Despite being ripe for a video game adaptation, up until this year, it looked like no one would ever be able to release a game based on the popular Hellraiser franchise. While it will continue to be a mystery why so many failed to bring Pinhead and the other Cenobites to our screens, I can say for certain that, with Clive Barker's Hellraiser, Saber Interactive is definitely on the right track to capturing what makes the franchise so great while delivering a survival horror experience that is both haunting and incredibly immersive.
During Gamescom 2025 last week, I had the chance to try out Clive Barker's Hellraiser, and the around 40 minutes I spent with the game have left me thoroughly impressed. The demo began right from the start of the adventure, showing how Sunny opens the Genesis configuration and gets ultimately kidnapped by Pinhead himself, voiced by Doug Bradley, returning to the role after 20 years, and other Cenobites. Following a quick jaunt into the haunting Labyrinth, Aiden gets kidnapped by a group of cultists, the original owners of the Genesis Configuration, whose ultimate aim seems to create their own Cenobites for some unspecified twisted goal. Right from these first few minutes, it's clear how some of the franchises' theme, such as the thin boundaries between pleasure and pain, are on full show, and completely coherent with the series' canon, which is not surprising considering this is a canon story within the series' universe.
After a very intense sequence where the player has to pick the right actions to release Aiden from captivity, at the cost of much pain, the proper game began, giving me a taste of what to expect in the full experience. In many ways, Clive Barker's Hellraiser is a rather traditional first-person survival horror, but its great atmosphere enhances the genre's typical gameplay elements such as puzzles to complete, and chase sequences where Aiden has to escape from Cenobites, sequences that are made more interesting by the unique design of the Labyrinth, which can make navigation confusion, but in a nicely haunting way that only adds to the immersion. Puzzles also seem quite varied, ranging from simply following unclear directions to navigational puzzles like some simple stealth sequences. In the first few minutes of the game, these puzzles were mildly complex without being too easy or too hard, so progression felt natural, although some backtracking was in order. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to acquire a weapon to test out combat in the time available, so it remains to be seen how the game will balance fighting enemies with every other gameplay element, and how the dark powers of the Genesis Configuration will come into play.
With a no-holds-barred approach to the series' most extreme elements, I feel Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival will be an excellent debut for the franchise in the video games space. Despite playing the demo in a fully lit room amid the familiar hum of chatter that defines events like Gamescom, it feelt unsettling and horrifying nonetheless, which speaks volumes about the excellent work Saber Interactive is doing. Hopefully, the game will be as great as it looked in this demo when it launches sometime next year on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.
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