I Hate This Place

I Hate This Place does a great job of creating an 80's vibe with a classic action-horror atmosphere. The story is interesting and dark, the protagonist kicks ass, and the action is fun and visceral.

You won't hate "I Hate This Place", but you might actually like this survival game set in a spooky wilderness. It could have been more expansive, and certain aspects could have been improved, but it plays well.

I Hate This Place has some interesting ideas inspired by its comic-book origins, but its moment-to-moment gameplay is dull at the best of times and deeply frustrating at the worst.

I Hate This Place is close to being a really good fusion of base building and isometric shooter, but never quite nails the game feel. Stealth is mostly a case of sneaking through vents, combat is repetitive and becomes too easy with more powerful weapons, and the base building parts function more like an idle game. To top it off, the story kind of fizzles out and the game ends just as the mechanics start to get established. There is a fun pulp horror experience here, but it doesn’t meet its clear potential.

In terms of comic book immersion, the pulp horror style of I Hate This Place does a great job to suck fans inside the cartoon frame. It looks darkly delicious, right down to the KAPOW!-style crackles, snaps and crunches that pop out of the screen to highlight crafting fires, underfoot glass or dynamite fuses. For serious gamers though, it’s little more than an enjoyably creepy distraction with its main story largely a (crouched) walk in the park. Side quests are fun but anticlimactic while crafting and RPG elements are pretty much redundant.