Menu

1 / 7

Hellraiser: Revival Is Gross Enough To Redeem Games As Art

#kotakucom#kotaku#hellraiser#revival#game
Reading 0:00
15s threshold

Hellraiser: Revival is the perfect addition to horror writer Clive Barker’s boundlessly horny franchise because it’s also disgusting. Like the 1986 novella “The Hellbound Heart” and the several movies full of nipple-ripping and blood-suckling it inspired, developer Saber Interactive’s new action game is sexually depraved in a way that flies past Freud and into a pile of soiled underwear—and I’m grateful. I’m scared that the art of video games will be lost to major corporations’ mass layoffs in pursuit of untenable growth and live-service shooter after shooter , but I think Hellraiser: Revival can keep us safe in its big, flayed arms for now.

The game follows protagonist Aidan Lynch, who is revealed to have a urethra piercing within the first 15 minutes of gameplay, as he tries to save his girlfriend Sunny from the extra-dimensional Cenobites—including the illustrious Pinhead clad in supple black leather, voiced by original actor Doug Bradley.…

Continue reading — create a free account

Join HashtagPLUS to read full articles, follow hashtags, vote, and join the conversation.