Hellraiser: Revival understands Hellraiser. That sounds like a low bar, but this is a franchise that spent decades buried under direct-to-video sequels that seemed embarrassed by what Clive Barker created. Saber Interactive’s game is not embarrassed by anything. It goes straight for the blood, the hooks, the leather, and the uncomfortable marriage of pain and pleasure that made the original films so disturbing, and then it pushes all of it further than the movies ever dared.

In spirit, this is exactly what Hellraiser should be. The problem is everything you have to do with a controller in your hands to experience it.

Then there’s the sexual content, which is where Revival is going to lose some people, and where I suspect it will win over the fans who have been waiting for a Hellraiser that remembers its roots. The sex club sequence is the moment the game shows you exactly what it is. You’re sent on a scavenger hunt through a bondage club, fetching equipment like a leg spreader, paddles, and, I quote, the “biggest thickest dildo” you can find. There’s a paddle-spanking scene you actually participate in. Later, a combination lock asks you to arrange the positions of couples in an orgy. It’s crude, it’s ridiculous, and at times it’s genuinely uncomfortable, but it’s also unmistakably Hellraiser. Barker’s work was always about desire taken past the point of reason, and Revival commits to that idea without flinching.

## Where It All Falls Apart

The combat is clunky, and there’s no way around it. Revival plays like a first-person survival horror game in the mold of modern Resident Evil, with scarce ammo, breakable melee weapons, and a cramped inventory, but it lacks the polish that makes those games work. Gunfire has very little impact. Enemies soak up bullets without much reaction, so it’s hard to tell how much damage you’re actually doing. Melee swings feel inconsistent, dodging is stiff, and switching weapons mid-fight because of the limited equip slots kills whatever momentum an encounter has built up.

Stealth doesn’t fare much better. There’s no way to peek around corners, and enemies have a habit of spotting you the moment you lean even slightly out of cover. Some stalker sections end the instant you’re seen, which turns tension into frustration in a hurry.

The boss fights expose the combat’s weaknesses most of all. The Sister of Mercy, a flying horror who fills her arena with blood mist and darts at you through the haze, is a genuine highlight. Too many of the others come down to circle-strafing and emptying your clips, and some of them overstay their welcome. The final fight against Marlowe, now transformed into a hulking monstrosity in the church’s cathedral, is more of a puzzle than a test: shoot the glowing growths on his back, pin him down with the Hellchains, and hit him while he’s exposed. It’s fine. It isn’t the climax a story like this deserves.

The Chatterer chases through the Labyrinth are tense the first time. By the later chases, the same chains and obstacles start to feel recycled, and what should be a terrifying pursuit becomes a routine.

The Labyrinth’s flashbacks are another bright spot. The farther Aidan travels, the more the game reveals his past addictions and shows that his relationship with Sunny was never the romance he wants to believe it was. It was volatile, toxic, and abusive. That slow unraveling is the best writing in the game, and it sets up an ending that, for all the story’s flaws, actually works.

Spoiler Warning: The Ending

The following section discusses the ending of Hellraiser: Revival in full. Skip to the verdict if you want to go in fresh.

After Aidan collects the final heart from Marlowe and Sunny is fully restored, the Cenobites come to collect on his bargain. Aidan lets Sunny consume his hand, and the Hell Priest reveals that the Scarlet Church had the Rite of Rebirth wrong all along. The Genesis Configuration was never looking for a cultist to ascend. It was looking for a Revenant Mother, and Sunny, pregnant by this point, was the one it chose. She gives birth to an ascended incarnation of the Priest, and then comes the twist: Sunny made her own deal with the Cenobites from the very beginning and manipulated Aidan into resurrecting her. When he accuses her of using him, her answer is that they used each other.

## The Verdict

Hellraiser: Revival is the most faithful Hellraiser adaptation in decades. It nails the look, the sound, and the depraved spirit of Clive Barker’s world, and it takes the series’ gore and sex-filled savagery to a level the films never reached. Doug Bradley’s Pinhead is as commanding as ever, the Labyrinth is stunning, and the ending lands with the cruelty this franchise demands.

The execution, however, wasn’t great. Clunky combat, forgettable bosses, recycled chases, and a long list of technical problems make actually playing it a chore far too often. The Genesis Configuration shows what this game could have been if Saber had built everything around it.

Fans of the franchise will find plenty to love here, as long as they’re willing to suffer for it. Somehow, that feels appropriate.

Score: 6.5/10