Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Nacon
Developer: Rogue Factor
Release: September 4, 2025
Rating: Mature

For many triple-A video games, appealing to a wide audience often means ensuring players can see a game to its conclusion. That sometimes translates to sanding down combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving to make it as approachable as possible. But this can also veer into making games too guided for their own good. Hell is Us tosses all of these conventions out of the window. Goodbye quest logs, maps, and objective arrows telling you where to go. By trusting players to figure things out, Hell is Us’ smart level and puzzle design shine to create compelling and rewarding discoveries, despite middling combat and uneven storytelling.

The game follows Remi, a soldier who sneaks into Hadea, a mysterious country isolated from the rest of the world. Remi returns to his homeland to meet his parents and learn why they smuggled him out of the country as a child. But with little memory of his parents, nor knowledge of their current status or whereabouts, Remi must rely on his wits to piece together answers within a nation gripped by a brutal civil war and invaded, for some reason, by otherworldly monsters. This setup lays the groundwork for what Hell is Us does best: letting players uncover leads to figure things out.  

The absence of traditional forms of guidance forces a genuine immersion in Hadea’s open hubs that feels refreshing and rewarding. While not a true open world, each zone offers a strong assortment of hidden dungeons, environmental puzzles, and distressed citizens often begging for aid. Unraveling mysteries becomes an engrossing exercise of finding clues, such as curious letters, ancient relics, or lost keys, while gleaning information from dense character conversations inspired by classic point-and-click adventures.

Whether it's figuring out where to find milk to deliver to a starving infant or uncovering the location of multiple hidden switches to open a mysterious door, puzzle-solving always manages to be fun and logical without being obtuse. Most everything you find matters in some way, making each discovery, no matter how seemingly insignificant, feel worthwhile and exciting because you know it’s a potential solution awaiting a problem yet to be uncovered. 

Hell is Us’ puzzle variety is also commendable. Some problems rely on using your compass to follow a specific path, utilizing visual cues such as landmarks to stay on track. Others hew closer to traditional dungeon puzzles evoking The Legend of Zelda, such as stepping on spike traps in a correct sequence to offer a blood sacrifice to open a door. Only a few puzzle types repeat themselves, such as special hidden doors locked behind enigmatic symbols, but most appear only once, lending their locations a unique flavor. Plus, solving certain smaller puzzles chips away at larger, more tantalizing mysteries, creating an even greater sense of purpose and incentive. 

Despite refusing to hold players' hands, Hell is Us throws a bone via helpful flowcharts tracking the main bullet points of the primary story objectives, such as relevant persons or objects. I never needed more help than this, as the game merely displays key facts while trusting me to figure out how to use this knowledge accordingly. I only wish the overwhelmingly dense menu tabs had better filtering options to make reviewing specific clues less of a hassle.

Sidequests, however, have no such tracking other than the menu vaguely stating they exist. Everything else regarding the nature of an optional request must be committed to memory (or note-taking), including the location of an NPC and their dilemma. While that may seem like a hassle, I love how Hell is Us rewards you for paying attention. Solving many puzzles requires spotting telltale visual cues about a person, place, or object not explicitly highlighted, then making educated deductions and the occasional leap of faith. The game manages to do all of this without ever feeling oppressively difficult, frustrating, or opaque. That’s a very tricky line to walk, and developer Rogue Factor effortlessly struts along it.

Even when I found something I couldn’t immediately access, it fueled my desire to comb every inch of Hell is Us’ environments, as nooks and crannies often yield new clues. Revisiting areas is a necessity, and I was always eager to backtrack to unlock the solution to an hours-old problem.  While I understand encouraging players to study their surroundings, the lack of widespread fast travel wore on me when I just wanted to return to a spot I’d visited multiple times. If I didn’t find the correct key, I’d find a relic yielding fascinating lore expanding on Hadea’s history. This is its own treat, as the setting has a compelling history rooted in a cultural and religious schism that is admirably fleshed out in well-written and compelling lore materials.

Puzzle-solving thankfully makes up the bulk of Hell is Us, as the game’s combat doesn't hit the same highs. While competent, the action is simple to the point of becoming mind-numbing as players spam a one-button combo ad nauseam to drop the game’s fascinatingly strange monsters. Commanding Remi’s drone offers helpful crowd-control assists, such as distracting an enemy, unleashing a pulse to stun multiple targets, or even spinning Remi around like a saw to mow through mobs. The most unique element of battle is a neat health regeneration mechanic that functions like an active reload in a shooter, letting you heal by timing a button press. Although this adds a nice intensity to encounters, the enemy variety stagnates in the game’s second act, causing battles to grow stale. I began avoiding monsters once my weapons were sufficiently leveled.

