Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is the first demo I’ve played at a trade show that begins with full penetration. While it hopefully isn’t the last, such a daring visual combined with a relentless obsession with pain and pleasure allows this upcoming survival horror title from Saber Interactive to leave one hell of a first impression. It’s bloody, sensual, and eager to expand upon the iconic franchise with new characters and ideas.
After a brief chat with the developers, I was hurled into the very beginning of the game as main character Aidan is making love with his partner, Sunny. But this isn’t normal sex, it’s infinitely more daring, bloody, and unexpected. This is clear from the fetish objects spread across the filthy apartment our protagonist calls home, alongside how quickly he is to grab the Genesis Configuration – an iconic box that opens the gates of hell in the films – to make brutal cuts across his lover’s body. Unfortunately, this makes the Cenobites come knocking.
The Bond Between Pain And Pleasure
In pursuit of more pleasure, more pain, and ascension beyond mere human feeling, Sunny accepts the offer of the Cenobites – including Pinhead, who is voiced by a returning Doug Bradley for the first time in over two decades – even if it means having her physical body torn to pieces. Once she accepts, the graphic acts of violence that follow are difficult to witness. I’ve often considered myself desensitized to bloody violence or gore in video games, but this opening turned my stomach.
Hooks rip into Sunny’s flesh and pull it directly from her body, exposing vital organs as blood pours from her innards onto the rotten wooden floorboards below, leaving us to view her now-malformed breasts as a fractured window into her very soul. Her screams are of both pain and pleasure, deliberately obscuring whether Sunny is afraid to die or thrilled to learn what exactly it is she’s signed up for. Then, in the blink of an eye, she’s gone.
You weren’t responsible for summoning the Cenobites, and so they push you aside and leave with their new plaything in tow. But that doesn’t stop Aiden from nakedly chasing after her into a grim new dimension with no obedience to the rules of time and space as we know them. This opening section is basically a tonal piece as you navigate an ever-changing maze of corridors as a cloudy sky looms overhead. There is even a fleshy spider creature stalking you throughout, its guttural shrieks and heavy footfalls keeping me on constant edge.
Upon gaining control, Hellraiser: Revival immediately plays its hand as a first-person horror game in which you can crouch, slide, run, and hide. I was assured that there would be much combat in the finished game against both humans and alien creatures alike, but during my demo there was nothing but running and sneaking to be found. But who needs combat when running and sneaking are so damn good? It channels Alien: Isolation in how you are able to explore luscious environments to interact with objects or solve puzzles, while you’re often encouraged to hide in the shadows while predicting enemy movements in order to survive.
I wasn’t caught during the demo either, so it’s unknown whether this will result in an instant fail state or whether you will have a chance to defend yourself. Hopefully the latter.
Everywhere To Run And Nowhere To Hide
After encountering one of the Cenobites and falling victim to their snarling teeth, Aiden is awoken in his apartment by members of a nearby cult who kidnap him and take him to a vast underground complex filled with similar victims. Having come into contact with beings belonging to a higher plane, they now view you as a disposable tool; a fleshy means to an end who will stay locked up in their dungeon forevermore. But this is a video game, so it’s not long until you’ve broken out by ripping stitches and nails from your naked body. Gross.
Sneaking through this complex and meeting its twisted cast of characters – including Bruno, an artist who has made the slaughtering of innocent people his canvas – is wonderfully camp yet undeniably terrifying. The demo is filled with small rooms populated by human bodies all stitched together into various forms in desperate attempts to replicate the Cenobites, some of which you’ll need to reach into in order to obtain key items. It’s disgusting, made worse by photorealistic visuals that bring the film universe to life like nothing else has before.
It seems the Genesis Configuration will become a usable item once you recover it later on in the game, and I’m curious where this will be used to affect the environment, solve puzzles, or even fight enemies. Maybe all three?
The environmental design – brought to life through Unreal Engine 5 – is pretty exceptional. It is worth noting I was likely playing on an incredibly powerful PC, but even so, it’s hard not to be impressed with everything Revival throws at you. Each room is drenched in twisted little details, while the characters – despite some wonky vocal performances – feel true to life. I’m so interested to see where exactly the full game takes me, and how it will split its time across both the human and demon realms. As for playtime, I was told it will run from 7 to 10 hours depending on difficulty and how long you remain focused on exploration.
Hellraiser: Revival is the licensed survival horror experience I’ve been wanting for a long time now. It feels like the genre was stuck in a perpetual cycle of nostalgic online games destined to fade out of existence the moment they couldn’t maintain an audience. This is different, however, and like Alien: Isolation before it, could become a beloved new chapter within an underappreciated horror universe. This is certainly one to watch out for in 2026.
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival
- Developer(s)
- Saber Interactive
- Publisher(s)
- Saber Interactive
- Franchise
- Hellraiser
