Gritty, unsettling, and ruthless, Hell is Others is a stylish experience that is going to keep you on the edge of your seat until its shortcomings rear their ugly and bloodthirsty head. A noir horror extraction shooter with roguelite elements, this is Sin City as seen through the lens of Hotline Miami, featuring engaging loot-based gameplay where death may not be the end, but it certainly is a massive setback in your quest to water your newly acquired bonsai tree… with blood.

Excursion to Hell

Surreal as it can be, Hell is Others puts you in the tainted shoes of one Adam Smithson, a somber protagonist living in a small apartment in Century City, a dangerous location plagued by eternal night. Tricked into accepting and tending to a bonsai tree for ten days with hopes of a great reward, he must take the elevator to the dangerous streets below in search for blood, the fluid that makes all types of plants blossom. Watering – or should I say bloodying – the bonsai tree is crucial to keep the game time going, as you rest on your couch and get refreshed for the events coming in the next day.

Your phone will be ringing off the hook as various characters, some shadier than others, ask you for favors. During your excursions into Century City, you will find many items stored in various residential areas, each one with a theme that should ease your search. Blood bottles are available in significant quantities inside the hospital, pills are common in bathroom cabinets, and cockroaches abound in waste skips. This is a place where anything goes – there’s something for everyone and your task is to descend and risk your life to find it.

Played as a survival horror twin-stick shooter at heart, Hell is Others is at its best when you’re roaming the streets alone, smashing windows, and rummaging through countless tables, lockers, and wardrobes. There’s this sense of dread that keeps you on your toes, with factors such as smell, noise, sight, and more coming into play. Hearing the screeching sounds of The Things, as these dark predators are called, is a guarantee of a chill down your spine and a split-second decision: run or fight?

Winning the battle and surviving the excursion will earn you credit points allowing you to level up, the equivalent to experience points in other games. As a plus, you get to harvest the creatures for blood and other items that may be turned into crops inside your apartment, and you’ll literally start growing your ammo and adding fertilizers for varied effects such as bouncing bullets.

On the other hand, dying is the punch in the gut that you could do without, but it will come sooner or later. As Adam descends and completes excursion after excursion, escaping right in the nick of time through one of the available elevators, he accumulates stats across matches. Your stamina bar is enhanced from those handy pills, health bar is now bigger, line of sight has improved, and movement speed is through the roof. Better prepared and even better equipped, your confidence renewed… until a creature or another player eliminates you out of the blue.

Death or failure to extract in due time means that you lose all your upgraded stats and items you were carrying. That powerful and expensive gun? Those items that you finally gathered to deliver to the NPC right around the corner? The blood vials that should get your bonsai tree through a couple of days? All gone, and potentially due to blind confidence. Carefully planning your excursions and knowing when to back down can make all the difference between success and failure.

Your home isn’t just a place to rest and grow your bonsai tree; you can customize it with items unlocked during your excursions, most of them as rewards from NPCs for a job well done. Expanding your home and decorating it with all kinds of wallpapers, furniture, appliances, and more will not only look good, but also improve some of Adam’s stats. It’s a little house renovation to keep you sane in this mad, mad world. 

Outnumbered and Outgunned

Hell is Others seamlessly mixes PvP and PvE, much like other extraction games such as The Cycle: Frontier and Escape from Tarkov do. To get into the elevator and begin an excursion you must start the matchmaking process, something that may take a few minutes. Take the time to wander across the hall and chat to Alfred, the hugely inconsequential Concierge, or Octave the awfully suspicious Trader.

When the elevator arrives, Ermete the Attendant rabbit will take you to the city, a hellish place bereft of any rules, in almost every sense of the word. The first big issue is the visible lack of actual players, a worrying finding for a game that starts slow but eventually grows into a PvP-focused affair; however, the major offense comes from the broken matchmaking, a hellish experience capable of putting you off the game for good. I’ve had battles with my level four character against a level 18 player, with all the advantages that someone in that stage has. Naturally, it was more a case of accepting my demise than a proper battle, but considering the unforgiving nature of Hell is Others and the penalty that death brings, it’s a drawback that can’t be taken lightly.

With a truly accomplished pixel art style and a noir vibe that gets under your skin, Hell is Others is a compelling loot shooter that shows its flaws when multiplayer starts to take preponderance over solo play. It’s a shame that the brilliant concept is dragged down by something so inherently tied to its core gameplay that it’s impossible to dissociate, but if you persist and overcome the early and frustratingly unbalanced player versus player battles, this is a bloody gem that deserves several excursions to this cursed city.

Score: 7/10

Pros

• Incredible pixel art style with a gritty noir vibe
• Cryptic characters and interesting story
• Very rewarding loot-based gameplay
• Home customization options

Cons

• Matchmaking is utterly broken
• Extremely unforgiving if you don’t have the patience

Hell is Others review code provided by publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.