While unable to definitively assess the accuracy of its BDSM portrayal, the in-game sex club in Saber Interactive's Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival offers a stark and effective contrast to the game's more conventional horror elements. The setting, appearing early in the game, serves to highlight the often-embarrassing juxtaposition of explicit themes with typical video game mechanics.
The narrative follows Aidan, who loses his girlfriend Sunny to the Cenobites after interacting with a puzzlebox. Shortly after, he finds himself abducted and subjected to torture, only to immediately engage with a crafting tutorial. This rapid shift from extreme duress to game mechanics is noted as a clash of priorities.
The game's initial hours are set within an "artisanal murder dungeon" that draws heavily on the films' inspiration from leatherplay and sex work. The environment is described as a pastiche of influences from games like BioShock, Condemned 2, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent, featuring dismembered bodies and wall writings about pain and pleasure. This area is also home to the Scarlet Church, a cult that mutilates its members to appease the Cenobites. Lore materials detail the cult's rituals and history, including depictions of the pyramidal god Leviathan. Even the cultists' dialogue, such as one reminding herself to "have faith in the process" while handling a corpse, suggests a lack of conviction.
Gameplay involves progressing through grim environments, collecting blades that quickly degrade, crafting ammunition, and utilizing stealth. Players will engage in combat and occasionally traverse into the Cenobite dimension. The primary objective is to rescue Sunny and retrieve the puzzlebox.
Suddenly, the player enters a sex club, seemingly established by the cult as a recruitment ground. This location offers a notable shift, featuring signs about safe sex practices amidst the grim atmosphere of the dungeon. The club's manager distinguishes the "innocent maniacs" of the club from the "batshit maniacs" in the catacombs. The club's dancefloor is populated by individuals in bondage gear, with various displays and suspended figures. While there are suggestive elements, the overall impression is relatively calm, with many patrons simply conversing.
To progress, Aidan must acquire a plushie used as a passkey from the VIP area. This requires assisting a woman by finding a paddle, a spreader, and a dildo. The subsequent interaction, however, is anticlimactic, with the woman losing interest before anything further occurs. The frisson of this scene reportedly stems from using the same controller input (right trigger) for this activity as for violent actions elsewhere in the game.
This encounter with the sex club, particularly the woman's dissatisfaction with Aidan's handling of the situation, serves as an implied critique of the game's more gratuitous violence. The over-the-top gore and dismemberment in other parts of Revival are presented not as expressions of dark desire, but as artists indulging in "goofing around." The cultists themselves are portrayed as earnestly, yet unseriously, pursuing Hell, akin to playing a game like Doom Eternal. Ultimately, the sex club's relative groundedness allows for a humorous reappraisal of the game's more absurd and pretentious elements.