I only found one of the four weapon types – a pair of axes – fun to use, and while you can equip two at a time, the game never encourages experimentation with loadouts. That’s a shame, because this trivializes the thematically interesting emotion-themed weapon abilities. Each weapon can be augmented with up to three color-coded categories of special powers: Crimson rage abilities deal tons of damage, like unleashing a fiery energy missile. Grief-themed blue abilities hinder targets with debilitating effects. Some of these powers are entertaining, so I wish they mattered more, especially because the creatures are pretty cool and unlike anything else I’ve seen before. Their pearl, eerie forms resemble a melted abstract sculpture, and the way they eject haunting manifestations of human emotion to assault Remi feels like something out of the 2018 Alex Garland film, Annihilation, in a complimentary way.  

 

Despite being enamored by Hell is Us’ world-building, I was less enthused by the plot. Remi is a bland hero, and his primary character trait of being an emotionless sociopath isn’t utilized effectively in the narrative; it merely serves as an excuse for his dullness. His partnership with a strong-willed journalist doesn’t evolve substantially, and the true nature of the game’s intimidating and seemingly important main villain is brushed aside in baffling fashion. While the game begins with a strong introductory act and hits its stride in a lengthy second act, the third act feels rushed, focuses far too much on the so-so combat, and culminates in a flat conclusion that betrays the epic promise built up prior.

Hell is Us feels like a modernized spin on the classic action/adventure game that, as a third-person game, feels obligated to include combat. The game’s investigation elements are much more fleshed out in comparison to the action, which is, at least, passable enough to endure while I enjoy the main treat of running around and solving puzzles. I’ll be deciphering the game’s remaining riddles well after I rolled credits, and I can’t wait to see what revelations await. Hell is Us isn’t perfect, but it’s a bold and respectable debut that largely delivers on its promise, laying a strong foundation for future stories in its fascinating world. 

Score: 8.25

About Game Informer's review system

Rami Ismail is known recently for his work advising and consulting with game developers around the world, but he's also an accomplished developer in his own right, with games like Ridiculous Fishing, Luftrausers, and Nuclear Throne on his résumé. To that end, today he revealed his latest project, Australia Did It, and announced it's coming to PC later this year. You can check out the reveal trailer below.

Australia Did It (which is co-developed by Aesthetician Labs) claims to invent a new genre called tactical reverse bullet hell. It's a big swing to attempt to define a new style of game before yours even comes out, but Ismail's press release makes even stronger claims than that.

"I believe the games industry has been failing at supporting developer innovation and experimentation," reads a direct quote from Ismail in the press release. "Publishers, investors, and shareholders fund the same few safe bets, later and later in development - forcing even the most creative developers to make safe games with predictable ideas, and force in the latest flavour-of-the-day."

Ismail goes on to say that the way to break out of this cycle is to support games with truly new ideas, and that Mystic Forge, the publisher of Australia Did It, is doing exactly that by funding the project.

Australia Did It is a game about transporting cargo by train across a monster-infested, dried-out Atlantic Ocean. In the first part of an encounter, you'll place units along a grid defending your train as it prepares for the journey, using strategic grid-based combat to hold off monsters long enough for the journey to begin. Once your engine departs, it becomes a bullet hell machine, blasting out overwhelming amounts of ammunition the bullet hell genre typically has players try to avoid.

I don't personally see the genre title sticking – it's too many words, for one – but the game looks good so far, and I'm interested in trying it for myself soon. Australia Did It launches on PC later this year.

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Bloober Team
Developer: Bloober Team
Release: September 5, 2025

Despite nearly sharing its name with a joyful Mario squid enemy, developer Bloober Team makes horror games almost exclusively, but its track record is spotty. Its last game, however, the 2024 remake of Silent Hill 2, was met with nearly universal acclaim. The positivity surrounding that game inspired confidence in Cronos: The New Dawn, and while there are some clear lessons the team has taken away from its time in foggy scary town, Bloober’s time-travel horror game is not without its pain points. If you’re in the mood for something that recalls games like Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space, though, Cronos might hit the spot.

