Within the opening ten minutes of our Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival demo, we’d seen protagonists Aidan and Sunny f*cking while sticking pins in each other and seductively cutting each other with sharp objects.
Hellraiser is a franchise known for being horny, and the game is not shying away from that. This is a deeply sexual game in a way that’s unusual for the industry – one scene a little later on sees the main character nailed to a chair naked, and as you pan the camera down you’ll get a good glimpse at his respectably sized c*ck.
We asked game designer Srdjan Nedic how closely it’s interacting with ratings boards like the ESRB and PEGI to ensure Hellraiser releases at all. He told us his team at Mad Head Games is pushing the very limits of what it can show, with every scene carefully choreographed to ensure it respects the source material without overstepping the line.
The demo itself – based on the opening hour or so of the game played on PC – impressed the hell out of us. The cutscenes which introduce iconic antagonist Pinhead are glitzy and look expensive, with original actor Doug Bradley reprising his role as the cosmic deviant.
Played from a first-person perspective, this is a single player narrative adventure, similar perhaps to the recent Resident Evil games, like Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil: Village.
The demo starts out with you creeping through disgustingly detailed corridors, after your bloody pleasure session with the aforementioned Sunny has inadvertently summoned the Cenobites by way of the Genesis Configuration, a curious cube trinket which harbours supernatural powers.
Sunny has seemingly succumbed to the perverted cult, and has sacrificed her human body to them. But you’re starting to see visions of her suggesting she can be saved – or is it all just a figment of your imagination?
The demo’s pacing is extremely slow at first, but it gives you time to really soak in the atmosphere and explore every nook and cranny. While it’s largely linear, we enjoyed taking our time collecting materials which could be used to craft bandages, medicines, and other important items.
Much like games like Layers of Fear and PT, the title plays with your perception, warping realities to create an unnerving sense of misdirection. It’s not a new trick but it’s always an effective one, and it’s well executed here.
But Aidan is also an athletic protagonist, and over the course of the demo the vibes change. At one point you’ll find yourself pursued by a Cenobite, which leads to a trial-and-error style chase sequence. With the villain warping in front of you frequently, you need to rely on quick-turns and slides to escape his clutches.
There’s a hint of frustration here because if you do take one wrong turn it’s an instant failure, and there were staircases and doorways we happened upon which ended up being dead-ends, thus forcing us to restart. But the sequence definitely captures that sense of white-knuckle tension you want from a horror game; you’ll feel like you made it through by the skin of your teeth.
As the demo progresses the game begins to layer in combat, first with melee items like knives and bats and later with firearms. While ammo is limited, we got the sense this is a horror game where you’re going to do your fair share of killing, and we know from the trailers and screenshots that the Genesis Configuration is going to add some cosmic powers to your arsenal, although we didn’t get to test that yet.
The combat does feel crunchy, and it looks like you can choose to play both stealthily or more aggressively, depending on your preferences. While there are sequences in the demo where you do need to hide, we get the feeling much of the game will give you the choice of whether you want to go guns blazing or take a more methodical approach.
So we were impressed, then. This game is not shying from the source material, and it looks unlike anything else as a result. While the gaming industry is no stranger to gore, sexual deviation is a bit of a taboo subject – but this being Hellraiser, it has no other option than to examine these themes. It’s going to be interesting to see just how close to the edge the full game gets.
Will you be opening the box on Hellraiser: Revival when it launches in 2026, or is this one pleasure you’ll be steering clear of? Does the mix of sex and scares have you curious, or is it pushing things too far? Don’t succumb to the Cenobites in the comments section below.
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