Saber Interactive's Hellraiser: Revival is a sexually depraved and disgusting addition to Clive Barker's franchise, a quality the author is grateful for in a gaming landscape threatened by corporate layoffs and a pursuit of live-service titles. The game follows protagonist Aidan Lynch as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend Sunny from the extra-dimensional Cenobites, including Pinhead, voiced by original actor Doug Bradley. Revival embraces its source material's "freak factor," incorporating dense science-fiction logic to explain its unique puzzle box, the monster god Leviathan, and a degenerate cult.
Unlike titles aiming for mass appeal, Hellraiser: Revival leans into its disturbing content. Its first-person combat is fluid, and its graphics are sickeningly realistic, yet they feature elements like "congested intestines falling out of their butts." Saber Interactive could have opted for a more palatable, generic horror shooter, but they did not. Executive producer Nenad Tomic stated that Clive Barker was "deeply involved with the game from the very beginning," a sentiment that clearly informs the game's design. Barker's writing, much like the game's presentation, delivers gruesome details with a casual energy.
Revival is not preoccupied with conventional horror cues like anguished screams or dramatic music. Instead, the developers focus on depicting the corruption of the human mind and body. The game showcases curved needles piercing skin, grotesque statues made from sewn-together body parts, and a meat grinder extruding pearls from human flesh. Reflecting the franchise's thesis that pain and pleasure are indistinguishable, characters are often vulnerable, perverted, and scantily clad. Enemy cult members express a desire for suffering, their devotion manifesting in self-mutilation as they attempt to gain the Cenobites' favor. One observed torture scene involves a cult member having her jaw removed and tongue extended, a detail that reportedly made some developers at Summer Game Fest puke.
This deliberate off-putting nature alienates a broad consumer market, a stark contrast to what theorist Julia Kristeva described as a modern preference for foresight, seduction, and recovery, often seen in media that is "not too far removed from the level of the media." In the current gaming industry, AAA titles often feature idealized heroes, easily replicated by generative AI, and are pushed by corporations like Microsoft, EA, and Ubisoft. These companies, the author argues, promote sycophantic chatbots and hagiographic protagonists to encourage the purchase of increasingly expensive hardware, distracting players from widespread industry layoffs.
Kristeva's concept of "abjection" suggests that cleanliness and pleasantness do not represent the entirety of human existence; "vomit, blood, piss, and pus" are also essential. Therefore, repulsive art is necessary. Hellraiser: Revival stands as a bleeding example of this, counteracting cynical marketing and job losses with its unflinching depiction of torture and body horror. It is a mainstream game that actively engages the player's mind, offering a visceral experience that proves AAA games can indeed be art, especially when the industry needs less artificial intelligence and more "arterial incisions."