Taking clear inspiration from the 1995 Terry Gilliam film, 12 Monkeys – a movie I like a lot – Cronos: The New Dawn follows the Traveler awoken without memory for a mission of such great importance that it is treated with religious reverence. A mysterious incident in 1980s Poland caused a horrific disease outbreak that infected humanity, turning us into violent, powerful monsters with the ability to merge together to become even more violent and powerful. The Traveler must survive the present and go back in time to extract the memories of important individuals to figure out what happened and hopefully prevent it.

The science-fiction premise is fascinating, and whether intentional or not, the art direction emulates the dangerous and hopeless mood of 12 Monkeys well. I was intrigued by the Traveler’s robotic devotion to the Collective and its mission to save humanity, but emotionally, I was left hanging. The ending devolves into difficult-to-track ambiguity that left me more confused than curious to learn more. It also doesn’t help that the protagonist is faceless. She never leaves her diving suit or removes her helmet, so moments meant to feel weighty and important often come off as goofy, with the performance relying on large swinging arm gestures.

The narrative’s shortcomings, however, are offset by generally solid survival-horror mechanics. The Traveler makes her way through the pre- and post-apocalyptic eras of Poland, finding keys to open doors, managing her inventory, keeping track of ammunition, and fighting monsters (named Orphans here) as conservatively as possible. The gameplay is familiar without ever straying too far out of the bounds of the genre, and I appreciated it for that. I was rarely surprised by the task at hand, but as a fan of survival horror, I welcomed the reliable and generally well-balanced gameplay.

Shooting feels pretty good, and the ability to charge every weapon for a stronger attack without expending extra ammo created intense moments of Orphans stumbling toward me while I waited to fire off a shot at the last second. The Traveler is also able to play with gravity later in the game, and it leads to some enjoyable visuals while maintaining the basic fun of the shooting.

 

I did miss the ability to do the quick 180-degree turn seen in comparable games and would occasionally get frustrated by not being able to do much to dodge enemy attacks outside of trying to run away. Cronos also frequently makes what are meant to be jump-scare moments damaging at best and lethal at worst. These always frustrated me because many are unavoidable, and I would die, and then the horror would evaporate on the second attempt because I knew what to look for. I signed up for a horror game, and I don’t mind getting jump-scared, but it shouldn’t always kill or nearly kill me. At that point, it’s more frustrating than frightening.

Cronos: The New Dawn has an excellent, thoughtful premise that feels dark and dangerous, but does a poor job of executing on its promising sci-fi ideas. A questionable religion born from trying to save the world in the face of a rampaging disease with clear parallels to the global pandemic we all recently experienced is great fodder for a story, but I was left shrugging my shoulders by the end. Thankfully, the gameplay, though familiar, offered plenty to pull me through the approximately 12-hour experience to see the end.

Score: 7.75

About Game Informer's review system

When IO Interactive first announced it was making a game based on the most popular spy of all time – 007, aka Bond, James Bond – I was beyond stoked. One of my most-played games of all time is 007: Agent Under Fire on PS2. I've played through its campaign countless times and put just as many hours into its multiplayer (low gravity, grapple hooks, and rocket launchers all day), and since then, I've been wondering when a new 007 would recapture my attention in a similar way.

IO Interactive and 007, on paper, is a match made in heaven; it's peanut butter and chocolate, cookies and milk, Mountain Dew and Doritos. But when the excitement of this announcement faded, I began to question my feelings. I love the World of Assassination Hitman trilogy and IO Interactive perfected the stealth genre across its three games. I've always felt Agent 47 is basically another universe's 007, perhaps with a touch less suave and sex appeal. But I began to think to myself, "Wait, a Hitman game with a James Bond skin actually isn't what I want. My dream 007 game needs a lot more than that." Those thoughts spiraled into a great fear that IO Interactive wouldn't do enough to make 007 First Light decidedly its own creation at the studio. 

I'm so happy to say that after watching a behind-closed-doors demo of First Light at IO Interactive's rather fancy booth during Gamescom 2025, my fears have been quelled. Though the spirit of Hitman is present in the gameplay I watched, First Light is its own thing, and IO Interactive is taking big swings to deliver a type of 007 we've never seen. 

Perhaps the biggest change-up from the 007 games I've played (and loved) is that in First Light, Bond is just a recruit in MI6's training program – young, resourceful, sometimes reckless, and not the spy capable of performing in any situation, whether it's with a silenced gun in hand or a woman at his side.

Before the gameplay begins, the IO Interactive representative sets up the scene, explaining a little bit of the studio's thought process behind this version of Bond. "[This game is about] the origins of James Bond, a Bond for the players, long before his days of tuxedos and martinis," they say. "He's young and relatable, but hasn't learned the ropes of MI6." That said, there's still plenty of the Bond staples to expect, like iconic vehicles, an array of inconspicuous and powerful gadgets, and globetrotting; IO Interactive says First Light will bring players to Iceland, Slovakia, Vietnam, and more. 

"First and foremost, you're playing as a spy, not an assassin," they tell us, and I breathe a sigh of relief. "Charm, charisma, persuasion, and similar traits are part of the mix. [First Light] combines environmental and social interactions as you bluff, eavesdrop, infiltrate, and find clues to help your mission. But [Bond] is a daredevil and once the action needs to happen, it certainly does." 

This pre-gameplay presentation ends with the team explaining First Light features IO Interactive's best combat system to date, housed within a "relentless thrill ride that captures Bond at his most daring." That's a lot of PR speak, but after the gameplay I shown soon after, I see the vision.

Our mission brings Bond to the Carpathian Hotel in the Slovakian mountains. Not as a spy, though. Not even close. Today's job has Bond playing chauffeur to some other agents of MI6 after Agent 009. That's already an interesting wrinkle – MI6 is after one of its own – reminiscent of 2021's Bond film, No Time To Die. This team is to locate 009 and keep him under close watch without engaging. M, not to be confused with Moneypenny (M's assistant), calls this a "black tag operation" so discretion is critical. 

As Bond and two others swerve through windy roads leading to this hotel, it's clear First Light is IO Interactive's prettiest game... easily. The sun, clouds, and treelines above reflect off the black Jaguar Bond drives, but despite the views, he's not happy about being chauffeur – such is the life of a recruit desperate for more to do on missions. 

IO Interactive cuts in to call Bond hotheaded and stubborn, noting that this specific mission – the first in the game – "isn't just about catching 009; it's also about shaping the spy Bond will become." 

As the crew pulls in to the Carpathian Hotel to begin the mission proper, we learn 009 was the best in his day, "but that was a long time ago." Bond's teammates Cressida and Monroe tell him 009 is tired of running and getting desperate. 

After dropping off Cressida and Monroe, Bond parks the vehicle. Through a cutscene, it's made clear Bond is antsy, unable to sit patiently in a car until his teammates do what they need to... so he steps out of the car, perhaps to get some fresh air. Or maybe to take a look around. He spots a hotel worker, or someone dressed as one, dump a suitcase over a nearby railing. He tells Cressida what he sees and she orders him to stay at his post. Naturally, he ignores this, and so begins what I imagine will be a regular habit of breaking the rules. 

Instead of sticking to the car, Bond heads into the hotel. IO Interactive says First Light will feature a mix of linear and more open missions before noting this one is an open mission: infiltrate the hotel however you want. 

This is the most Hitman moment of the session as our demo guide shows us various ways to get inside by using the environment, social cues, and more. Though it all feels very Hitman, it features an air of suave that's unique to First Light. I hope there's even more of that in the final game.

After talking to a guard, it's clear that heading through a nearby entrance door isn't an option. We look around and spot an open window on the second floor and a guard near a water hose. We turn on the hose to distract this guard, and after he leaves the post, we jump into some tall flowers to avoid being seen by another nosy guard. Once hidden in the grass, we shoot a dart at the nosy guard to distract him just enough to allow us to slip by and pick up a lighter on a banister. With the lighter in hand, we slyly walk by a wheelbarrow full of dead leaves, light them on fire, and let the ensuing commotion be the distraction we need to jump over a wall, scale its railing, and climb a pipe up to the aforementioned open window. 

Once inside, our new objective is to find the hotel worker that dumped the suitcase, but when Cressida asks for Bond's status, he lies and says the parking lot he's supposed to be parked in is all quiet. 

Unfortunately, after making it a bit more into the hotel, the demo guide pulls up the menu to showcase First Light's checkpoint system. I see roughly two dozen, if not more, checkpoints for this mission, and the guide selects one later in the mission that places Bond in the middle of some action. He breaks into a car with a mystery woman sitting as a passenger, and he's then off to the races chasing after 009. Naturally, Bond has to flirt a little and we learn this mystery woman is Agent Charlotte Roth, with Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure or DGSE – an intelligence agency and France's MI6 equivalent. She and DGSE have been hunting 009 for a long time, she tells Bond.

Swerving through the mountains chasing after 009 features all the action of a Bond chase you might expect. We drive through sheep-filled fields, bash through gates, ramp over roads, and more. It looks like a blast and I wish I was on the sticks. We eventually arrive to a large plane that 009 is trying to escape on, but between him and Bond is a swath of enemies we have to take out. 

