// PC GAMER — GAMING
Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival review–Rough around the edges
Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival is fine. There's some fun to be had with its puzzles, but doesn't do anything outstandingly well or offer anything innovative. Fans of Hellraiser may revel in some nostalgia but there are better games in this genre.
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What is it? A singleplayer action horror game based on Clive Barker's Hellraiser. Release date October 8, 2026Expect to pay $40 / £35Developer Saber InteractivePublisher Saber InteractiveReviewed on RTX 3070, Core AMD Ryzen 5 5600G, 16GB RAMMultiplayer NoSteam Deck PlayableLink Steam
Bloody hell, that monster with the metal stakes for arms and legs is quick. No matter how fast I run or how well I hide it'll be right where it needs to be, on time and ready to impale me. Don't get me wrong, I actually quite like coming face to face with a de-fleshed monster— especially when it looks this cool—but I'm not a fan of being funneled into the same set pieces over and over again.
Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival does a lot of things right; its body horror and gore is top tier and some of the puzzles really grew on me towards the end. But its action and horror didn't manage to hit the same highs no matter how many grotesque monsters it threw at me.
I played Hellraiser on its standard setting—I find it's a good way to get a baseline—and while I didn't have a massive problem with how easy that was, I didn't gel with how inconsistent the fights were and how, ultimately, nothing I did mattered.
Take the final fight scene with our aforementioned monster with stakes for arms and legs, otherwise known as Charlotte, for example. After being chased through the cult's HQ and the woods she finally cornered me in a clearing in the woods. I used everything I had against Charlotte, going through all the ammo and healing items I had diligently stacked up all while sliding and dodging out of the way of incoming attacks, but she just wouldn't go down. Finally, when I had nothing left, she got me. And then the realisation set in as a cutscene played out; I was never meant to win this fight.
This happened a couple of times throughout Hellraiser, an action set piece in which your actions didn't really matter. One segment felt like a poor man's COD zombies that saw me nailing planks of wood to the windows in a futile attempt to keep those pesky brain-eaters out. It's not my first rodeo so I was on it. But ultimately I chewed through all the ammo and other resources I had yet again. Soon after a flood of zombies invaded the small cabin I was in and pushed me into a corner where I was trapped by the horde's flailing arms.
I actually managed to get out of that situation thanks to some well placed crouches but I didn't last much longer. Eventually one dropped from the rafters (don't ask me how he got there), and I crashed through the floor boards in another short cinematic. Ah, this was all part of the game's plan. It's fine for there to be an outline of how the action should play out, but when the guard rails are this obvious it can be suffocating.Why not make it all into a cinematic if my actions have so little consequence?
I may have even been able to excuse the strict script if killing enemies were satisfying enough for the journey to outweigh the destination. But the kills are just sort of okay. Enemies' torsos randomly detached from their legs when I threw a saw blade at their head, zombies fell to the floor as if playing dead only to then bite at your ankles, and fighting the guys in full suits of armour is far less epic than it sounds; you just have to hit them over and over with a blunt object.It's very tedious.