I Hate this Place – Strong words

As a comic book inspired survival-horror game with crafting elements, I Hate this Place feels like it’s biting off a little more than it can chew.

I’ll be honest with you — which seems like the least I can do if you’re reading this — it was the art style of I Hate this Place that caught my attention. The bright, colourful comic-book aesthetic grabbed my attention right away, and the use of on screen text to denote sounds was a lovely touch that had me interested quickly. I had no idea that this game was based on a comic book, so in hindsight the art style makes a lot of sense. Whilst there’s a lot of good to I Hate this Place, that art style and the story are certainly its best elements, as the gameplay feels comparatively weak.

You play as Elena, a woman who heads into the forest with her friend Lou to carry out a ritual to summon a deity known as The Horned Man. In what can only be described as a shock, something bad happens and Lou disappears, leaving Elena to try and find her. Discovering a nearby bunker, a strange man wearing a deer skull informs Elena that her friend is within. Before long, you’ll have met horrifying monsters and emerged into another part of the forest, none the wiser as to Lou’s whereabouts but with determination to set up camp and venture outwards to find her.

The story is actually quite engaging, although somewhat muddled in places. You’ll meet characters that Elena has a history with, but there’s not a huge amount of information about their relationship. Perhaps readers of the comic book will have a better time here. What’s more interesting is in how the story is told. Yes, there are stereotypical notes to be found, but at various points Elena will find herself trapped in some sort of ghost dimension where she’ll need to find clues in an effort to figure out what happened in the nearby area. These are visually striking and have their own mini stories that are quite enjoyable to discover.

In terms of gameplay, you’ll spend most of your time travelling around the map, both above and below it. Early parts of this section of the game will have you running around to scavenge resources to build a base of sorts at your uncle’s ranch. I’m not really one for survival and crafting mechanics, but resources were plentiful enough early on to enable me to create a home base that would generate enough resources for me to get on with things without too much concern. I will make a little complaint about the hunger system though. It’s a needless timer that does nothing in gameplay terms beyond forcing you to make sure you have food on hand. It feels like it’s there because survival games have to have them, and it just forces you to carry around food or head back to camp to make some more.

You’ll need to craft weapons and ammo too, as there are a variety of enemies to deal with, most of which are very dangerous as Elena isn’t the most hardy of individuals. Giant spiders, carnivorous deer, and strange tentacles abound. Interestingly, many of these track you by sound, so you’ll need to sneak around a lot. I like how the text appearing on screen shows the volume of your actions as a colour. If you sprint, red “THUD” text will appear to show you that you’re being pretty loud, whilst sneaking will colour it blue. It’s a small detail, but a neat way of giving a little player feedback.

Sneaking is pretty essential, as most enemies are quite tough and require a lot of resources to dispatch. You’ll have to pepper them with shots until you get more effective weapons, and you’ll find the ammo is less plentiful than other resources. This wouldn’t be so bad if melee was viable, but it’s unbelievably janky. Swinging your bat at enemies seems to damage them, but there’s little feedback, and the same is true of enemies attacking you. I thought I was holding off a giant spider well enough, only to realise in the aftermath that I’d lost ninety percent of my health. The exception to this is grab attacks that clearly show you being damaged as you bash your way out of the hold, so that’s clear enough at least.

The other real issue is that it’s really quite unclear what you’re meant to do a lot of the time. You’ll be given vague directions to find someone or somewhere, but with a map that is near useless and obstacles that have unclear ways of getting around them, things become increasingly irritating. Exploration is almost discouraged, as every other direction has something blocking your path with no indication of what to do about them. Couple this with the fact that I Hate this Place explains literally nothing in gameplay terms, and you’ve got potential for a frustrating time.

As a positive though, the aforementioned presentation is very good. Aside from the camera occasionally having a bad time when you’re in enclosed areas, the visuals are really quite striking, and enemies and characters stand out clearly. The visual effects in the ghost stories are particularly interesting, giving a kind of found footage vibe. Sound is nicely done too, with plenty of roars off in the distance letting you know that you really aren’t safe. There’s solid enough voice acting too, which is rare enough in lower budget games like this, and whilst weapons sound somewhat anaemic, the soundtrack is really strong, leaning into the 80s B-movie style that the overall presentation seems to take inspiration from.

Whilst I Hate this Place isn’t the strongest survival horror game, there’s an enjoyable story to engage with, and an impressive style to it. Unfortunately, some of the gameplay systems don’t work out as well as they could have, and I feel as though the devs should have tightened their vision rather than going for something a bit more broad than they could fully accomplish. I certainly applaud the willingness to try something bold when this is the second game they’ve made.

I Hate this Place is available now on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch.