Hell Is Others

Some games spend a good bit of time with backstory and plot development, while others just drop players in and let them figure it out for themselves. Hell is Others falls far on the latter end of the spectrum, with players dropped unceremoniously into a weird and warped fever dream of reality. Plants feed off blood and bloom bullets, your maintenance guy is a six foot tall rabbit, and the crack in your wall spawns a very talkative mouth. There's absolutely nothing that makes sense, and yet the characters simply go about their business like it's any other day. In fact, you're not only encouraged to ignore the insanity, but to lean into it, filling your sparse dwelling with new bloodthirsty plants and other random (and often disturbing) décor.

As strange as the game's setup might be, the actual matches are relatively straightforward. After matching with other players online, you travel through the city collecting resources and other salvage. While you're able to see the streets, rooms, and furniture, you can only see creatures, items and "Others" when they're exposed your cone of vision. It makes for some high tension during matches when you hear something close by but just out of sight. Unfortunately, that tension quickly gives way to frustration when random creatures rush your character, you're ambushed by other players while waiting for your gun to reload, or any other mishap causes your character's death and forces you to get back into the queue for another try. And considering the game currently hasn't built a huge audience, that queue can feel like an eternity. It all turns the game into a painfully slow grind. And it's that grind, not Others, that defines what this version of hell truly is.