IO Interactive says Bond can only ever use "appropriate response measures," meaning he can't just kill anyone in his way. But, in this instance, he receives a License to Kill (cheeky) from MI6 and bullets start flying. The gunplay looks solid and sounds amazing, and this set piece is full of action, explosions, and more. It's already bigger and more cinematic than anything in the Hitman trilogy. 

Some more chaos ensues and we find Bond inside the plane, sneaking around and taking enemies out stealthily. We hack into the plane and then use R1 and L1 (on a PlayStation 5 DualSense controller) to bank it right and left, causing cargo and bodies to shift back and forth as we progress to the front where, hopefully, 009 is. As we move forward, we're able to adjust the plane's banking on the fly, and though it's not super clear how this works or whether it's a cinematic moment or something based on Bond's gadgetry, it's an interesting wrinkle to an objective that boils down to "shoot people in front of you and get to the cockpit."

Cinematics take over and bring us to the end of the mission, where we see Bond fall off the plane, maneuver through the air to reach enemies, and attack an adversary to take and use their parachute. 

I leave this demo highly impressed. Not only is IO Interactive refusing to go the easy route – making a Hitman game with the title 007 attached to it – but the team is going an even more challenging route by attempting to give us the man before he's the man. What I want in a 007 game is a highly capable agent that excels in any situation as if he's been doing this forever. Instead, First Light promises a cinematic adventure where we learn how a reckless but promising young man becomes the agent we all know and love. 

I still have so many questions, and I need to see a lot more of this game, but this demo has me seated for whatever IO Interactive will share from it next. 007 First Light launches on March 27, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC.

Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles remakes one of the greatest tactics games of all-time, adding to it quality-of-life updates, a new visual style, full VO, and more. When it was revealed in June, I was thrilled – it's not the easiest game to legally play these days, a challenge emphasized by Square Enix famously losing the game's source code after rewriting over it when bringing the game to the West after its Japanese release. But I wasn't necessarily thrilled about some of the changes. 

The biggest change is the new visual style, which, while faithful to the original pixel art in a way, doesn't hold a candle to said original art. I had always dreamed of an HD-2D remake of Tactics, and the reveal of The Ivalice Chronicles in June killed that dream. 

After playing the game for about an hour in Cologne, Germany, during Gamescom 2025, I'm still left wishing this was an HD-2D remake – I just don't think the new visual style does much for me. You can, fortunately, switch to the original visual style of the game, but not without a major caveat: the modern upgrades, quality of life changes, fully voiced characters, and updated UI are part of the enhanced version of Tactics, or in other words, the visually redone version of Tactics. The new cutscene style is incredible, though.

I'm still not sold on the fully voiced characters, either. They sound great at times... and not so great at other times. I'll admit: I love Tactics and have imagined different characters in my head and perhaps my dissatisfaction stems from VO not matching what's always played in my head. That said, I hope the cast grows on me more in the full release. 

The rest of The Ivalice Chronicles, however, is incredible, and that's largely because Square Enix has made some smart quality-of-life changes to an already fantastic game. The short of it is that The Ivalice Chronicles plays amazingly (at least in the hour I checked out) and that's because it's the Tactics you know and love. 

 

Combat feels great, and navigating the battlefield, planning moves, and solving the various encounters, which feel like mini-puzzles to figure out, is good fun. New features include a "tactical view" that makes scouting the battlefield easier, an easier way to confirm turn order, fast-forward options (similar to Square Enix's other remastered Final Fantasy releases like Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age), auto-save in battles (a true lifesaver), and more. It's not hard to see how these features will enhance the game after one hour of trying them out, and they allow you to better focus your time and efforts into things like the job system, party strategy, and more. 

Square Enix says The Ivalice Chronicles includes additional conversations and dialogue, but I didn't notice anything revelatory – a con of just one hour with a game, no doubt. That said, I'm slightly anxious about the new dialogue as Tactics features an excellent story. Does it need more dialogue? Need is a strong word, but if what's new can match what's already there, then I'm all for it. 

After its reveal in June, The Ivalice Chronicles shot up high on my list of most anticipated games launching in 2025. After playing an hour of the game, it's still high up on that list. Though I'm not sold on the new visuals and VO, I can't deny how exciting it is to have a new excuse to jump into one of the genre's best. 

Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch 2, Switch, and PC on September 30.