RafterXL
Member
I'm about 30 hours in and this game has been one of the best experiences in gaming for me, in years. Even the combat, which is the low point, is better than a lot of games and still has a visceral punch. The world building is up there with the best i've seen, the world is excellent. I actually care about the lore and backstory and some of the plot lines and what happens to people are absolutely brutal. It's the kind of game we don't get anymore because modern developers don't want to touch any remotely difficult topics anymore.
You vastly overestimate the average gamer. We're talking about people who need yellow paint to know you can, or even attempt to, climb a ladder. What is great about this game is that it's not completely obtuse. It gives you everything you need to solve the problems without explicitly solving them for you. It's what gaming used to be and it's amazingly refreshing. The problem is, even giving the players all the information isn't enough in 2025, which is why the majority of games have UI's that look like a fully modded WoW and have characters that tell you want to do five seconds after you come across anything that requires any thought at all. Hell is Us would probably sell significantly better with all the modern day trappings even if it would have made the game significantly worse.Handholding in this day and age is waypoints, markers, GPS lines to the exact thing that you're supposed to do or visit. that's not handholding, that is presenting the solution.
This game has plenty of handholding; it guides you to the solution by telling you what you need or where you need to go. That is what handholding is.
After 5 hours the only moment I actually had to actively use my brain is when some vault had a password input and the half the input was in one journal and the other half in another so I had to "memorize" a six digit code.
I worry for people who struggle with puzzles like that.