Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is one hell of a game, giving players and fans of the franchise one of the best licensed games of all time. That said, the game is not without its flaws, but nevertheless, it is a game worthy of all those who seek sensations beyond the veil of understanding, or just survival horror fans looking for their next fix.
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival takes place 20 years after the events of the original movies, giving fans a glimpse back into the early 2000s, which feels appropriate for the grungy and blood-soaked locales the game explores. Players assume the role of Aidan Lynch, a hedonistic ex-biker hellbent on saving his girlfriend Sunny after she succumbs to the allure of the Genesis Configuration, a new puzzle box from the Cenobites. The game explores themes of desire and addiction, giving a surprisingly nuanced story that feels equal parts grisly and heartfelt.
In terms of the gameplay loop, in essence, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is a survival horror game that feels like a mix of modern Resident Evil and the long-dormant Condemned duology of games from the now-defunct Monolith Productions. Players are tasked with guiding Aidan through cesspools of depravity that take the form of cultist strongholds, nightclubs, forests, sewers and, of course, the iconic labyrinth where the Cenobites reside.
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival also features a healthy dose of PT-esque shifting corridors and environments that play with the senses and feel appropriate for the nightmare-inducing imagery Clive Barker is known to deliver. For those playing the PC release of the game, I highly recommend enjoying the experience in VR, with the game working out of the box with UEVR. Exploring the labyrinths via the Steam Frame and Meta Quest 3 has been one of the best experiences I’ve had in VR in 2026.
“Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is one hell of a game, giving players and fans of the franchise one of the best licensed games of all time. “
Regardless of how you play, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is a gorgeously grotesque-looking game, steeped in atmosphere and foreboding, perfectly capturing the look and feel of the legendary horror franchise. From the faithfully recreated likeness of Pinhead and his squad of Cenobites to the way they materialize into view, it nails the source material with bone-chilling accuracy.
Weapon variety is solid in Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, with the game slowly giving the player increasingly more devastating tools, starting with pieces of wood, bats and knives, to an eventual full arsenal of high-spec guns, more appropriate to take on the legions of otherworldly threats. Outside of weapons grounded in reality, the game also gives Aidan some utility with the Genesis Configuration puzzle box, starting with a devastating stasis ability that can hurl saw blades, nails and other objects stuck in the geometry towards your foes. By game’s end, players can expect some truly inspired attacks using the puzzle box that feel reminiscent of the films.
“Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is a gorgeously grotesque-looking game…”
Suffering, which acts as your magic or MP meter in the game, dictates how often you can use your secondary attacks with the puzzle box. Both health and suffering can be upgraded via hidden chambers within the labyrinth, which usually require a bit of quick thinking and puzzle-solving to unlock.
On the topic of the labyrinth, which usually acts as a bridge between acts, it features a healthy dose of puzzles and chase sequences that, for the most part, feel engaging and tense, particularly when outrunning the Chatterer. Unfortunately, there are a few small sections within the roughly 12-hour experience that can feel cheap when in the labyrinth, due to tight timing when being forced to move around some blocks that take far too long and can sometimes feel overused.
Another stain on the BDSM-inspired leather that is Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is when it comes to its boss encounters and some of the more elite enemy types. At times they feel reused to an annoying degree, made worse by spongy health pools that seemingly exist to exhaust players of their resources. Hopefully a future patch will address this issue, as a more balanced approach could make an already great game excellent.
On the topic of resources, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival apes the best, giving players a Resident Evil-inspired inventory management system, complete with shuffling around items on a grid and having to collect raw scraps to fashion together ammunition and repair melee gear. This system works well enough, but by the game’s end, I did find that it lacked enough materials for some key moments, while having a surplus of specific items that I could do nothing with, making for some mild frustration.
Overall, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is one of the best survival horror games of 2026 and the best licensed horror game to come out since the likes of Alien: Isolation. Despite some balancing issues and an overreliance on some finicky puzzles, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is a must-play for survival horror addicts and any Hellraiser die-hards.
