I was terrified of the Cenobites as a kid, which is why Hellraiser: Revival is walking a fine line

The announcement of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, made using Unreal Engine 5, signals we're having a horror game renaissance. There’s a reason Hellraiser's Cenobites have endured; they weren’t born to be slashers or jump-scare dead-ends despite first stalking our nightmares when Freddy Krueger was playfully turning our beds into blenders. The Cenobites were designed, crafted as icons of horror’s more disturbing, seductive side.

With Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, the first official game set in this nightmarish mythos (I really would have loved the cancelled NES game as a kid), that artistic legacy should find a new voice on consoles. At least, that’s the hope.

This single-player survival horror title from Saber Interactive and Boss Team Games looks like a feast for fans of visceral visual design. But it’s also navigating a difficult line: how do you preserve the methodical, dreadful elegance of Hellraiser when you're building a game that must keep players doing something, all the time? Thankfully, the dev is dropping its penchant for multiplayer ( Boss Games made the Evil Dead: The Game) to position Hellraiser: Revival as a single-player story, but will outright action do service to the Cenobites' torturous design?

Horror you feel, not just see

Let’s start with what Hellraiser: Revival gets right: the Cenobites look fantastic. Doug Bradley’s return as Pinhead, nearly two decades after his last outing, grounds the game's visual direction. His presence has always been theatrical, less serial killer, more baroque philosopher.

The early artwork, screens, and gameplay trailer show a world drenched in obsession. There's a return to the symmetrical, sculptural qualities of Clive Barker’s original vision, flesh as canvas, metal as ritualistic, religious identity. It appears the developer has studied not just the original film, but Barker’s novella 'The Hellbound Heart', and the visual language to, at least try, and create a visual design to scare, but also to tell a story.

The Genesis Configuration, the game’s riff on the infamous puzzle box, is one of the more intriguing additions. Rather than a simple plot device, it becomes a tactile gameplay mechanic, a thing to manipulate and toy with. It's visually interesting but importantly conceptually clever (the press release hints at this device transforming weapons and methods of attack). It's also a device that hints at a deeper tension between the source material and the game's design – how far can player agency be supported before it disrupts the franchise’s very premise? After all, Hellraiser has never been about empowerment, but rather surrender.

A mixed design message

This is where the first doubts begin to creep in. According to the official press release, Hellraiser: Revival isn’t just survival horror; it’s also action. The gameplay footage shows combat – guns, knives, takedowns – and while this feels immediate and fun, it's possibly stepping too far from the books' slower, insidious tone.

Will the focus on action dilute the tension? Clive Barker’s horror works best when it lingers, when the horror happens to a protagonist, not when they fight their way through and out of it. If Hellraiser: Revival tips too far into traditional first-person shooter territory, there’s a risk it could feel like any other dark, grim action game, with spikes and demons. We have that, it's called Doom: Eternal, and it's pretty good. Going all-in on action would feel like a waste of the franchise’s uniquely unsettling premise.

The Cenobites, after all, aren’t bosses but manifestations of our trauma. Their horror isn’t in what they do to you; it’s in what they represent. That’s a hard thing to turn into moment-to-moment gameplay without sacrificing atmosphere.

Yet I'm reminded of past games, such as Condemned from the Xbox 360 era, a forgotten gem that empowered you but also made you fear every shadow, mirror, and mannequin. One area where the game's dev team could find a balance is in who and what we can confront, and which horrors are off limits.

Here, Boss Games is cracking its creative knuckles and expanding the Hellraiser visual canon. Alongside the iconic Cenobites, players will face off against twisted cultists, infernal creatures, and what we’re being told are 'deviants' who serve Pinhead’s philosophy. This could be a brilliant move, offering fresh antagonists, bizarre new rituals, and world-building through enemy and creature design.

Or, it could become visual noise. Pinhead and the Cenobites could withdraw to the background, fade from focus, and their impact diminished. Part of the appeal of Hellraiser lies in its restraint; a single sharpened chain and hook, a whisper from Pinhead, methodical and merciless, was often enough to send shivers down my spine. Overloading the game with grotesque enemies could backfire for a franchise built on mechanical, precise horror. If everything is a monstrosity, nothing truly shocks. The game needs contrast; otherwise, the horror might drown in its own blood.

Action and horror can work

I'm back to remembering games that found the balance – Dead Space, Silent Hill 2 Remake, Alan Wake 2 – and how Hellraiser: Revival looks to be embracing the world-building and design of the series, with Clive Barker's guidance. It’s hard not to be impressed by what the dev has so far teased, including the mist-strewn environments, brutalist temples, hellscapes of bone and geometry.

The lighting, colour tone, and creature design all hint at a visual team that understands that horror needn't always shout and scream. This is where Hellraiser: Revival could truly shine, if it can distil the look of Hellraiser away from a general aesthetic and pick from the iconography of the films, where every Cenobite is a belief system in flesh, every death a metaphor. If that can be translated into level design, pacing, and encounters, Revival could be the perfect Hellraiser game.

I'm already in Hell

I'm waxing and waning on how much I like the look of Hellraiser: Revival; we're finally getting a game, it's shaping up to be a visually confident horror making good use of Unreal Engine, and Clive Barker is offering notes, but it's a first-person action game with brutal takedowns and crowd-pleasing gunplay.

If the action is too dominant, the fear might fade, and if the Cenobites become just another combat encounter, they’ll lose what made them iconic in the first place: the calm, unrelenting suffering. Hellraiser: Revival isn't even finished yet, and I'm torturing myself over it, so the signs are actually good after all.

Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival is available to wishlist today on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Visit the game's website for more details.