If I could say one thing about Hellraiser: Revival, it would be that this is a faithful adaptation of Clive Barker’s seminal horror series.

This survival horror doesn't pull its punches, with brutal gore, a disturbing world of sadomasochism, and pin-perfect recreations of aspects of the films. For that, fans of the series will get a kick out of this game.

The issue is that this faithfulness is hamstrung by a frustrating mixed bag of gameplay ideas that ebb and flow from brilliant sequences to some of the worst gameplay moments of 2026. The peaks and troughs I experienced while reviewing this game were truly something.

Let’s start with the story, though. Sunny and Aiden are two adventurous souls, let’s say, but one fateful night they get a little too adventurous in bed while utilising the sharp corners of the Genesis Configuration.

That opens a gateway to the Labyrinth and calls forth the Cenobites. Keen to accept handing herself over to explore the riches of pain and pleasure, Sunny is torn apart by the Cenobites in a horrendously fleshy fashion.

Aiden is then captured by a sex cult that worships the Cenobites, and must not only escape, but reclaim Sunny from the Labyrinth.

What follows is a fairly linear first-person shooter that relishes in the brutality of this universe. For that reason alone, I really enjoyed my early hours with the game, and flickers of enjoyment remained all the way to the credits.

I’ve only ever seen the first Hellraiser movie, but I like that Saber has gone all in on bringing Clive Barker’s world to another medium. Every hallway is filled with some kind of depravity, with some of the most violent and disturbing things I’ve seen on PS5. It’s definitely not going to be for everyone, for that reason alone, but I respect the commitment to Clive Barker’s vision.

Levels including the Labyrinth, which are sprinkled across the roughly eight hours it takes to reach credits, are especially brilliant, with stunning use of lighting and some fun and trippy puzzles. While chase sequences with a particularly chompy member of the Cenobites do get a little repetitive, it’s still toe-curlingly tense.

I loved the morphing environments and how they dove into the troubled past of protagonist Aiden and his tumultuous relationship with Sunny. It never holds back, and really pushes its rating to the limit.

The issue, really, is the rest of it. Despite looking stunning at times on both PS5 and PS5 Pro, Hellraiser: Revival is clearly a lower-budget game. You can feel it in the gameplay, with a real inconsistency between weapons, some clunky platforming, and some truly baffling moments of level design. In many ways it reminded me of Teyon’s RoboCop: Rogue City.

It feels like Saber is throwing gameplay ideas at the wall to see what sticks. While a moment straight out of P.T. definitely does, a weird mini-recreation of Call of Duty Zombies does not. These highs and lows are also applicable to the environments, which at times are really nice-looking and filled with atmosphere, and other times they are just fine.

My biggest pain point, however, concerns combat. Combat itself isn’t bad. Enemies are fairly tough, and I liked that when a cultist showed up with armour on, it genuinely changed the way I had to approach them, as blades couldn’t harm them. The problem was a severe lack of resources.

Hellraiser features a crafting system where you must collect supplies around the level, and eventually buy recipes from a recurring store. The idea is that you can eventually make ammo, health packs, and lock picks.

However, through the majority of my playthrough, I felt like I had no supplies, which in turn meant I had no ammo or weapons, and since melee weapons have very limited durability and repairs only partially fix them, I was often left to fight enemies with my default blade, which barely did any damage.

I can already hear many of you protesting that this is a pillar of survival horror, but I’d argue there is a fine line any developer must walk. Many other survival horrors skate that line with just the right amount of supplies to get you through, but what scraps Hellraiser leaves for you to collect does not align with the amount of enemies and bosses it throws your way.

You do have the Genesis Configuration to help you out, which allows you to throw sharp objects and even fire at enemies. However, it is fueled by causing damage to said enemies, and since that’s an issue due to the lack of resources, it doesn’t feel like as consistent a tool as it probably should.

All of these issues really come to light in the game’s boss fights. The larger bosses are some of the most frustratingly designed bosses that I’ve played, with mechanics that aren’t quite obvious, or spaces that are incredibly awkward to navigate.

There were a few fights where I simply ran out of supplies, so I was trying to get my petty little hits in before they killed me and I had to start the whole thing over again. This is especially frustrating since many of the mini-bosses are repeated several times across the campaign.

The game certainly starts to throw more resources at you towards the end of the game, but I think it's telling that in the last few fights, you're able to move spinning blades to take out larger amounts of enemies, rather than fight them with your weapons.

Hellraiser: Revival has a quality and performance mode option across both versions of Sony’s console. I didn’t notice any stark differences between either version, but even on performance mode, I did spot a few dips in frame rate, especially when transitioning from one area to the next.

There are some DualSense haptics implemented here, but it’s very inconsistent, like feeling each selection in the storage box menu through the controller, but not in the store menu, or the shotgun having a real oomph to it, but the submachine gun feeling like a tepid toy.