I Hate This Place [REVIEW] – Killer Style, Iffy Execution 

Comic book adaptations in video games usually follow a predictable pattern… you know… superheroes, maybe some spandex, and saving the city (or, in some cases, the world). I Hate This Place flips that script, with this an isometric survival horror title based on the comic book series by Kyle Starks. It trades capes for a haunted farm and superpowers for a flashlight and a baseball bat, which make for a pretty cool combination if you ask me. However, whilst I went into this with a bit of excitement – especially after checking out some early footage and screenshots – I found myself feeling a little underwhelmed by the gameplay experience. 

Check out some screenshots down below: 

Let’s start with the positives, because I Hate This Place makes a fantastic first impression. Visually, it is genuinely striking, and instead of chasing the gritty, hyper-realism that so many horror games aim for, the developers leaned HARD into the comic book source material. The world is brought to life with saturated colours and heavy ink-like outlines that make it look like a comic book panel jumped right off the page, and it makes for a great aesthetic choice that sets the mood perfectly. 

This comic book look isn’t just for style either, but is actually cleverly woven into the core mechanics. Since the game relies heavily on stealth, sound is your biggest enemy, but the game wonderfully visualizes noise using onomatopoeic text that pops up on screen near your character. Walk on a hard floor, and you see a ‘THUD’, and if you step in some gross sludge, and you get a ‘SQUELCH’ – it’s a smart, stylish, and colour-coded way to let the you know how much noise you’re making, which is crucial since many of the monsters you encounter are blind and hunt by ear. Stealth plays a big role in the game, and when paired with this, it makes for satisfyingly creepy sequences that really could have come straight out of a comic book.  

Unfortunately, when the stealth fails and you have to fight, the whole experience starts to wobble a little bit. The combat and controls are clunky – I played through most of the game with a controller (it’s my preference), but they never felt quite right, especially when trying to perform quick actions or aim with precision. There’s no dodge button either, and because of the fixed camera angle, judging distances can be an absolute nightmare. You often end up swinging your weapon at thin air or getting grabbed by an enemy you thought you were out of range of… sure, it’s something you get used to (and there were times when it might have been a bit of a skill issue), but it never feels fully intuitive. 

“I Hate This Place is a game with a lot of heart and a killer art style, but it’s dragged down by rough execution.” 

This frustration also extends to the exploration, with the game taking a hands-off approach, which I usually appreciate. However, it borders on being too obtuse here, and whilst you are given a map, it lacks significant landmarks or clear direction, meaning it’s easy to spend a solid chunk of your playtime just wandering aimlessly and trying to figure out where the game wants you to go. It doesn’t help that the objectives can be incredibly vague, leaving the game feeling a bit direction-less all too often. 

The survival mechanics also feel a bit unbalanced for my liking. You have a hunger meter, which suggests you need to scavenge constantly, but food is seemingly EVERYWHERE. I never felt any real threat of starvation… it just became a chore of topping up a stamina bar. On the flip side, ammo is weirdly scarce, and whilst I completely understand survival horror relies on resource management, there were times when I was simply unable to craft basic ammunition because the specific materials just weren’t spawning. It just felt like it halted progression a little and made me a little less eager to take risks when exploring, which when paired with its obtusity, didn’t always make for a good time. 

One thing I did like was the base-building component where you can upgrade your homestead with different workstations, which is a surprisingly deep system. It always felt good to find blueprints to craft something new, and as someone who gets obsessive about optimising my base in a game, it felt like a fun thing to dive into. It’s one of the better mechanics of the game, and hey, it’s always nice to have a safe haven to return to when things get rough in a horror game, right? 

Check out some screenshots down below: 

I really enjoyed the narrative too, with the premise of Elena looking for her friend Lou amidst ghosts and cultists engaging enough to keep you invested, and the side missions – which act like little ghost-story detective puzzles – bring some satisfyingly spooky depth to the world. It has a cheesy B-movie quality that I’ll always appreciate, and whilst it can undercut the tension of horror (it does feel like I Hate This Place never takes itself too seriously), it gives the game a unique vibe. It’s made me want to check out the comic book series, so it clearly did something right! 

Developer: Rock Square Thunder 
Publisher: Feardemic 
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 
Website: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2604490/I_Hate_This_Place/