Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival may not be all that novel from the perspective of anyone familiar with contemporary first-person horror games. Rather, it’s an immense and unique twist regarding the usual fates of licensed horror icon adaptations.
If successful, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival may inspire other classic horror movie IPs to walk the road it paves, and that snowball might even be careening down a hill and gaining mass already if the new Friday the 13th game that was also recently announced is tearing any pages out of its book. In order to do so, though, Friday the 13th would need to be quite creative with how it could tackle the same single-player survival horror genre trappings.
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival Being ‘Closer Than You Think’ Could Have a Tantalizing Release Window
Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival may have only just been announced, but the wait might not be as excruciating or masochistic as the game itself.
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is the Fresh Meat Survival Horror Has Craved
Because Hellraiser is arguably one of the more obscure, lesser-known horror IPs of its late-80s era. Plus, it has never had its own game before, giving Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival a lot of legroom when it comes to fashioning a single-player survival horror experience.
In fact, Dead by Daylight’s Hellraiser chapter might’ve been a lot of today’s gamers’ introduction to Pinhead and the Cenobites, with Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival ironically serving as something of a supplement for players’ newfound interest in the IP now that the license has expired and Pinhead, along with associable cosmetics in the Hellraiser chapter, was withdrawn from Dead by Daylight in April 2025.
Frankly, it can be quite alarming to see a Hellraiser game poised as a survival horror game at all, taking shape as if it were a modern, first-person Resident Evil or Evil Within game, even, and mechanics/features that are ubiquitous to psychological/survival horror games are where its greatest strengths will lie. Dedicated combat is fascinating for a Hellraiser game since that’s not typically how one might assume they’d be interacting with such a world, for example, and puzzle-oriented sequences with the Genesis Configuration should be fascinating.
Friday the 13th Could Go the Asymmetrical Horror Route Again, But Should It?
Friday the 13th works well as a movie franchise because it can condense a slaughter spree of one undead revenant versus packs of archetypal youngsters into a couple of hours fairly succinctly. Likewise, this simple storytelling format also worked quite well for the asymmetrical horror game Friday the 13th: The Game.
In an industry that’s tried and failed recently to pedestal asymmetrical horror games aside from Dead by Daylight, however, Friday the 13th’s upcoming game would be commendable for trying to copy the homework of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival and be a single-player survival horror game, as is where the horror zeitgeist currently is in games. The only problem, then, is adapting a one-note premise and a singular horror icon to the genre in a way that can be equally entertaining.
For example, playing as a summer camp counselor and fleeing Jason Voorhees for a whole game could be exhausting and uninteresting unless the setting of Camp Crystal Lake was drenched in a terrific, dark atmosphere and there were enough character or story developments throughout, perhaps with players fleeing alongside other counselor NPCs.
Alien: Isolation was able to produce a roughly 18-hour experience with few enemy pursuers, for example, yet Jason would realistically be the only antagonist that players contend with. On the other hand, a single-player Friday the 13th game could flip the script and have Jason as its playable protagonist, revolving around players hunting a bunch of young adults and perhaps tapping into psychological horror with Pamela Voorhees’ voice guiding Jason around.
That said, the counselors would seemingly need to be able to fight back somewhat successfully if there was going to be any challenge in terms of ‘combat’ integrated into gameplay. Friday the 13th’s new game might turn out to be a sequel or spiritual successor to its asymmetrical multiplayer predecessor, but a single-player endeavor like Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival could be a seismic shift for survival horror.
- Developer(s)
- Saber Interactive
- Publisher(s)
- Saber Interactive
- Franchise
- Hellraiser
WHERE TO PLAY
Experience a new chapter in the legendary horror series like never before. Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival takes first-person action horror survival to the next level.
Play the story of Aidan, who must use the power of a mysterious puzzle box – the Genesis Configuration – to help his girlfriend Sunny’s escape from the otherworldly hellscape of the Labyrinth.
Wield the powers of the box to survive your bargain with the infamous Pinhead and do battle with the horrific cult devoted to the Cenobites.
A New Story in Hellraiser's Canon – Unwittingly kickstart Pinhead’s ritual to unleash greater pain and pleasure than ever before.
Harness the Power of the Box – Combine the unique, hellish abilities of the Configuration with an arsenal of earthly weapons to inflict bone-breaking, flesh-searing pain - or is it pleasure? - upon masochistic enemies.
Fight Against Unholy Enemies – Take on hell's wretches, deviants, cultists, and even its most infernal priests in a story-driven horror survival game.
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
