The First Standalone Hellraiser Game Is Out — It Has 94% Positive Reviews on Steam

Saber Interactive has released Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, the first standalone video game based on the Hellraiser horror franchise. The project launched on October 8 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2, and early Steam user reviews have been surprisingly strong: 94% of 55 reviews are positive.

The sample is still quite small, so it’s too early to treat that figure as a final verdict on the game. Still, at launch Steam gave Hellraiser: Revival a “Very Positive” rating.

When it announced the game, Saber called Revival the first Hellraiser game. Characters from the franchise had appeared in other projects before, but there had never been a full standalone game set in the universe.

Doug Bradley Is Voicing Pinhead Again

Hellraiser: Revival is a single-player first-person horror game with action and survival horror elements. The protagonist, Aidan, is trying to save his girlfriend Sunny, who has ended up in the Labyrinth — the world of the Cenobites.

The central mechanic is the Genesis Configuration, a new version of the famous puzzle box. Its supernatural abilities can be combined with firearms and melee weapons.

The game tells a new canonical story created with Clive Barker’s involvement. Doug Bradley has returned as Pinhead, voicing the character again for the first time in nearly two decades.

The developers clearly made no attempt to soften the material. Steam carries a separate warning for graphic violence, dismemberment, torture, sexual content, BDSM, drugs, and themes of suicide and domestic violence. In its level of frankness, Revival aims to match the early films in the series rather than turn Hellraiser into a standard monster action game.

Critics Were Far Less Enthusiastic

Professional reviews so far are noticeably less enthusiastic than user reviews.

Game Informer gave the game a 4.5 out of 10, criticizing its numerous bugs, combat system and certain design decisions. At the same time, the outlet praised its visual fidelity to the franchise and Doug Bradley’s performance.

GamingBible rated Revival 7/10. It highlighted the Labyrinth, the puzzles and the use of Hellraiser mythology as strengths, and uneven combat and overly simple stealth as weaknesses.

On PC, the minimum requirements include a GTX 1660 or Radeon RX Vega 64, 8GB of RAM and 80GB of storage. A free demo is also available on Steam.

So the launch has been an interesting one: early buyers have received Hellraiser: Revival much more warmly than some critics. But 55 user reviews is too small a sample, so the game’s real reputation will become clearer after a few days of sales.