The text below was published on the PlayStation.Blog.
Rogue Factor’s brutal mystery action adventure, Hell is Us, will escape our darkest nightmares and arrive on PlayStation 5 September 4. With a new atmospheric trailer straight from the depths, the game’s Creative and Art Director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête walked me through its secrets to shed more light on enemies, dungeons, and exciting gameplay commentary.
What was the inspiration behind the Hollow Walker enemy designs and the eerie blue Haze (around 1 minute)?
There’s not one single inspiration. I lean more into creating themes we want to explore. So, we wanted the enemies to be a physical manifestation of human emotions, then I started thinking about how these emotions behave. The Haze are expressions of emotions, using Robert Plutchik’s emotion wheel as color inspiration. The Hollow Walkers are white and emotionless, acting as a kind of human facsimile—the anchors for the emotions.
We could have created generic monsters expressing emotions, like an angry monster, but that felt cliché to me. What if it was more cosmic horror? Something unexplainable?
How many Hollow Walker types can we expect in the game?
There are five types—the Primordial, the Feral, the Protector, the Artillery, and the Negator—each with three levels, totaling 15 variants. Then there are the Hazes, which are four emotions—grief, ecstasy, anger, and terror—each with three levels as well, making 12. That gives us 27 enemies in the game.
Which are your personal favorites?
The Primordial—more basic and humanoid—feels most iconic. I actually really like it because it looked so cool in early concept art.
The Feral is awesome too, thanks to motion-capture sessions. They walk with these pointy, weird arms, so we hired dancers who literally used hand stilts for motion capture. Fascinating stuff.
The Negator has bizarre ears that actually function as its legs, and its attack pattern is clever. But honestly, the Primordial is our signature Hollow Walker, so it’s my favorite.
Can you tell us more about the Hollow Walker with multiple Hazes seen at the trailer’s end?
That’s definitely a standout moment in that specific dungeon. We don’t focus on traditional bosses, but rather consequential battles during key story moments. When multiple Hollow Walkers link to one Haze, we call it a Shepherd. What appears at the trailer’s end is a Ferment—a Protector Hollow Walker hooked to multiple Hazes.
This sequence concludes Act One. That act delves heavily into grief, so you progress through grief stages, with each Haze named after those phases. The combat cycle splits Hazes apart when defeated (think RPG slime enemies), leaving one Haze to fuse with the Protector, which you then must defeat.
We see dungeons featuring water wheels and mines. Can you expand on the ideas behind these environments?
Every dungeon has a theme tied to a specific emotion and interconnected with worldbuilding lore. Early in development, I prioritized non-contemporary dungeons despite our modern setting—these needed awe-inspiring, fantastical, otherworldly presence. And we wanted puzzle types impossible in realistic locations like abandoned factories or subways.
Some dungeons emphasize puzzles more than combat; others feature shifting environments like manipulating water levels. All are unique and enrich the narrative—sometimes requiring historical context to solve puzzles. One core theme is “history repeats.” Discovering ancient artifacts reveals links to current events. There’s plenty to discover.
What trailer details deserve closer scrutiny?
Around 1:45, see that massive pile? Scrutinize what’s actually stacked there. Imagine what it represents. At first glance, it might look like a rocky hill inside a dungeon—but look closer. How did this happen? What machinery surrounded it? It’s quite horrific yet fascinating. Symbolism is everywhere.
Hell is Us launches September 4.
