A classic horror franchise being adapted into a video game, you say? Wait, and it’s not an asymmetrical horror game? It’s single-player survival horror set in the Hellraiser universe? Clive Barker is also involved, and Doug Bradley is back as Pinhead? It’s called Hellraiser: Revival? Okay, Saber Interactive, you have us intrigued.
“No tears, please. It’s a waste of good suffering”. This is one of the most well-known quotes from Clive Barker’s groundbreaking horror movie, Hellraiser. It is also a good example of what fans of the series have had to endure since the release of the 1987 classic. Aside from the sequel (released a year later) and the 2022 reboot, fans of Hellraiser have had to endure a lot of suffering with, quite frankly, some utter garbage movies. Saber Interactive wanted to change this; not only give Pinhead and his gang of sadomasochists their first video game outing (apart from Pinhead’s appearance in Dead by Daylight), they wanted to give Hellraiser fans an entry into the series that wasn’t…you know, embarrassing. There has been a lot of hype for the release of Hellraiser: Revival, with extensive previews and a demo. All the footage from these has given Hellraiser fans a lot of hope. Does Hellraiser: Revival (as the title implies) revive the series, or is it yet more suffering? Let’s find out together as we leave the Lament Configuration behind and dive in.
Hellraiser: Revival has you play as series newcomer Aidan Lynch. He is an enforcer to a local biker gang, and we find Aiden and his girlfriend, Sunny, engaged in, let’s just say, some adult activities that would please Pinhead and his band of merry Cenobites. During these…activities, Sunny pulls out a familiar-looking puzzle box. This is where we meet the Genesis Configuration. It doesn’t take long for the Cenobites to appear, and it takes even less time for Sunny to agree to head off with them. Poor Aidan. Not only is he left bruised and bloodied from his…fun, he’s been dumped for some inter-dimensional demons. Or is it angels? Well, Aidan doesn’t want to give up just yet, so he decides he needs to rescue Sunny, which takes him on an adventure from the basement of a deranged cult to the dark and ominous realm of the Cenobites, The Labyrinth. It is a fun and engaging story that completely fits into the lore of the series.
What we get from the opening cutscene is a taste of what’s to come from Hellraiser: Revival in terms of its content. This is not a game that holds back…at all. Hellraiser fans will be having the best time with the amount of sexualised torture going on. It is a brave choice by Saber Interactive considering how popular video game streaming and video content is. I can’t see YouTube or Twitch being too happy with the content on display. Their loss is our gain, though, as Hellraiser: Revival completely nails the aesthetics of the series, highlighted by your trips to Pinhead’s home. Speaking of the Hell Priest, Doug Bradley returns to voice the leader of the Cenobites for the first time since 2005, excluding the couple of lines he did for Dead by Daylight. He slips effortlessly back into the role and is as sinister as ever. He is obviously the highlight of the game, and Saber use him wisely. It is a difficult balancing act with characters like Pinhead. You don’t want them on-screen too much to take away the spectacle, but you also don’t want to not have them on-screen enough.
Right. So far, we have a good story, plenty of torturous sexualised gore, and Doug Bradley is back as Pinhead. If this were a movie, we could stop here and claim Hellraiser: Revival as a complete success. It is not, however, and we need to talk about the gameplay. In a nutshell, it is a first-person survival-horror akin to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil Village. There is a decent mixture of melee and gunplay, some questionable stealth parts, and scripted chase sequences. Is it as polished as those first-person Resi entries? No, absolutely not, but I don’t think anyone was expecting them to be. Let’s take a deeper look at the different elements at play and start with combat.
Functional would be the best word to describe your combat abilities throughout Aidan’s story in Hellraiser: Revival. With this being a survival horror, shooting everyone in the face is not an option. Instead, you will need to pick and choose your battles (in the early parts of the game, anyway), and when you do need to kick some ass, it’ll be time to swing your big ol’ stick. Melee combat is spot between blunt and bladed weapons, with each category needed for different enemy types. It…works. You can swing the weapon and dodge. No blocking. No combos. Just swing and dodge, which coincidently is my go-to style of combat for Dark Souls. Your weapons are about as strong as wet paper, it seems, and they will break after only a few hits. Speaking of lack of strength, the stealth sections are incredibly barebones. There is an icon to show you are hidden, but there’s no indication to show that you are about to be spotted or have been spotted by an enemy. It all just seems old fashioned and feels like the stealth section you’d get in a game from the early 2000s.
As you progress, you’ll get to use some guns, but ammo is scarce. The gunplay, much like the melee combat, is functional. The frustration with the gunplay comes as there numerous times where Hellraiser: Revival forces you to go in all guns blazing. Which is fine, if you had the resources to do so, because the enemies are rather bullet-spongy, none more so than the bosses you’ll come up against. I suppose that makes sense, they all really, really like pain, after all. The armoured cult members are the worst for this. The best tactic with them is to concentrate your fire into one area until the armour breaks then finish them off. The hit boxes are a bit hit and miss, and you will find yourself lining up a perfect headshot, only for it to somehow miss.
It wouldn’t be a survival horror without good ol’ resource management, would it? There is a crafting system, as well as a Resident Evil 4/8-influenced merchant named Zora. Whilst navigating through the world, you can pick up money that can be used with Zora to buy a range of goodies from weapons to crafting recipes. The latter does highlight a big frustration in Revival in the lack of resources you’ll find. We all know that is a staple of survival horror, but there needs to be just the right amount. You don’t want to give players too much and turn the game into a glorified shooter. In turn, you don’t want to be too scarce, where playing becomes a chore.
A hugely unique selling point for Hellraiser: Revival’s combat is the inclusion of the Genesis Configuration. This isn’t (thankfully) a Phil Collins tribute band but Revival’s version of the puzzle box, the Lament Configuration. Using this is a lot of fun. It allows you to pick up scattered objects and hurl them at enemies. Saw blades, nails, spikes, and so on can all be grabbed with the box and sent flying towards whichever poor souls are standing in your way. It is also used to solve puzzles throughout Aidan’s journey. I would have liked to have utilised the box’s power a bit more and pick up some other objects around the world, but it is a great inclusion.
Another welcomed inclusion here are the chase sequences when you find yourself in The Labyrinth. Here, you’ll be legging it away from arguably the second most well-known Cenobite below Pinhead in the Chatterer. These are genuinely nerve-racking as Mr. Chatterer can teleport himself around. You could be running down a corridor, see him at a distance, turn back and run quite pleased with yourself, only for him to appear right in front of you. You’ll need to be quick on the quick turns during these sequences as you’ll be forced to head back the way you came a lot during these chase sequences, with the environment seemingly changing to the Cenobite’s will. This would be perfect time to mention the controls, which do work well if you change both the sensitivity and turn acceleration up. The standard controls are extremely slow, and it is a real chore to do simple things like turn, but boosting both those control features up easily solves the issue.
Visually, Hellraiser: Revival generally looks good. There are a few issues here and there, where some assets don’t load properly. This really wasn’t a huge deal, and sure, it can take you out of the moment when an enemy’s face doesn’t load properly, but with how good the game in general looks (especially on the Switch 2), it can be forgiven. Performance-wise, Hellraiser: Revival aims for 30fps, with a few dips below when there is a lot happening on-screen. Again, this, for me, is a perfect trade to be able to have Hellraiser: Revival portable.
Developer: Saber Interactive
Publisher: Saber Interactive
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S, PS5. PC
Release Date: 8th October 2026
Gaming Respawn’s copy of Hellraiser: Revival was provided by the publisher.
