Published by Feardemic and developed by Rock Square Thunder, I Hate This Place is an indie survival horror game based on the popular and award-nominated comic series of the same name, written and illustrated by Kyle Starks and Artyom Topilin. The demo has already gotten players excited, and now the full game of I Hate This Place has been released on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC. 

After inheriting Rutherford Ranch, Elena and her close friend, Lou, accidentally awaken a malevolent force known as “The Horned Man,” which warps reality and brings nightmarish creatures into their world. After Lou goes missing, Elena must do everything she can to survive, find Lou, and try to escape this nightmare together. 

In I Hate This Place, the game is played in a fixed isometric view, and players must make their way through the woods, collect resources, explore different locations, and encounter various monsters, overgrown spiders, zombie-like people, supernatural beings, and more.

Players will also have to keep an eye on their health, stamina, and hunger. The health meter, of course, represents their life; stamina can be depleted by sprinting or with melee attacks, and affects Elena’s speed, and the hunger meter can also affect the stamina meter when low, and food must be consumed every so often. 

Resource gathering is a must to keep Elena alive. Players will need to find food to keep their hunger meter full, bandages to replenish health, materials to craft handy tools, weapons, guns, and ammo. It’s not always clear what objects can be interacted with, as players might be swinging their bat until something breaks and items drop out. It’s also not clear. The game could use better indicators to clarify what is what, but it certainly emphasizes the word ‘survival’ in this survival horror game.

When it comes to combat, it’s not one of the game’s strong points, as players will be struggling to fight off enemies. Elena clearly isn’t built for combat, with her slow melee attacks and low gunfire rate. This can be frustrating, but it seems to be by design, making players feel vulnerable rather than just having them go in guns blazing. For the most part, combat is secondary, as the main monsters you’ll come up against can’t actually see and rely on their hearing and touch. It might sound easy at first, but players’ patience will be tested as they have to slowly navigate around the monsters without making a sound or touching them.

The locations where you’ll encounter them are littered with broken glass, creaky floors, thin metal floors, and other noisy things, where one bit of noise will alert them, and they’ll quickly approach where the sound came from. Players can also use this to their advantage by purposely making noise to distract them, lead them away from where you need to go, or even into something hazardous to damage them. This creates a lot of tension and nerve-wracking moments. 

The monsters come in different shapes and sizes and behave differently, adding to the challenge. The main monster designs are as grotesque as it gets, like something you see in the Silent Hill games: mutated humans that look like failed experiments and red tentacle things that can reach far. Players will also have to deal with overgrown spiders when out in the woods, so those who have arachnophobia may want to steer clear of this game. There are also zombie-like people who move slowly but can overwhelm you with their numbers, as well as supernatural beings who create whole new challenges that players might not expect. 

Throughout the game, Elena will explore many locations, from farms, cabins, underground labs, abandoned towns, and more. There are plenty of resources and important items to be found, but it still feels limited, which creates a sense of helplessness and isolation. With a fixed isometric view, it’s not always clear where players can go, and even though the foreground becomes transparent, it’s sometimes not transparent enough to allow your character and surroundings to be better, causing a fair few inconveniences, especially when dealing with an enemy.

The game features day-and-night cycles that affect gameplay. When outdoors, enemies are more present and alert, but far less active during the day, though they still pose a threat if you’re not mindful of your surroundings. Daytime is best spent collecting resources, crafting items, and making your way to the next location before nightfall, where everything is out to kill you.

The game will have you constantly guessing which horror genre theme this is. Players will see pentagrams at campsites, ungodly mutated beings in a lab, slow-moving zombie-like people, supernatural events with ghostly figures appearing, and even live cows floating into the sky and being taken away. It seems to mix supernatural horror and science fiction horror, and just the thought of that can be overwhelming, but in the best way, and it keeps players on their toes. 

The game’s overall presentation and art style closely reflect the comic book series it’s based on, with its dark, unsettling atmosphere. The in-game graphics have a comic-style appearance, with saturated colours and thick black lines, and an 80s look and feel similar to the hit show Stranger Things. The character designs look like they were taken straight from the comics, and the dialogue and cutscenes are fully voice-acted, though the cutscenes aren’t presented well because the characters are still in their idle animations while conversing, making their interactions look odd. 

Even with the awkward-looking character interactions during cutscenes, the overall story is well-written, engaging, and will have players wanting to play more and find out what happens next. The storytelling is certainly one of the game’s strong points that the fans of the comics will appreciate, but even those unfamiliar with the comics can still dive into the game, enjoy the ride, and possibly spark their interest in the comic series. 

I Hate This Place, as a game, is a great adaptation of the popular comics series. Fans of the comics will appreciate the story, but it’s also welcoming to newcomers. It may be rough around the edges, but it will keep players on their toes, test their patience, and force them to be resourceful. Having to be perfectly quiet around certain enemies adds a whole new challenge for the stealth aspect of games.

The game may look cartoonish, but it is no doubt scary and will catch you off guard many times, and seeing vastly different horror themes all in one game will make you take a moment to realise what you might be up against. I Hate This Place shows great potential and is a true standout in the horror genre. 

Written by: Sammy Hanson