2:22] these characters, these enemies in a way
[2:24] that I'm just not quite used to in a
[2:26] horror game like this, which is really
[2:28] cool. It hits a little different when
[2:30] you kill a bad guy in front of another
[2:32] one and they say they express like I
[2:35] that they're frustrated like I can't
[2:37] believe you just did that. Or if you hit
[2:38] somebody with a certain thing, they're
[2:39] like, "Oh my god, I'm bleeding. I
[2:41] couldn't quite tell if how the AI was
[2:44] interacting with me, but it gives it a
[2:47] sense of believability that made
[2:49] tensions a little higher. So, when
[2:51] fighting enemies, you're given several
[2:52] tools. You have melee combat, which is
[2:55] what I saw a lot of in my first demo
[2:57] where I compared it a lot to Condemned,
[2:59] but then you also have pistols, and then
[3:01] you have the cube. And the cube is where
[3:03] things really start to change stuff up.
[3:05] The cube can absorb elements and even do
[3:07] like a gravity gun like thing where you
[3:09] can pole certain saws and things aim
[3:10] from the ceiling. You can absorb fire
[3:12] into the lament configuration and then
[3:14] set other people on fire which is always
[3:16] horrific and terrifying especially when
[3:19] they start screaming and they squander
[3:20] and they don't exactly die immediately.
[3:22] But the other element they introduce and
[3:24] this kind of leans into the player
[3:25] expression I was talking about in this
[3:27] arena. I could have approached it
[3:29] totally by stealth. I was like facing
[3:31] off against what felt like 10 dudes at
[3:33] once. And I was given the chance to get
[3:36] bear traps and kind of set them around.
[3:38] I could lure people in or I could even
[3:40] like bait them and use bottles to do
[3:41] stuff. So, in a way, it's like almost
[3:43] like I'm not going to say it's full ei,
[3:45] but there is there felt like there was
[3:46] some sort of eim sort of intent behind
[3:49] the design of this section that I could
[3:51] stealth my way through it. I could find
[3:53] a way. In fact, the player next to me
[3:55] bypassed the enemies entirely uh because
[3:57] they got the key to be go to the next
[3:59] room and they just went ahead and did
[4:01] that without having to fight anyone. And
[4:03] it's that sort of that depth of player
[4:05] expression, the ability to let people
[4:06] play exactly how they want isn't exactly
[4:08] something I would have expected in a
[4:10] Hellraiser game. But it feels like the
[4:12] team is doing more than just to make a
[4:14] really cool Hellraiser IP sort of game,
[4:16] but also make a game that just feels
[4:18] really good. like I compared it a lot to
[4:21] both Contemp and Village, Resident Evil
[4:23] Village when I played it uh at Summer
[4:24] GameFest. But I think this time around
[4:26] playing the game now being able to get a
[4:28] little bit more of it and understand it
[4:30] a little bit more. I actually kind of
[4:32] think it's this if this game is proving
[4:34] that it does have its own identity that
[4:36] yes, does have elements of those games.
[4:37] It does have elements that's taken from
[4:39] survival horror and puzzle elements and
[4:41] all that. But I was impressed to play
[4:43] this game and not really feel the need
[4:45] to have to compare it to anything. It
[4:46] feels unique and really cool and
[4:49] certainly refreshing to not just be
[4:51] playing another asymmetrical multiplayer
[4:54] horror game. I'm going to keep saying
[4:54] that because I said that during I think
[4:56] that's what people most people expect
[4:57] from an IP like this. The other thing
[4:59] that was different from this playthrough
[5:01] versus my Gamescom coverage is that the
[5:03] setups weren't really present. Although
[5:04] like when I played at Gamescom, uh the
[5:07] chatterer was kind of the big focal
[5:09] point that I had faced running away from
[5:11] through the labyrinth. This time around,
[5:12] I did go to the labyrinth, but it was to
[5:14] show how environmental puzzle elements.
[5:16] So, in this section, I was able to use
[5:18] the lament configuration to turn the
[5:21] walls and create these platforms in
[5:24] order to bypass uh booby traps and all
[5:27] sorts of other things to then charge up
[5:29] the cube and go into the next section,
[5:31] which was a very PT inspired sort of
[5:35] nightmare. Yes, we've seen a lot of PT
[5:38] inspired stuff. Guess what? There's a
[5:40] bit of that in this game, too. However,
[5:42] they did it well. And they did it well
[5:44] because it was very deliberately used to
[5:46] progress the story. They had a looping
[5:48] room where you're just going around in
[5:50] an environment and you go through the
[5:51] door into the next section. And it was a
[5:53] small puzzle that you had to solve of
[5:54] finding the right object to basically to
[5:56] trigger the next sort of loop in this
[5:59] thing. But with each loop, you got more
[6:02] and more context to the relationship of
[6:04] the main character and his girlfriend.
[6:06] So, it was one of the better sort of use
[6:07] cases of using something like PT on its
[6:10] own in this game. That being said,
[6:12] they're swinging high. They're trying a
[6:14] lot of different things. They're not
[6:15] afraid to hold back their punches. And
[6:16] speaking of holding back punches,
[6:17] they're not holding them back. I cannot
[6:19] believe this game is not adult only.
[6:21] Yes, as we all know, there's going to be
[6:24] lots of genitalia. There's going to be
[6:25] lots of gore. But the thing I was
[6:27] probably most surprised of what they're
[6:28] getting away with is how sexually
[6:31] charged the notes are. the things you'll
[6:34] be finding around the environment. They
[6:35] are graphic. They are there a lot. And I
[6:38] cannot believe it because the developers
[6:40] told me that apparently they didn't have
[6:42] to cut anything. How they got away with
[6:44] it, I don't know, but I'm here for it.
[6:47] And it's cool. Now, having had my second
[6:50] hands-on with Clive Barker's Hellraiser
[6:52] Revival, I am still very excited to play
[6:55] it. It feels like there's still so much
[6:57] more to see. There's lots of enemy types
[6:59] I haven't seen. There's boss fights that
[7:00] I haven't seen, and there's puzzles to
[7:02] solve. There are lockers and other
[7:04] elements I didn't get to unlock because
[7:06] I have to find codes and all these other
[7:08] things. So, there's all these small
[7:09] little elements and all these small
[7:10] little nuances and things that are
[7:11] happening in this game that just I don't
[7:12] know, it's shaping up to be something
[7:14] I'm really damn excited to play. So,
[7:16] when that time comes, we'll have to see
[7:18] what it's like wandering through the
[7:20] labyrinth of Hellraiser Revival. For all
[7:23] that stuff, stay here at GameSpot and
[7:26] listen to me talk about it. Thanks.