Hellraiser Revival was my favorite Gamescom demo, and I’m in awe at how Saber balances its heavy themes with nuanced storytelling.
I'm going to start this article with a trigger warning. This interview deals with topics that include sadomasochism, themes of abuse, substance misuse, and discussions of a sexual nature, including the likes of BDSM. If those themes aren't for you, that's totally okay, but I'd advise that you avoid this article, and perhaps Hellraiser: Revival more generally.
I'm trapped in a looping corridor. It's a liminal space; one that continues until you find the relevant puzzle pieces, but one that constantly, subtly changes. I am Aidan, a man who's desperately searching for his girlfriend, Sunny, who's been pulled into the Cenobites' Labyrinth. As I scramble through the halls of my own home, I find various notes and texts, written from Aidan's perspective, explaining in great detail what he wants to do with Sonny later that night. The texts are a little more lighthearted, using keyboard characters to draw a woman's breasts. The notes, however, are visceral - I feel myself shift slightly in my seat. I'm hardly conservative, but it's rare that I see the word 'c u next Tuesday' appear in a videogame - especially in this context.
"We're trying to make people uncomfortable," Narrative Director Antony de Fault tells me at Gamescom. "We don't compromise," Game Director Emil Esov echoes. This is Hellraiser: Revival, and it's absolutely fantastic.
Hellraiser, as an archetype, confronts the idea of sadomasochism; for the uninitiated, that's the act of deriving physical or psychological pleasure from inflicting pain upon other people. The Cenobites - dubiously malevolent, otherworldly beings - effectively trap people in their eerie realm (The Labyrinth) and inflict said violence upon them. It's the meeting point of pain and pleasure; a realm where the lines between torture and consent are blurred.
Translating that into a videogame isn't exactly easy. There's a difficult line to tread here between demonizing sexual fetishes and exploring the idea of consent. Film and television have done this before - Hellraiser being the prime example - but videogames are meant to be fun. They shy away from violence of this nature, and I can fully understand why.
I was curious, then, to learn about Boss Team Games' approach to Hellraiser. During my playthrough, I visit a BDSM dungeon-style zone, then end up in the liminal space area that I mentioned before. While the dungeon zone doesn't feel too shocking (we've seen sex work and its potential perils explored in the likes of Cyberpunk 2077), the sequence in Aidan and Sunny's house left me feeling an odd mixture of emotions, perhaps encapsulated best by an "oh my!" That's something that I've never experienced while playing a videogame, but that's what makes it so fascinating.
I ask de Fault and Esov how they went about incorporating these themes into Hellraiser: Revival's gameplay, and about the balance between horror and respect. "We deliberately wanted to push people slightly," de Fault says. "We wanted to confront people with sexuality and intimacy that would make them uncomfortable, in what we might call the 'safe space' of a videogame. It's not really happening to them and their bodies, so they can process their thoughts about it and experience it in that safe way. I think it just makes people feel better; it makes me feel better about handling those kinds of situations if I ever found myself in them in the real world."
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.pcgamesn.com/hellraiser-revival/gamescom-2026-interview
